Dr James Johnson

Dr James Johnson
Dr James Johnson
Dr James Johnson

Senior Lecturer

About
Email Address
james.johnson@abdn.ac.uk
Office Address

Room G23, Edward Wright Building

School/Department
School of Social Science

Biography

Dr James Johnson is a Senior Lecturer and Director of Strategic Studies in the Department of Politics & International Relations at the University of Aberdeen. He is the founding Director of the Strategic Studies Network (SSN) and the Strategic Studies Wargaming Society. He is also an Honorary Fellow at the University of Leicester, a Non-Resident Research Associate on the European Research Council funded Towards a Third Nuclear Age Project, and a Mid-Career Cadre Member with the Center for Strategic and International Studies Project on Nuclear Issues. He advises various parts of the US, UK, and EU governments on AI and nuclear policy, including the US Department of Defense, the NATO Nuclear Planning Group, the UK Office for AI, and the Global Commission on Responsible AI in the Military Domain (REAIM). Previously, he was an Assistant Professor at Dublin City University, a Non-Resident Fellow with the Modern War Institute at West Point, and a Postdoctoral Research Fellow at the James Martin Center for Nonproliferation Studies in Monterey, USA.

His research examines the intersection of nuclear weapons, artificial intelligence, political psychology, and strategic affairs. His work has been featured in the Review of International Studies, Journal of Strategic Studies, The Washington Quarterly, Strategic Studies Quarterly, Defence Studies, the European Journal of International Security, Asian Security, Pacific Review, Defense and Security Analysis, RUSI Journal, Journal of Military Ethics, War on the Rocks, and other outlets. He is the author of The AI Commander: Centaur Teaming, Command, and Ethical Dilemmas (OUP, 2024), AI and the Bomb: Nuclear Strategy and Risk in the Digital Age (OUP, 2023), Artificial Intelligence and the Future of Warfare: USA, China & Strategic Stability (MUP, 2021), and The US-China Military & Defense Relationship During the Obama Presidency (Palgrave Macmillan, 2018). 

Memberships and Affiliations

Internal Memberships
  • Director of Strategic Studies
  • Social Sciences PG Committee, Member
  • Social Sciences Research Committee, Member
  • PIR PG Staff Student Liaison Committee, Member
  • PIR PG Exam Board Committee, Member
  • Personal Tutor
External Memberships
  • Honorary Visiting Fellow, University of Leicester
  • Non-Resident Associate, "The Towards a Third Nuclear Age: Strategic Conventional Weapons and the Next Revolution in the Global Nuclear Order," European Research Council (ERC) funded project
  • Mid-Career Cadre, Center for Strategic & International Studies (CSIS), Project on Nuclear Issues
  • Non-Resident Expert, US Department of Defense (DoD) Office of the Joint Staff’s Strategic Multilayer Assessment (SMA) program
  • Expert Advisory Group Member, the Global Commission on Responsible AI in the Military Domain (REAIM), Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Security Policy Department
  • British International Studies Association, Member 
  • International Studies Association­, Member 

Latest Publications

View My Publications

Research

Research Overview

  • Strategic affairs 
  • Artificial intelligence & future warfare
  • Political psychology
  • Nuclear weapons policy & non-proliferation 

 

Current Research

Latest book: The AI Commander: Centaur Teaming, Command, & Ethical Dilemmas (Oxford University Press, 2024).

About the book: What does AI mean for the role of humans in war? The AI Commander addresses the largely neglected question of how the fusion of machines into the war machine will affect the human condition of warfare. James Johnson emphasizes the "mind"—both human and machine—and the mechanisms of thought (intelligence, consciousness, emotion, memory, experience, etc.) to consider the effects of AI and autonomy on the human condition of war. Johnson investigates the vexing and misunderstood - and sometimes contradictory - ethical, moral, and normative implications, whether incremental, transformative, or revolutionary, of synthesizing man and machine in future algorithmic warfare or AI-enabled centaur warfighting. At the heart of these vexing questions is whether we are inevitably moving toward a situation in which AI-enabled autonomous weapons will make strategic decisions in place of humans and thus become the owners of those decisions. Can AI-powered systems replace human commanders? And, more importantly, should they? The AI Commander argues that AI cannot be merely passive and neutral force multipliers of human cognition. Instead, they will likely become—either by conscious choice or inadvertently—strategic actors in war. AI will transform the role and nature of human warfare, but not necessarily in the ways most observers expect.

Teaching

Teaching Responsibilities

  • Director of Strategic Studies
  • Director & Founder of the Strategic Studies Wargaming Society
Publications

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  • Emerging Technologies and Chinese Challenges to US Innovation Leadership

    Johnson, J.
    Emerging Technologies and International Security: Machines, the State and War. Steff, R., Soare, S., Burton, J. (eds.). 1 edition. Routledge, pp. 29-48, 20 pages
    Chapters in Books, Reports and Conference Proceedings: Chapters
  • AI and the Bomb: Nuclear Command & Control in the Age of the Algorithm

    Johnson, J.
    Modern War Institute at West Point
    Contributions to Specialist Publications: Articles
  • Artificial intelligence: a threat to strategic stability

    Johnson, J.
    Strategic Studies Quarterly, vol. 14, no. 1, pp. 16
    Contributions to Journals: Articles
  • AI, Cyberspace, and Nuclear Weapons

    Johnson, J., Krabill, E.
    War on the Rocks
    Contributions to Specialist Publications: Articles
  • Artificial intelligence in nuclear warfare: a perfect storm of instability?

