Artificial Intelligence, Military Power, and the Changing Logics of Violence

Artificial intelligence is increasingly reshaping the organization, practice, and justification of military power. From intelligence analysis, surveillance, targeting, logistics, command-and-control, simulation, and strategic assessment to autonomous systems and human-machine teaming, AI is becoming embedded in how armed forces perceive threats, classify targets, assess risk, and exercise violence. These developments raise fundamental sociological questions about expertise, authority, responsibility, and the changing character of military violence.

This session invites papers that examine the relationship between AI, the military, and violence in its broadest sense. How does AI transform the ways armed forces identify enemies, allocate force, and justify military action? How are command responsibility, professional judgment, and accountability affected when algorithmic systems support or shape decisions about the use of force? Do AI-enabled systems increase the speed, scale, distance, and opacity of violence? To what extent do they reinforce existing military hierarchies and inequalities, or create new forms of dependency, expertise, and contestation?

Papers may address AI-enabled targeting, autonomous weapons, surveillance and reconnaissance, predictive analytics, algorithmic bias, civilian harm, accountability, human-machine teaming, military professionalism, legal and ethical regulation, civil-military relations, and the political economy of military AI. Contributions may also explore how AI affects military education, training, organizational culture, and the socialization of officers and soldiers. The session welcomes comparative, historical, theoretical, and empirical studies from military sociology, civil-military relations, science and technology studies, critical security studies, international relations, and the sociology of violence.