Dr Alexander Blanchard
We are on the cusp of a second quantum revolution. The first saw the advent of world-changing technologies like nuclear fission, lasers and semiconductors. The second, which exploits the behaviour of individual quantum systems, promises to transform technologies for sensing, imaging, navigation, computing, information science, communications and many other applications. Some of these advances will soon be mature enough to be adopted at scale. This has profound implications for a wide range of fields, including global peace and security.
The second quantum revolution could have many benefits for peace and security. For instance, advances in quantum sensing could provide better detection of chemical, biological, radiological and nuclear hazards and threats. Moreover, quantum computing could bring about advances in climate modelling and monitoring, allowing us to better forecast the long-term effects of climate change.
But this coming revolution could also introduce substantial risks. Advances in quantum computing could, for example, undermine current encryption methods on which digital information security depends, including for communications and financial transactions. New quantum technologies could bring advances to several critical industries tied closely to global peace and security, such as semiconductor research and development, thereby instigating a race to securitize these technologies. These risks—many of which we barely understand and some, undoubtedly, that we cannot anticipate—require governance responses, including at the multilateral level. It is high time to set this in motion.
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