War and conflict must not dominate our societies and technologies.

Photo by Sebastian Piedoux on Flickr

We all want a future where our families, friends, and communities can thrive — one rooted in justice, democracy, with social and political stability.

But instead of heading toward that future, we’re being dragged into a new kind of arms race.

Governments and companies around the world are fighting to establish their dominance – plunging us into a ‘tech race’ that is redefining the battlefield and blurring the line between civilian and military infrastructures. This dramatic shift is affecting everything around us, reshaping our future, and radically changing the priorities of politics and investment.

We are being pushed into a militarised future we don’t want.

This phenomena is visible in many forms:

• States bringing military technologies into our town squares by establishing partnerships with the “defence technology” industry – militarisation of civilian spaces.
• Civilian technology companies encroaching on battlefields, taking civilian data with them – militarisation of civilian tech.
• Private investment firms and funds pushing unimaginable amounts of money, creating incentives for surveillance and war, and serving investors before people – a privatisation of military tech.

The battlefield is coming to our towns and cities, as technologies that we rely on every day are militarised. In turn, civilian technologies driven by our data and our lives, are moving onto the battlefield. The very same companies who build tools of war are expanding to deliver civilian infrastructure, and vice versa.

But it doesn’t have to be this way. We can stop governments and these companies from feeding our data into these war machines. We need technology that is developed for us, in our interests and the interests of our families and communities, not the interests of profit.

What we’re doing now

This wave of militarisation of tech requires immediate intervention if we are to shape the next decades’ technological landscape and ensure our freedom and dignity are protected.

In blurring the lines between military and civilian, there is a serious risk that tech developed in one context will be transferred to the other without due consideration of the different rules of engagement. We risk allowing both sectors to take advantage of gaps in regulation and oversight on either side. This results in more exploitation, greater concentration of power, and fewer restraints – pushing militarisation ever onward.

We must understand what new harms appear when governments, the defence tech industry and private investors align their interests: Who are the key actors driving these phenomena? How does the data-intensive character of existing surveillance and security tech business models impact the development and deployment of emerging defence technologies?

This project aims bring together key strategic partners to answer these questions, and to defend our future.

We are:

1. Building a joint robust knowledge base through extensive learning and exchanges with others to identify key gaps, risks, and concerns;
2. Developing new approaches and momentum for change based on this body of knowledge to counter disturbing developments and influence public discourse around the militarisation of tech; and
3. Identifying new effective advocacy strategies, working together to compel these governments and companies to change their behaviours.

Together we will stem this tide, and ensure that war and conflict do not dominate our societies and technologies.

Strategic partners to the project