Course Syllabus

Draft

Semester & Location:	Fall 2026 - DIS Copenhagen
Type & Credits:	Elective Course - 3 credits
Major Disciplines:	International Relations, Political Science, Philosopy
Prerequisites	None
Faculty Members:	Daniel Møller Ølgaard and Andreas Graae (current students please use the Canvas Inbox)
Time & Place:	TBA

Course Description

The world is changing. War is changing. We are entering an age of warfighting that has so far only been considered in science fiction.  This course examines how emerging technologies like AI, robotics, and drones are transforming warfare, focusing on their impact on traditional battlefields and new domains such as space and cyberspace. Students will explore future scenarios of warfare through theoretical frameworks and foresight exercises, analyzing how these technologies shape both military strategy and global security politics. 

On the battlefields in Ukraine and the Middle East, new technologies such as drones and AI are reportedly turning the tide, and the world order is trembling from the fierce competition between the US and China on critical technology areas such as AI, robotics and space. In short, we are entering an age of warfighting that has so far only been considered in science fiction.

All of this begs the question: What happens after Ukraine and Gaza? How do we envision the next war? Which technological developments will determine victory? And how can we grasp and imagine the uncertainties of future security politics and warfighting? To this end, the course equips students with theoretical tools necessary for understanding the impact of new technologies on warfare and military affairs from a socio-technical perspective. Using this framework, we will explore the use and importance of new technologies such as Artificial Intelligence, robotics, drones and quantum computing across both traditional battlefields, such as those in Ukraine and Gaza, and new domains such as space, sea beds and cyberspace. Finally, students will be asked to use their acquired knowledge and analytical skills to craft their own “future imaginaries” of warfare through scenario-building exercises that utilize various techniques and methods of foresight.

Approaching the future of warfare as an emergent, socio-technical phenomenon, and inviting students to participate in the speculative production of the wars of tomorrow, the course has a double aim. First, to explore the future imaginaries that figure prominently across military and political thinking about warfare; and second, to enable students to critically interrogate how these imaginaries produce very real politics by shaping the present.

Contents, themes and concepts that will be explored during the course include:

• Surveillance capitalism and infrastructural power
• AI decision-support and human-machine-teaming (e.g. Palantir)
• Bio/neuro technology as human enhancement (e.g. Neurolink)
• Space technologies and satellite wars (e.g. Starlink)
• Drones, robotics and autonomy
• Useful Fiction and/as foresight
• Sociotechnical- and future imaginaries
• Technological determinism and western-centric biases in imagining the future

 Lecture plan

The course consists of three sections. The first section introduces the students to the overall aim of the course, and presents the conceptual and theoretical tools that will be utilized throughout the course to explore the technological future(s) of warfare. The second section combines lectures and field trips to facilitate a detailed exploration of a number of technologies, which are widely considered as having the potential to transform (future) war, including AI, quantum and space. The last and final section allows the students to bring together and apply the knowledge, skills and insights gathered throughout the course in a foresight exercise, where the students will utilize creative writing and scenario building methods to imagine the future of warfare and present their visions to their colleagues.

Section 1: Introduction and framework

1. Introduction (3 hrs) 
   20 August (DMØ + AG)
2. Human-machine interfaces: The co-production of technology and war (3 hrs) 
   27 august (DMØ)
3. Future imaginaries: How visions of the future shape the present (3 hrs) 
   17 September (DMØ)

 

Section 2: Empirical explorations

1. The rise (and death) of killer robots: AI, drones and robotics (3 hrs) 
   24. September (AG)
2. War beyond human control? AI, software, and military decision-making (3 hrs)
   1 October (DMØ)
3. A new quantum leap? War between quantum technology and quantum diplomacy (3 hrs)
   15 October (DMØ + Guest Lecturer: Niels Jakob Søe Loft (TBC)
   Field Trip: Niels Bohr Institute (3 hrs)
   
   
4. Cyborg soldiers: Biotechnology, neuro science and human enhancement (3 hrs) 
   22 October (AG)
5. Star wars: Space as a new battlefield (3 hrs) 
   29 October (AG + Guest Lecture: Michael Linden Vørnle, TBC)
   Field Trip: DTU Space (3 hrs)

 

Section 3: Imagining the future(s) of warfare

1. 1. Fiction and foresight: Speculative thinking, creative writing and scenario building (3 hrs) 
      12 November (AG)
   2. Workshop part I: Imagining the future(s) of warfare (3 hrs) 
      19. November (DMØ og AG)
   3. Workshop part II: Imagining the future(s) of warfare (3 hrs) 
      3 December (DMØ og AG)

Learning Objectives

The course equips students with theoretical tools necessary for understanding the impact of new technologies on warfare and military affairs from a socio-technical perspective. By the end of this course students will be able to:

• Analyze how emerging technologies such as AI, drones, robotics, space systems, and bio-neuro technologies reshape contemporary and future warfare, military organization, and strategic practice.
• Apply socio-technical and critical theoretical perspectives to examine the co-production of technology, military institutions, and security politics across different geopolitical contexts.
• Critically assess dominant future imaginaries of warfare and evaluate their political, ethical, and strategic consequences, including questions of power, accountability, ethics, and technological determinism.
• Develop and communicate original future scenarios of warfare using foresight methods, speculative thinking, and collaborative scenario-building, while reflecting on uncertainty, contingency, and complexity as central features of future conflict.

