Steve Fetter & Jaganath Sankaran
Technology has long been an important factor in international security, influencing the balance between offense and defense and the strategies that states adopt to ensure their survival and security. National security, in turn, has been a driver of scientific discovery and technological innovation, and defense and intelligence are often among the first applications for new technologies. This has been particularly true in the nuclear domain, where the discovery of fission on the eve of World War II led to the development of nuclear weapons, and over subsequent decades stimulated the development of computers for weapon design, long-range jet aircraft and rockets for weapon delivery, nuclear reactors for naval propulsion, satellites to monitor adversary forces and warn of attack, and communication systems that could operate through a nuclear attack, including an early version of the Internet. Many observers believe we have entered a new era of technological innovation – a fourth industrial revolution. Like previous industrial revolutions, this one is certain to have implications for international security. The first industrial revolution was powered by coal for the production of iron and the mass production of rifles and artillery; the telegraph and steampowered railroads and ships enabled the rapid movement of information, troops, and supplies across large distances – technologies first employed on a large scale in the American Civil War. The second industrial revolution was powered by oil and electricity for the production of chemicals and steel and assembly-line production of tanks, ships, airplanes, and radios – technologies that characterized the first and second World Wars. The third industrial revolution was powered by computers, satellites, and lasers for the collection, analysis, storage, and transmission of data across worldwide networks; it produced the technologies noted above that characterized the Cold War.
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