Senior Lecturer
- About
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- 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
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- 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
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- 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
Revisiting the “Stability-Instability Paradox” in AI-enabled Warfare: A modern-day Promethean tragedy under the nuclear shadow?
Review of International Studies, pp. 1-19Contributions to Journals: Articles- [ONLINE] DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/S0260210524000767
Post-9/11 US thinking and approaches to nuclear deterrence: the Bush Doctrine and the role of nuclear weapons in US deterrence strategy
International Politics, vol. 61, no. 3, pp. 547–566Contributions to Journals: ArticlesIs there a Human in the Machine? AI and Future Warfare
War on the RocksContributions to Specialist Publications: ArticlesThe AI Commander: Centaur Teaming, Command, and Ethical Dilemmas
Oxford University Press, Oxford. 224 pagesBooks and Reports: BooksFinding AI Faces in the Moon and Armies in the Clouds: Anthropomorphising Artificial Intelligence in Military Human-Machine Interactions
Global Society, vol. 38, no. 1, pp. 67-82Contributions to Journals: Articles
- Research
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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
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Teaching Responsibilities
- Director of Strategic Studies
- Director & Founder of the Strategic Studies Wargaming Society
- Publications
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Page 2 of 3 Results 26 to 50 of 56
Emerging Technologies and Chinese Challenges to US Innovation Leadership
Emerging Technologies and International Security: Machines, the State and War. Steff, R., Soare, S., Burton, J. (eds.). 1 edition. Routledge, pp. 29-48, 20 pagesChapters in Books, Reports and Conference Proceedings: Chapters- [ONLINE] DOI: https://doi.org/10.4324/9780367808846
AI and the Bomb: Nuclear Command & Control in the Age of the Algorithm
Modern War Institute at West PointContributions to Specialist Publications: ArticlesArtificial intelligence: a threat to strategic stability
Strategic Studies Quarterly, vol. 14, no. 1, pp. 16Contributions to Journals: ArticlesAI, Cyberspace, and Nuclear Weapons
War on the RocksContributions to Specialist Publications: ArticlesArtificial intelligence in nuclear warfare: a perfect storm of instability?
The Washington Quarterly, vol. 43, no. 2, pp. 197-211Contributions to Journals: Articles- [ONLINE] DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/0163660X.2020.1770968
Artificial intelligence, drone swarming and escalation risks in future warfare
RUSI Journal, vol. 165, no. 2, pp. 26-36Contributions to Journals: Articles- [ONLINE] https://doi.org/10.1080/03071847.2020.1752026
- [ONLINE] DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/03071847.2020.1752026
The AI-cyber nexus: implications for military escalation, deterrence, & strategic stability
Journal of Cyber Policy, vol. 4, no. 3, pp. 442-460Contributions to Journals: Articles- [ONLINE] DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/23738871.2019.1701693
Is the US Losing the Artificial Intelligence Arms Race?
The ConversationContributions to Specialist Publications: ArticlesThe end of military-techno Pax Americana? Washington’s strategic responses to Chinese AI-enabled military technology
Pacific Review, vol. 34, no. 3, pp. 351-378Contributions to Journals: Articles- [ONLINE] DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/09512748.2019.1676299
Artificial intelligence and future warfare: implications for international security
Defense & Security Analysis, vol. 35, no. 2, pp. 147-169Contributions to Journals: Articles- [ONLINE] DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/14751798.2019.1600800
China’s Vision of the Future Network-Centric Battlefield: Cyber, Space and Electromagnetic Asymmetric Challenges to the United States
Comparative Strategy, vol. 37, no. 5, pp. 373-390Contributions to Journals: Articles- [ONLINE] DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/01495933.2018.1526563
Chinese evolving approaches to nuclear “war-fighting”: an emerging Intense US-China security dilemma and threats to crisis stability in the Asia Pacific
Asian Security , vol. 15, no. 3, pp. 215-232Contributions to Journals: Articles- [ONLINE] DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/14799855.2018.1443915
The 2019 UK PONI Papers: VIII. The Impact of Artificial Intelligence on Strategic Stability, Escalation, and Nuclear security
London, UK: Royal United Services Institute for Defence and Security Studies. 5 pagesBooks and Reports: Commissioned ReportsChina and the US are Racing to Develop AI Weapons
The ConversationContributions to Specialist Publications: ArticlesChina’s Vision of the Future Networked Battlefield: Emerging Military-Technological Challenges to the United States
The US-China Military and Defense Relationship during the Obama Presidency. Springer International PublishingChapters in Books, Reports and Conference Proceedings: ChaptersChinese Evolving Approaches to Nuclear ‘War-Fighting’: An Emerging Security Dilemma?
The US-China Military and Defense Relationship during the Obama Presidency. Springer International PublishingChapters in Books, Reports and Conference Proceedings: ChaptersConceptualizing the United States--China Security Dilemma
The US-China Military and Defense Relationship during the Obama Presidency. Springer International PublishingChapters in Books, Reports and Conference Proceedings: ChaptersIntroduction: Obama’s ‘Pivot’ to Asia and Air-Sea Battle
The US-China Military and Defense Relationship during the Obama Presidency. Springer International PublishingChapters in Books, Reports and Conference Proceedings: ChaptersThe US-China military and defense relationship during the Obama presidency
Palgrave Macmillan, New York, NY. 198 pagesBooks and Reports: BooksWashington’s Perceptions and Misperceptions of China’s Anti-access Area Denial ‘Strategy’
The US-China Military and Defense Relationship during the Obama Presidency. Springer International PublishingChapters in Books, Reports and Conference Proceedings: Chapters‘Guam Express’ and ‘Carrier Killers’: China’s Asymmetric Missile Threat to the United States in the Pacific
The US-China Military and Defense Relationship during the Obama Presidency. Springer International PublishingChapters in Books, Reports and Conference Proceedings: ChaptersChina’s Evolving Approach to Nuclear War-Fighting
The DiplomatContributions to Specialist Publications: ArticlesChina's “Guam Express” and “Carrier Killers”: The Anti-Ship Asymmetric Challenge to the US in the Western Pacific
Comparative Strategy, vol. 36, no. 4, pp. 319-332Contributions to Journals: Articles- [ONLINE] https://doi.org/10.1080/01495933.2017.1361204
- [ONLINE] DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/01495933.2017.1361204
China’s Nuclear Modernisation:: The Evolution of Chinese Nuclear Doctrine, Strategic Ambiguities & Implications for Sino-U.S. Relations
Nuclear Politics in Asia. Kouhi Esfahani, M., Mohammadi, A. (eds.). 1st edition. Routledge, 20 pagesChapters in Books, Reports and Conference Proceedings: Chapters- [ONLINE] Nuclear Politics in Asia
If Trump is Bluffing on North Korea the Results could be Catastrophic
The ConversationContributions to Specialist Publications: Articles