Faculty

Andreas Graae, PhD & Daniel Møller Ølgaard, PhD, Institute for Military Technology, Royal Danish Defence College

Readings

Books (excerpts)

• Bousquet, A (2022). The Scientific Way of Warfare: Order and Chaos on the Battlefields of Modernity. Hurst
• Der Derian, J. (2009). Virtuous War. Mapping the Military-Industrial-Media-Entertainment-Network. Routledge.
• Freedman, L. (2017). The future of war: A history. PublicAffairs
• Schwarz, E. (2018). Death machines: The ethics of violent technologies. Manchester University Press
• Singer, P. & Cole, A. (2015). Ghost fleet: A novel of the next world war. Houghton Mifflin Harcourt

 

Articles

• van der Maarel, S., Verweij, D., Kramer, E.-H., & Molendijk, T. (2023). “This Is Not What I Signed up for”: Sociotechnical Imaginaries, Expectations, and Disillusionment in a Dutch Military Innovation Hub. Science, Technology, & Human Values, 50(4), 857-878.
• Mager, A., & Katzenbach, C. (2021). Future imaginaries in the making and governing of digital technology: Multiple, contested, commodified. New Media & Society, 23(2), 223-236. https://doi-org.ezproxy.fak.dk/10.1177/1461444820929321
• Srivastava S. Algorithmic Governance and the International Politics of Big Tech. Perspectives on Politics. 2023;21(3):989-1000. doi:10.1017/S1537592721003145
• Sangar, E. (2025). How military forecasting projects can promote exceptionalist militarism: The French Red Team project and the securitization of the future. Security Dialogue, 56(3), 191-210. https://doi-org.ezproxy.fak.dk/10.1177/09670106241306556
• Tjalve, V. S. (2024). Corporate cosmos: How commercial American space imagines our future and shapes our present. Danish Institute for International Studies (DIIS). DIIS Report Vol. 2024 No. 1. https://www.diis.dk/en/research/corporate-cosmos

 

Format

The course combines lectures, seminars, group discussions, student-led presentations, field studies, and creative workshops. A strong emphasis is placed on active participation, collaborative learning, and hands-on exercises in scenario-building and speculative analysis.

 

Field Trips / Excursions

• Niels Bohr Institute – Introduction to quantum research and its security implications.
• DTU Space – Exploration of satellite systems, space technologies, and their military and strategic relevance.

 

Approach to Teaching

The course is structured as an interactive and dynamic learning space. Teaching combines short lectures with discussions, group work, practical exercises, and creative workshops. Students are continuously invited to experiment, question assumptions, and explore uncertainty.

A central pedagogical ambition is to engage students actively in the co-production of knowledge. Through foresight methods, speculative writing, and scenario-building exercises, students develop their own future imaginaries of warfare and conflict. This creates room for creativity, critical reflection, and intellectual risk-taking, while grounding discussions firmly in academic literature and empirical cases. The overall aim is to foster analytical depth, collaborative learning, and curiosity-driven exploration of the future.

 

Evaluation

Students are evaluated on their engagement with the course material, their active participation in discussions and workshops, and their ability to combine theoretical insight, empirical analysis, and creative thinking. Emphasis is placed on analytical clarity, originality, collaborative effort, and reflective depth.

Grading

The assessment of the students will be based on active participation across lectures, excursions and workshops, as well as a portfolio consisting of 4 written assignments, three of which will be written during the course and one of which will be written as a final paper reflecting on the learning outcome of the course.

Assignment	Percent
Active Participation	20%
Group Presentation (two in total)	20%
Foresight scenario portfolio (group based)	20%
Written final assignment	40%

DIS Accommodations Statement 

Your learning experience in this class is important to me.  If you have approved academic accommodations with DIS, please make sure I receive your DIS accommodations letter within two weeks from the start of classes. If you can think of other ways I can support your learning, please don't hesitate to talk to me. If you have any further questions about your academic accommodations, contact Academic Support academicsupport@dis.dk

 

Academic Regulations 

Please make sure to read the Academic Regulations on the DIS website. There you will find regulations on:

• Course Enrollment and Grading
• Academic Expectations and Honor Code

 

 

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