Transformative Weapons: Origins, Effects and Questions for Policy Makers

This graduate seminar examines distinct weapon systems, each a technological or conceptual leap, that reordered the experience of war and even human security itself, by forcing changes in tactics, doctrine, and martial cultures. Many also became grounds for shifts in international law and new international conventions. Students will study and analyze the origins of several such systems, from the machine gun to nuclear arms to the rapidly evolving drones now playing prominent roles in ongoing wars, and engage in practical discussions about these weapons’ roles and effects across the spectrum of organized violence. Further, they will assess the roles of policy in shaping the development, rollout, and integration of transformative systems, and how convergence often ensured that consequential new weapons moved from initial breakout periods among first users to widespread distribution, or even near universality, as appears to be happening