How are emerging technologies (re)-shaping the security landscape?

Speakers:

• Chairs: Hassan Elbahtimy and Filippa Lentzos, Co-Directors of the Centre for Science and Security Studies (CSSS), King’s College London
• Sean Ekins, Founder and CEO of Collaborations Pharmaceuticals Inc
• Tim Stevens, Senior Lecturer in Global Security in the Department of War Studies and Head of the King's Cyber Security Research Group
• Kathleen Vogel, Professor and Interim Director in the School for the Future of Innovation in Society at Arizona State University

Emerging technologies are advancing at extraordinary speeds, with unprecedented and far-reaching impacts on the present, as well as on future conflicts and warfare. Digital technologies are merging with genomic technologies and cutting-edge biotechnologies, alongside transformations taking place due to machine learning, artificial intelligence, electromagnetic technologies and nanotechnologies. All this is forging new links between technology, society and the global order.

How do we identify and assess the opportunities and risks of these advances? What new actors and networks are gaining currency in this space? Do these technologies carry the potential to disrupt the existing order or can they be a tool to stabilise it? How can they be most effectively governed and regulated? And ultimately Do they enhance or undermine peace and security?

Our panel of global experts will discuss these questions and more in the third War Studies at 60 seminar event, led by the Centre for Science and Security Studies (CSSS) in the Department of War Studies. Taking place in person and online, this hybrid panel chaired by CSSS Co-Directors Dr Hassan Elbahtimy and Dr Filippa Lentzos, brings together Professor Kathleen Vogel, Interim Director in the School for the Future of Innovation in Society at Arizona State University, Sean Ekins, Founder and CEO of Collaborations Pharmaceuticals Inc, and Dr Tim Stevens, Head of the King's Cyber Security Research Group in the Department of War Studies Kathleen Vogel.

This event will take place online on Zoom. Please register to receive the login details ahead of the event. Book your place via Eventbrite. 

This event is part of the War Studies at 60 Seminar Series, a series of events exploring key issues in security and defence as part of the celebrations marking the 60th anniversary of the Department of War Studies.

 

Speaker bios:

Dr Hassan Elbahtimy is Senior Lecturer at War Studies Department and Co-director of the Centre for Science and Security Studies (CSSS) at King's College London. His research focuses on the global politics of arms control. He is a Trustee and Executive Committee member of the British International Studies Association (BISA). He was chair then co-chair of BISA’s Global Nuclear Order Working Group 2017-2020 and currently chairs the L.H.M. Ling Outstanding First Book Prize.

Sean Ekins is founder and CEO of Collaborations Pharmaceuticals Inc, a drug discovery company focused on using machine learning approaches for rare and neglected disease drug discovery. Ekins graduated from the University of Aberdeen; receiving his Ph.D. in clinical pharmacology and D.Sc. in science. He has authored or co-authored more than 300 peer reviewed papers and edited five books on different aspects of drug discovery research and using computational approaches.

Dr Filippa Lentzos is Senior Lecturer in Science & International Security at the Department of War Studies and Co-Director of the Centre for Science and Security Studies (CSSS) at King's College London. She is also an Associate Senior Researcher at the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI) and a Non-Resident Scholar at the James Martin Center for Nonproliferation Studies (CNS).

Dr Tim Stevens is Senior Lecturer in Global Security in the Department of War Studies, and head of the Cyber Security Research Group. His research focuses on the politics and geopolitics of cybersecurity and he is currently writing a book on the international political economy of cyber risk. Stevens is a fellow at the Research Institute for Sociotechnical Cyber Security (RISCS) and Conservatoire national des arts et métiers (Cnam), Paris.

Professor Kathleen M Vogel is Professor and Interim Director in the School for the Future of Innovation in Society at Arizona State University. Vogel holds a Ph in bio-physical chemistry from Princeton University. She has served previously in the USDepartment of State as a Jefferson Science Fellow and also as a William C Foster Fellow.