SeMA Journal

Nandita B.M.

This essay sets out to tackle a theoretical challenge: to offer a conceptual re-framing that addresses how digital technical and cultural transformations have influenced the nature of modern warfare resulting in the emergence of ‘larval warfare’ (larva being Latin for ‘mask’ and/or ‘spectre’). The aim is to explore the rationale and theory of larval warfare, as well as speculate about its significance and implications for future security challenges that will necessitate not only managing risks and threats, but also require the creation of new concepts and epistemological tools. Focusing on conceptual/philosophical arguments, I speculate about the emergence of a distinct construct of warfare that conceptually depends on blurring the strict boundaries between military and civilian domains. The latent, emergent, and masked nature of this mode of warfare exceeds, and thus disrupts, traditional domains of theorization. As a construct (rather than as a ‘model’ or ‘prototype’ that can be implemented), the notion of larval warfare allows philosophical rumination about the changing nature of warfare in the context of planetary-wide technical transformations. The first section introduces the theoretical context and empirical trends that have led to the emergence of larval warfare, focusing on outlining selected but relevant interdisciplinary scholarship in international relations, war studies, surveillance/media studies, and cultural studies. The next section offers a philosophical interpretation of the notion of ‘larval warfare’ and lays out its distinctions from the existing models of modern warfare (conventional and non-conventional). The final section concludes with some thoughts on the fundamentally predatory quality of larval warfare and its amenability with the contemporary phenomenon of ‘surveillance capitalism.’

Bhila I.

Abstract The “kill chain”—involving the analysis of data by human users of military technologies, the understanding of that data, and human decisions—has fast been replaced by the “kill cloud” that necessitates, allows, and exacerbates increased thirst for domination, violence against distant populations, and a culture of experimentation with human lives. This commentary reports an interdisciplinary discussion organised by the Disruption Network Lab that brought together whistleblowers, artists, and experts investigating the impact of artificial intelligence and other emerging technologies on networked warfare. Exposing the problematics of networked warfare and the kill cloud, their colonial overtones, effects on human subjects in real life, erroneous scientific rationalities, and the (business) practices and logics that enable this algorithmic machinery of violence. The conference took place from the 29th of November to the 1st of December 2024 at the Kunstquartier Bethanien in Berlin, Germany.

Paglen T., Downey A.

AbstractHow do you train an artificial intelligence (AI), or automated image processing model, to classify and recognize images? This question is central to Trevor Paglen’s Adversarially Evolved Hallucination series (2017–ongoing), a project that employs a generative adversarial network (GAN) to classify, identify and crucially, produce unique images. Paglen’s series demonstrates how images produced by AI image processing platforms—in this instance, a GAN—are, despite claims, never predictable or, indeed, accurate in their classifications. A significant indicator of this unreliability is evident in the potential for GANs, alongside other generative AI (GenAI) models, to hallucinate and erroneously classify images. Notwithstanding this systemic failing, automated image processing platforms remain central to classification tasks, including those associated with facial recognition and surveillance. They remain, for that reason, central to defining, if not pre-defining, how we perceive and look at the world through automated models of machine vision. Encouraged to see like machines, or at least take their classifications seriously and act upon them accordingly, we now inhabit a realm of perception defined by “machine realism”, if not algorithmic delusion. Enquiring into how we can better understand the degree to which AI encodes our perception of the world, it is this regimen of “machine realism” that Paglen and Downey explore throughout the following conversation: If AI models of image perception replace ocular-centric ways of seeing, they ask, do these apparatuses have the capacity to not only (pre)define but, in time, further estrange and alienate us from the world?

van Leeuwen S.

This article investigates how fallen British soldiers of Operation TELIC (Iraq) and Operation Herrick (Afghanistan) are commemorated on the Facebook page British Troops Remembered. Based on an online ethnography and fifteen semi-structured interviews with users of this page, this article aims to better understand how online commemoration is performed, experienced and shaped in everyday life. It argues that people participate in the reproduction of militarism when they promote military values and frame military lives as grievable and worthy through commemorative practices. Paradoxically, although digital commemorative spaces offer new opportunities for people to counter official narratives of warfare and democratize national memory, it is precisely this possibility that keeps people from sharing alternative interpretations of military losses online. By analysing how the logics of militarism are reproduced in everyday encounters online, this article aims to contribute to discussions within critical military studies and memory studies about the relationship between online commemoration and militarism.

Hosaka S.

This article examines the significance and practical challenges of using leaked email data for academic research into the inner mechanisms of non-democratic regimes, with a focus on Russia’s hybrid warfare against Ukraine. While investigative journalism and open-source intelligence have immensely benefited from leaked email data, academia has largely distanced itself from this novel type of reference and related empirical findings. Initial scholarly endeavors utilizing leaked emails highlight two key issues: 1) the authenticity of leaked data and the specifics of its interpretation and verification; and 2) research ethics concerning the privacy of leaked email account holders. I argue that traceability and ethical dilemmas should be addressed in tandem, considering the wider public good. The findings of this article may also apply to the study of other authoritarian regimes, such as China and Iran.

Canevez R.N., Maikovska K., Zwarun L.

When Russia escalated its invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, pro-Ukrainian resisters around the world took to cyber and digital spaces to support Ukraine’s cause. Social media platform Telegram played a vital role in coordinating and mobilizing action transnationally, foregrounding the impact of platform design and use in the trajectory of war’s mediatization. Our study contributes to empirical research and theory around cyber resistance tactics and platform affordances. We use qualitative thematic analysis to examine Telegram posts from the first two months of the full-scale invasion on select pro-Ukrainian resistance channels, identifying a range of tactics constructed within Telegram. This includes a phenomenon of “kitting” whereby capable members and moderators provide tools and templates, along with guidance, to participants to lower the access barrier to cyber resistance. We discuss Telegram’s affordances in relation to these tactics and, noting how Telegram is used to coordinate action on other social media, we propose a model of user-affordances interaction in a multiplatform media environment. Lastly, we provide suggestions for designers and policymakers regarding platform designs in broadly coordinated cyber resistance.

