Science & Global Security, the international peer reviewed journal of arms control physics, seeks submission of papers to be considered for a special issue devoted to the current status and emerging trends in new military technologies, their implications for global security, and possibilities to contain their dangers.
The special issue on "New Military Technologies and Global Security", with Jürgen Altmann as guest editor, will be published in 2015. The schedule for papers is:
Deadline for extended abstracts: 31 July 2014
Notification of acceptance to authors: 30 August 2014
Deadline for full articles: 30 November 2014
Publication: 2015
Focus of Special Issue
Technological advantage has always been an important factor for the outcome of battles and wars. After World War 2, the highly industrialized states made military research and development a matter of the highest priority - to achieve a technological edge over a potential adversary, or to prevent an opponent from achieving one. The ensuing arms race yielded the hydrogen bomb, the ballistic missile, satellites and precision guidance. Understanding the implications of these military systems and technologies was the focus of a large fraction of technical arms control research in this period.
Today, military research and development are being funded at unprecedented levels and there is much talk of a revolution in military affairs driven by technological advances. There is a need to provide independent, open source, technically sound assessments of the potential risks of the new and emerging military technologies that may carry global security consequences.
Submissions could cover individual new and emerging military technologies, for example: beam weapons, new conventional weapons, autonomous weapons, tools for cyber war, nanotechnology-based weapons, and soldier enhancement.
Related policy questions could include, for example:
- Scope and extent of military research and development including, but not limited to, the USA.
- Prospects for qualitatively new military technologies and desirability of radical change ("revolution") in the currently dominant ways of war.
- Improving military-technology assessment at the international level so as to better inform policies for strengthening global peace and security.
- Methods for preventive limitation and verification of military application of new technologies that could be harmful for global security.
- A two-stage submission process will be used.
Authors are requested to send an extended abstract of 2-3 pages length to the guest editor (Jürgen Altmann) by 31 July 2014.
Authors of selected abstracts will be invited to submit articles. These articles will be due by 30 November 2014. Please follow the Science & Global Security submission guidelines.
The articles will undergo independent peer review under the normal rules for submissions to Science & Global Security.
Guest Editor:
Jürgen Altmann
Experimentelle Physik III, Technische Universität Dortmund
Dortmund, Germany
altmann@e3.physik.tu-dortmund.de
