From Sarissa To Cyber Warfare

The course will survey the history of decisive military technologies that have caused a Revolution in Military Affairs, resulting not only in new tactics and strategies but changing the course of civilization and world history. For example, ancient Macedonia’s King Phillip II (382-336 BC) introduction of the sarrisa—a spear measuring about 18 feet in length, much longer than those used by any other army of antiquity—became the basis for a revolutionary new military formation, the Macedonian Phalanx, that enabled Alexander the Great (356-323 BC) to conquer the known world, spread Greek culture, and transform civilization into the Hellenistic Age (323-31 BC). The course is inspired by, and will seek to update and expand upon, strategic thinker Bernard Brodie’s classic 1962 book “From Crossbow To H-Bomb: The Evolution of the Weapons and Tactics of Warfare” that contributed to the development of nuclear deterrence and arms control as “the answer” to the Revolution in Military Affairs caused by the invention of nuclear weapons. Most of the course will focus on the present era and the future, on new military technologies that could potentially cause a Revolution in Military Affairs and potentially change the course of civilization. For example: new generation nuclear weapons for specialized effects; hypersonic weapons; artificial intelligence, including artificially intelligent delivery systems; space-based offensive and defensive weapons; and hyper-accurate weapons. Special attention will be given to EMP and combined-arms cyber warfare, described in the military doctrines of Russia, China, North Korea and Iran as making possible a new way of warfare that will be the greatest Revolution in Military Affairs in history. Do we need new answers, or will the old suffice? Do we need to think beyond nuclear deterrence and arms control?