How is technology changing warfare?
The Briefing Room
BBC
4.8 • 731 Ratings
🗓️ 28 February 2024
⏱️ 42 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
In 1964, pre-historic remains were discovered at Jabal Aṣ-Ṣaḥābah - or Mountain of the Companions - in the Nile Valley near what is now the border of northern Sudan and Egypt. That site contained evidence of the earliest known warfare believed to have taken place around 13,500 years ago. It’s thought that climate change led to that conflict; as crop yields became smaller, more groups had to compete with each other for what food sources were available.
Spears and possibly arrows were the high-tech weapons of choice in the Nile Valley. Flash forward to today and it’s AI-enabled drones that have been - literally - levelling the playing field for Ukraine in their battle against Russia.
But as technological advancement continues apace what lessons have we learned from recent conflicts and how might things change in the wars yet to begin?
Guests: Shashank Joshi, defence editor at The Economist, Dr Jack Watling, Senior Research Fellow for Land Warfare at the Royal United Services Institute Dr Emma Salisbury, associate fellow in military innovation at the Council on Geostrategy
Production team: Ben Carter and Kirsteen Knight Editor: Richard Vadon Production Co-ordinator: Gemma Ashman Sound engineer: Neil Churchill
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | BBC Sounds, Music, Radio, podcasts. |
| 0:07.7 | In 1964, prehistoric remains were discovered at Jabal As Sahaba, or Mountain of the Companions, |
| 0:15.6 | in the Nile Valley near what is now the border of northern Sudan and Egypt. |
| 0:19.8 | That site contained evidence of the earliest known |
| 0:22.3 | warfare believed to have taken place around 13,500 years ago. It's thought that climate change |
| 0:29.7 | led to that conflict as crop yields became smaller, more groups had to compete with each other |
| 0:34.2 | for what food sources were available. Spears and possibly arrows were the high-tech weapons of choice in the Nile Valley. |
| 0:42.3 | Flash forward to today and its AI-enabled drones that have been almost literally |
| 0:47.3 | leveling the playing field for Ukraine in their battle against Russia. |
| 0:51.3 | But as technological advancement gathers pace, |
| 0:55.6 | what lessons have we learned from the recent conflicts |
| 0:58.8 | and how might things change in the wars regrettably yet to come? |
| 1:04.6 | Step inside the briefing room, |
| 1:06.2 | today in front of an audience at the radio theatre |
| 1:08.4 | here at BBC HQ in Portland Place, London, and together |
| 1:12.2 | we'll find out. |
| 1:21.2 | Now, normally I introduce my guests, but as they're all here at the same time, I think I'll |
| 1:25.8 | get them to do it themselves. |
| 1:27.5 | I'm Dr Jack Watling. I'm the Senior Research Fellow for Land Warfare at the Royal United |
| 1:32.2 | Services Institute. I'm Dr. Emma Salsbury. I'm the Associate Fellow in Military Innovation |
| 1:37.4 | at the Council on Geo Strategy. I'm Shashank-Joshi. I'm Defence Editor at The Economist in London, |
| 1:42.8 | where I cover National Security Defence and all the other bad things happening in the world. |
... |
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