Bhila I.

AbstractBiases in artificial intelligence have been flagged in academic and policy literature for years. Autonomous weapons systems—defined as weapons that use sensors and algorithms to select, track, target, and engage targets without human intervention—have the potential to mirror systems of societal inequality which reproduce algorithmic bias. This article argues that the problem of engrained algorithmic bias poses a greater challenge to autonomous weapons systems developers than most other risks discussed in the Group of Governmental Experts on Lethal Autonomous Weapons Systems (GGE on LAWS), which should be reflected in the outcome documents of these discussions. This is mainly because it takes longer to rectify a discriminatory algorithm than it does to issue an apology for a mistake that occurs occasionally. Highly militarised states have controlled both the discussions and their outcomes, which have focused on issues that are pertinent to them while ignoring what is existential for the rest of the world. Various calls from civil society, researchers, and smaller states for a legally binding instrument to regulate the development and use of autonomous weapons systems have always included the call for recognising algorithmic bias in autonomous weapons, which has not been reflected in discussion outcomes. This paper argues that any ethical framework developed for the regulation of autonomous weapons systems should, in detail, ensure that the development and use of autonomous weapons systems do not prejudice against vulnerable sections of (global) society.

Glybchenko Y.

Albert C.D., Hunter L.Y., Mullaney S., Mays M.

Recently, there have been groundbreaking studies that seek to create unique cybersecurity datasets used to empirically test theories related to strategic cybersecurity. To date, however, this research has neglected cyber-enabled information operations (CEIO). With the remarkable amount of information operations being reported on social media platforms such as Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram, there is a substantial gap in the literature regarding empirical studies on CEIO using cross-national datasets. This exploratory, descriptive study seeks to remedy this dilemma. To do so, this paper investigates the question, “What are the political and economic characteristics of states that are most likely to be targeted by CEIO over social media on Facebook?” To investigate, this exploratory, descriptive study utilizes a unique Information Operations Threat Report Dataset (2020) based on Facebook’s release of 2020 influence operations information that captures CEIO on its platform from 2017 to 2020. A descriptive data analysis reveals that mixed regimes (i.e., states that are partially authoritarian and democratic) and slightly wealthier states are more likely to be targeted in CEIO on Facebook. These exploratory findings provide useful insights into what types of states may be more susceptible to CEIO attacks on Facebook.

Brimblecombe-Fox K.

AbstractIn our hyperconnected contemporary world, military and civilian digital and cyber technologies rely upon uncontested and uncongested access to frequencies in the electromagnetic spectrum (EMS). This reliance enables light-speed signalic connectivity, interconnectivity, operability, and interoperability of the systems and devices that perpetuate twenty-first century modes of information, remote, hybrid, and digital warfare. Informed by cultural theorist Paul Virilio’s commentaries on speed, light-speed, and war, this article examines speed as an inflection that insidiously underpins the Australian Government’s 2023 National Defence: Defence Strategy Review (DSR) (public version). This is not an exhaustive study of light-speed or the DSR. Rather, this article aims to show how speed and light-speed, used as investigatory lenses, can provide critical insights into relationships between contemporary technology, and war. To this end, the article refers to US and UK defence and government electromagnetic spectrum policy statements, interpolating them into motivations for AUKUS, and the DSR’s positioning.

Glybchenko Y.

AbstractThis project explores the potential of image-making in augmented reality (AR) technologies as means of designing sustaining quality peace futures—unfuturing peace, focusing on Ukraine’s heroic defense against Russia’s 2022–2024 full-scale war of aggression as a case study. Employing the methodology of compositional interpretation and the conceptual tool “futures images,” the project theoretically and practically differentiates between defuturing and unfuturing as peace design processes in developing an essay of originally designed marker-based Augmented Reality Posters in Support of Ukraine as demos of sustaining quality peace arrangements. The posters reference the topics of (physical) integrity of Ukrainian symbols, global food security and the security of the LGBTQI+ community in Ukraine. The technological artistic process/outcomes of this AR image-making experiment and their relation to power layouts in peacebuilding form the bases for theorizing how AR-supported futures design in war-affected communities—unfuturing peace—could facilitate “guerrilla peacebuilding.” In outlining theoretical and practical premises of guerrilla peacebuilding, the project intersects Augmented Reality Posters in Support of Ukraine with explorations of guerrilla warfare and counterinsurgency efforts leading to the 2016 Havana Peace Agreements in Colombia as well as mobile technologies/power in guerrilla approaches to democratic development.

Mir Z., Rabet M., Ahmed S.

Zeinab Mir, Majid Rabet and Safdar Ahmed spoke at the Sydney hearing of the Airspace Tribunal at The Ethics Centre on 14 October 2019. The hearing considered the case for and against a proposed new human right to protect the freedom to live without physical or psychological threat from above. This text expands on the evidence which they presented to the hearing and considers the experience of aerial bombardment, the impacts of trauma and anxiety on future generations and the role of art and activism in thinking outside the medical model, raising questions of accountability and agency, and developing communities of self-expression. The Counsel to the Tribunal was Professor Andrew Byrnes.

Shiban B.

Loveday C.

Gearty C.