Workshop: Military Imaginaries of AI and the Anthropocene
Uppsala University, 8-9 December 2022
A two-day summit of talks, activities, and critical discussion
The Center for Multidisciplinary Studies on Racism (CEMFOR), Uppsala University, Sweden, in cooperation with the School of Global Studies and the School of Business Law and Economics at Gothenburg University, are proud to host the international workshop Military Imaginaries of AI and the Anthropocene.
On December 8-9, junior and senior researchers from across Europe will gather in Uppsala to engage in interdisciplinary discussions on the emerging conflation of the concepts of AI and the Anthropocene in security and military discourse. The workshop aims to open discussions on how to understand the dual impact of AI and the Anthropocene on military imaginaries, discourses, normative ordering and practices, offering a much-needed space of dialogue between critical scholars of AI and the Anthropocene respectively. The ambition is to bridge disciplinary and thematic boundaries – to open a dialogue of critical scholarship on two domains marked by a perceived ontological separation between the digital and the natural.
Programme
updated 2 December
Day 1, Thursday 8 December.
Uppsala University Main Building, Room VIII
10.00 - 10.30: Registration/Coffee
10.30 - 10.45: Welcome address
10.45-11.45: Opening keynote: Julian Reid
Professor of International Relations, University of Lapland
Resilience in Military-Strategic Imaginaries
12.00 – 13.00: Lunch at Café Alma
13.15 - 15.00: Workshop session 1:
Governmental Imaginaries of War, AI and the Anthropocene
Chair: Sofie Hellberg
Papers:
13.15-13.40: Simon Larsson, University of Gothenburg & Claes Tängh Wrangel, CEMFOR
Intelligent Green Wars: Military Imaginaries of AI and the Anthropocene
13.40-14.05: Johanne Jenssen Skeie, Norwegian Institute for Defence Studies
The military imaginaries of artificial intelligence and climate change in the NATO 2022 Strategic Concept
14.05-14.30: Justinas Lingevičius, Vilnius University
Military Artificial Intelligence as Power: Considerations for European Union Actorness
14.30-15.00: Johan Eddebo, Uppsala University
Some Perspectives on Natural and Artifical Agency
15.00 - 15.30: Coffe break
15.30 - 17: Workshop session 2
Legal Orders of AI and War
Chair: Fleur Johns
Papers:
15.30-16.00: Adrian López Fleming and David Wiehls, University of Barcelona
Problems of Command and Control with Lethal Autonomous Weapons Systems: Auftragstaktik in a Posthuman Era
16.00-16.30: Klaudia Klonowska, University of Amsterdam (via Zoom)
The Means of Warfare and their Masters: Human-Centrism in the Regulation of Emerging Technologies of Warfare
16.30-17.00: Matilda Arvidsson, University of Gothenburg (via Zoom)
Ordering Human-Other relationships: International Humanitarian Law and Ecologies of Armed Conflicts in the Anthropocene
17.45: Workshop Dinner:
Traditional Swedish Christmas buffet (julbord) at Norrlands nation, Västra Ågatan 14
Day 2, Friday 9 December:
Uppsala University Main Building, Room I
9.45 - 10: Coffee
10.00-12: Workshop session 3:
Military Practices of AI in the Anthropocene
Chair: Simon Larsson
Papers:
10.00-10.30: Oliviera M Cecilia, IASS Institute for Advanced Sustainability Studies, University of Potsdam (via Zoom)
Militarization of science in the Amazon rainforest: new planetary hotspots of climate security
10.30-11.00: Elise Daniaud, Luiss University
Techniques of war and dehumanisation in the Anthropocene: the representations of the Russian intervention in Syria in the eyes of Russian- embedded journalists
11.00-11.30: Bibi Imre-Millei, Lund University
Militarized Human-Drone Collaboration as Presented on YouTube
11.30-12.00: May-Britt Öhman & Eva Charlotta Helsdotter, CEMFOR, Uppsala University
Military training sites in the Arctic: Human and nature consequences and experiences
12 - 13: Lunch at Café Alma
13.15 - 15: Workshop session 4
Intelligent War Assemblages
Chair: Claes Tängh Wrangel
Papers:
13.15-13.50: Berenike Prem, The University of Bremen
Seeing War through AI’s Lenses: Military AI, Technological Mediation and the Representation of War
13.50-14.25: Caroline Holmqvist, Swedish Defence University
Undoing war assemblages
14.25-15.00: Claes Tängh Wrangel, CEMFOR, Uppsala University
The ‘Human’ in Algorithmic Security? US Military Imaginaries of Neurobiologically Informed AI-operations
15-15.30: Coffee break
15.30 – 16.30: Closing keynote: David Chandler
Professor of International Relations, University of Westminster
The Self-De(con)struction of the Western Way of War, or, Losing their Minds: The NATO War for Cognitive Dominance
16.30-16.45: Closing address
The Venue
The workshop will take place at the historic Uppsala University Main Building, room VIII (day 1) and room I (day 2). Located at the heart of Uppsala - the workshop venue is accessible by foot, bicycle, car or bus.
Address: Biskopsgatan 3
Hotel
Located at the centre of Uppsala, the University Main Building is reachable by foot from numerous hotels. The organizing committee and keynote speakers will stay at Grand Hotel Hörnan, Bangårdsgatan 1.
Important dates
Important dates:
Deadline for abstract submission: 15 June 2022
Acceptance emails: 30 August 2022
Registration closes: 31 October 2022
Paper submission: 1 December 2022
Organizing Committee
Associate Professor in International Law at the Department of Law, University of Gothenburg
Associate Professor in Peace and Development Studies, School of Global Studies, University of Gothenburg
Researcher at the Gothenburg Research Institute, School of Business Law and Economics Gothenburg University
Researcher and Director, Centre for Multidisciplinary Studies on Racism, Uppsala University
