Dr. Yvonne Masakowski, U.S. Naval War College, presented on how the 21st century global security environment is threatened by a constellation of factors, such as the rate of economic, geopolitical, social, climate, environmental, and technological changes across the globe. NATO’s future challenges will include conventional and non-conventional threats, regular and irregular warfare, and humanitarian crises.

Recent events, such as the COVID -19 pandemic, serve as an example of the demands and complexity of NATO operations required to provide global security. There is a need for NATO to adopt a strategy that will address the challenges of the VUCA (Volatile, Uncertain, Complex, and Ambiguous) operational environment and ensure global security.

The security requirements of the 21st century operational environment is amplified by NATO’s mandate to ensure Global Situational Awareness and share information with their Allied nation partners. Advances in AI technologies, computing power, smart algorithms and autonomous systems support NATO’s mission to ensure continuous and accurate Situational Awareness (SA) and the ability to share information with their Allied nation partners. Adaptive and agile AI systems will facilitate faster and more accurate SA, facial recognition, target discrimination, and mission planning across a variety of domains including, air, sea, s

pace, undersea, et al. Advances in AI technologies will also accelerate future adversaries’ capabilities, as well and present security challenges at every threat level. Future warfare is being shaped by the integration of AI technologies that is also changing the character of warfare.

Given the accelerated rate of security challenges and warfare, NATO must exploit the advantages that AI technologies will provide to ensure global security. To this end, AI technologies must be designed to be self-defensive, aware of intrusions, and defend against attacks. NATO’s commitment to technological superiority is a force multiplier for NATO to maintain SA, share information and make decisions effectively within the NATO mission command and control network. Future NATO leaders will continue to be presented with crises and conflicts that present challenges including conflicting information. Artificial Intelligence technologies will provide a means for leaders to sort through the chaos and make critical ethical decisions. Future NATO military operations will rely on the information provided by Artificial Intelligence networks and systems as they support the information network required to sustain global security.

This presentation examined the role of Artificial Intelligence technologies and its contribution toward ensuring global security.

About Dr. Masakowski: Dr. Yvonne R. Masakowski has a distinguished career in Psychology and Human Factors spanning over twenty-five years. She currently serves as a Research Fellow appointed by the U.S. Naval War College following her retirement as an Associate Professor of Strategic Leadership and Leader Development in the NWC College of Leadership and Ethics. As a Research Fellow, Dr. Masakowski teaches and serves as the dissertation thesis mentor on Artificial Intelligence in the Ethics and Emerging Military Technology (EEMT) graduate certificate program at the U.S. Naval War College. Dr. Masakowski is the US Chair of the NATO Human Factors and Medicine Research Task Group on Leader Development for NATO Multinational Military Operations (NATO HFM RTG 286). She also serves as the US Co-Chair of NATO HFM RTG 337, entitled, NATO’s COVID- 19 response and future pandemics r

 

esearch panel. Dr. Masakowski has numerous awards and publications, including her new book, recently released by Emerald Publishing Co, UK: Artificial Intelligence and Global Security: Future Threats, Trends and Considerations.

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Thank you Dr. Masakowski!