The Defence Horizon Journal - Podcasts

This essay examines Germany's lack of strategic culture and its implications for deterrence and security policy. Written in the aftermath of the MSC 2025 and the context of growing geopolitical instability, it highlights how Europe’s reliance on the United States, combined with a weak defence mindset, undermines the ability to deter adversaries. The analysis compares Germany’s approach to security with that of France, the UK and sm...

Artificial intelligence is reshaping the offence–defence balance in cyberspace. Drawing on recent cases (PromptLock ransomware, Auto-Exploit pipelines, and the Air Force’s DASH wargame) and a systematic review of academic articles, this study examines how AI alters tempo, cost, and thresholds in cyberspace operations. Findings show that AI accelerates offensive exploitation, enables polymorphism, and lowers expertise requirements, ...

Die westliche Sicherheit wird durch eine strukturelle Kluft zwischen Marktanreizen und Verteidigungsbedürfnissen untergraben: Märkte belohnen Effizienz und kurzfristige Margen, während Rüstung und Sicherheit hingegen Redundanz, Resilienz und Skalierung erfordern. Nur großvolumige Fertigung ermöglicht Lernkurven, technologische Führungsfähigkeit und strategische Souveränität, die aber nur mit geringen Profitmargen einhergehen.

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The cyber threat landscape has grown in scale, sophistication and complexity due to advancements in AI. This evolution can be observed across multiple threat vectors, including cyber-enabled fraud, supply chain attacks, malicious insiders, and disinformation. To fully assess their impact, it is essential to consider their synergistic effects. Meanwhile, the opportunities in cybersecurity are both formidable and exciting, provided t...

With a renewed focus on nuclear stockpiling among certain state actors, there is an urgent need to identify successful pathways for nuclear disarmament. History has demonstrated that this is an achievable goal, with important lessons for contemporary security discourse and policy. The potential lessons extend beyond purely security dividends, with potential contributions to economic and environmental discourses as well. The case pr...

The global energy transition faces a fundamental challenge: how to accelerate renewable energy deployment while maintaining systemic stability and social equity. This research examines the principle of "as fast as possible, as slow as necessary" through a qualitative analysis of governance approaches, social acceptance mechanisms, and case studies from Latin America and Denmark. Using literature review and comparative case study me...

India’s climate action trajectory holds immense implications for both national resilience and global climate stability. As the world’s most populous country, with a rapidly expanding economy and a young, skilled workforce, India finds itself at a strategic crossroads. This essay evaluates India’s current mitigation efforts, adaptation vulnerabilities, and the global implications of its energy and climate choices. With significant s...

Artificial Intelligence is transforming the functioning and interaction of weapon systems and changing how battles are fought. That said, there are still many unresolved questions regarding the safety and security of AI systems. The core concern is that military organisations must adopt a multifaceted approach to effectively manage AI-associated risks, combining technical measures with organisational adaptability. This can only be ...

Artificial Intelligence is transforming warfare on land, in the air, and above all—for this paper—at sea. AI is not only enhancing non-kinetic dimensions, such as information dominance, cyber operations, and decision-making processes, but is also amplifying the effectiveness of kinetic means. Recent conflicts have demonstrated how AI-enabled systems are used to deter, degrade, and destroy enemy assets, reshaping both the physical a...

This study examines the relationship between the level of automation in warfare and combat effectiveness, focusing on unmanned combat systems (UCS). As the Republic of Korea faces a significant decline in the availability of military personnel due to demographic changes, UCS adoption has become a critical priority. While UCSs are anticipated to surpass human combatants in operational efficiency, they require substantial maintenance...

This paper explores the persistent tensions within U.S. security cooperation, where efforts to build partner capacity often collide with the realities of sovereignty, hierarchy, and risk. Although designed to enhance global stability, security cooperation initiatives frequently impose on partner autonomy, revealing the hierarchical nature of the international system beneath the rhetoric of equal partnership. Drawing from strategic ...

With each passing day, the amount of verified information regarding violations of international humanitarian law and human rights by the Russian Federation continues to grow. One of the most striking examples of the Russian Federation’s disregard for its international obligations is its treatment of Ukrainian prisoners of war (POWs). These violations include executions, torture, denial of access to fair trials, intelligence operati...

Taiwan must rethink its defence strategy due to a rising threat from China’s overwhelming military and industrial capabilities. However, Taiwan faces critical imbalances in troop strength, defence budgets, and technological infrastructure, emphasising the need for an asymmetric approach to deterrence. In this respect, Taiwan could draw lessons from Ukraine’s civilian-led drone innovation and Israel’s integrated civil preparedness t...

In a less predictable operational environment, resilience and agility are vital requirements for military sustainment. To demonstrate this, we highlight the shortcomings in military supply chains and identify solutions and practices adopted by various organisations to address recognised challenges. Furthermore, there is a need to understand more about new practices and innovations in the business environment that impact supply chai...

Constantly increasing demands for efficiency, effectiveness, and resilience of military operations are interrelated with increasing military energy demands, particularly with the use of energy storage solutions. This paper provides an overview of the emerging trends in military energy use and management, along with the evolving needs for energy storage, in line with the novel developments of battery energy storage systems. The rese...

This article examines how modern training simulators can aid in teaching future Navy officers. Traditional teaching methods often prioritise classroom learning with limited hands-on practice. This research examines whether the use of realistic simulators can enhance police officers' learning of their job responsibilities. The study utilises various types of simulators to teach essential Navy skills. These include making quick decis...

The emergence of autonomous weapons systems (AWS) represents a clear shift in warfare and raises critical questions about the impact this change will have on soldiers' morale on a 21st-century battlefield. The complex effects that such technology has on military morale are highlighted through historical parallels to previous, similar military innovations and supplemented by analyses of the ongoing drone warfare in the Ukraine War. ...

Decision-making regarding target engagement, including considerations for scenarios involving the tactical use of nuclear weapons, requires a multilayered, well-structured, predictable, and traceable approach. The integration of AI into such high-stakes scenarios amplifies the need for transparency, aligning decision-making models to trusted tenets and focused training (the 3Ts) in order to avoid the five cognitive pitfalls of over...

At least since the beginning of the most recent Russian invasion of Ukraine and the massive use of unmanned aerial vehicles, it has become imperative to elaborate potential countermeasures, that is, counter-unmanned aerial systems. Accordingly, based on past and ongoing conflicts – including the war in Ukraine – this paper analyses the impact of technological changes on warfare. Specifically, it takes a closer look at the types of ...