    Johnson, J.
    The Washington Quarterly, vol. 43, no. 2, pp. 197-211
    Contributions to Journals: Articles
  • Artificial intelligence, drone swarming and escalation risks in future warfare

    Johnson, J.
    RUSI Journal, vol. 165, no. 2, pp. 26-36
    Contributions to Journals: Articles
  • The AI-cyber nexus: implications for military escalation, deterrence, & strategic stability

    Johnson, J.
    Journal of Cyber Policy, vol. 4, no. 3, pp. 442-460
    Contributions to Journals: Articles
  • Is the US Losing the Artificial Intelligence Arms Race?

    Johnson, J.
    The Conversation
    Contributions to Specialist Publications: Articles
  • The end of military-techno Pax Americana? Washington’s strategic responses to Chinese AI-enabled military technology

    Johnson, J.
    Pacific Review, vol. 34, no. 3, pp. 351-378
    Contributions to Journals: Articles
  • Artificial intelligence and future warfare: implications for international security

    Johnson, J.
    Defense & Security Analysis, vol. 35, no. 2, pp. 147-169
    Contributions to Journals: Articles
  • China’s Vision of the Future Network-Centric Battlefield: Cyber, Space and Electromagnetic Asymmetric Challenges to the United States

    Johnson, J.
    Comparative Strategy, vol. 37, no. 5, pp. 373-390
    Contributions to Journals: Articles
  • Chinese evolving approaches to nuclear “war-fighting”: an emerging Intense US-China security dilemma and threats to crisis stability in the Asia Pacific

    Johnson, J.
    Asian Security , vol. 15, no. 3, pp. 215-232
    Contributions to Journals: Articles
  • The 2019 UK PONI Papers: VIII. The Impact of Artificial Intelligence on Strategic Stability, Escalation, and Nuclear security

    Johnson, J., Dudin, S. (ed.), Wiley, C. (ed.)
    London, UK: Royal United Services Institute for Defence and Security Studies. 5 pages
    Books and Reports: Commissioned Reports
  • China and the US are Racing to Develop AI Weapons

    Johnson, J.
    The Conversation
    Contributions to Specialist Publications: Articles
  • China’s Vision of the Future Networked Battlefield: Emerging Military-Technological Challenges to the United States

    Johnson, J.
    The US-China Military and Defense Relationship during the Obama Presidency. Springer International Publishing
    Chapters in Books, Reports and Conference Proceedings: Chapters
  • Chinese Evolving Approaches to Nuclear ‘War-Fighting’: An Emerging Security Dilemma?

    Johnson, J.
    The US-China Military and Defense Relationship during the Obama Presidency. Springer International Publishing
    Chapters in Books, Reports and Conference Proceedings: Chapters
  • Conceptualizing the United States--China Security Dilemma

    Johnson, J.
    The US-China Military and Defense Relationship during the Obama Presidency. Springer International Publishing
    Chapters in Books, Reports and Conference Proceedings: Chapters
  • Introduction: Obama’s ‘Pivot’ to Asia and Air-Sea Battle

    Johnson, J.
    The US-China Military and Defense Relationship during the Obama Presidency. Springer International Publishing
    Chapters in Books, Reports and Conference Proceedings: Chapters
  • The US-China military and defense relationship during the Obama presidency

    Johnson, J.
    Palgrave Macmillan, New York, NY. 198 pages
    Books and Reports: Books
  • Washington’s Perceptions and Misperceptions of China’s Anti-access Area Denial ‘Strategy’

    Johnson, J.
    The US-China Military and Defense Relationship during the Obama Presidency. Springer International Publishing
    Chapters in Books, Reports and Conference Proceedings: Chapters
  • ‘Guam Express’ and ‘Carrier Killers’: China’s Asymmetric Missile Threat to the United States in the Pacific

    Johnson, J.
    The US-China Military and Defense Relationship during the Obama Presidency. Springer International Publishing
    Chapters in Books, Reports and Conference Proceedings: Chapters
  • China’s Evolving Approach to Nuclear War-Fighting

    Johnson, J.
    The Diplomat
    Contributions to Specialist Publications: Articles
  • China's “Guam Express” and “Carrier Killers”: The Anti-Ship Asymmetric Challenge to the US in the Western Pacific

    Johnson, J.
    Comparative Strategy, vol. 36, no. 4, pp. 319-332
    Contributions to Journals: Articles
  • China’s Nuclear Modernisation:: The Evolution of Chinese Nuclear Doctrine, Strategic Ambiguities & Implications for Sino-U.S. Relations

    Johnson, J., Futter, A.
    Nuclear Politics in Asia. Kouhi Esfahani, M., Mohammadi, A. (eds.). 1st edition. Routledge, 20 pages
    Chapters in Books, Reports and Conference Proceedings: Chapters
  • If Trump is Bluffing on North Korea the Results could be Catastrophic

    Johnson, J.
    The Conversation
    Contributions to Specialist Publications: Articles
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