Wired for War: The Science Fiction/Science Reality of Robots, War, and Politics in the 21st Century

By John Ohab

UPDATE: Due to weather in the Arlington, VA, area, this lecture has been canceled. We’ll post more details about possible rescheduling when they are available.

On Thursday, December 16th, Dr. Peter Warren Singer will present the Office of Naval Research’s Distinguished Lecture, “Wired for War: The Science Fiction/Science Reality of Robots, War, and Politics in the 21st Century.” The talk will be streamed live right here on the Armed with Science blog from 1:30 – 3pm eastern.

If you’re in the Arlington, VA, area, you can attend the talk in person by registering at https://secure.onr.navy.mil/events.

Peter Warren Singer is a Senior Fellow and the Director of the 21st Century Defense Initiative at the Brookings Institution. He is the youngest scholar named Senior Fellow in Brookings’s 90-year history. In 2005, CNN named him to their “New Guard” List of the Next Generation of Newsmakers. Singer has also been recognized by the Financial Times as “Guru of the Week” for the thinker who most influenced the world that week and by Slate Magazine for “Quote of the Day.”

In his personal capacity, Singer served as coordinator of the Obama-08 campaign’s defense policy task force. In 2009, Singer was named by Foreign Policy Magazine to the Top 100 Global Thinkers List, of the people whose ideas most influenced the world that year.

Dr. Singer is considered one of the world’s leading experts on changes in 21st century warfare. He was named by the President to Joint Forces Command’s Transformation Advisory Group. He has written for the full range of major media and journals, including the Boston Globe, L.A. Times, New York Times, Washington Post, Foreign Affairs, Current History, Survival, International Security, Parameters, Weltpolitik, and the World Policy Journal. He has been quoted in every major U.S. newspaper and news magazine and delivered talks at venues ranging from the U.S. Congress to over 40 universities around the world. He has provided commentary on military affairs for nearly every major TV and radio outlet, including ABC-Nightline, Al Jazeera, BBC, CBS-60 Minutes, CNN, FOX, NPR, and the NBC Today Show. He is also a founder and organizer of the U.S.-Islamic World Forum, a global conference that brings together leaders from across the US and the Muslim world

His first book Corporate Warriors: The Rise of the Privatized Military Industry, pioneered the study of the new industry of private companies providing military services for hire, an issue that soon became important with the use and abuse of these companies in Iraq. It was named best book of the year by the American Political Science Association, among the top five international affairs books of the year by the Gelber Prize, and a “top ten summer read” by Businessweek.

Prior to his current position, Dr. Singer was the founding Director of the Project on U.S. Policy Towards the Islamic World in the Saban Center at Brookings. He has also worked for the Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs at Harvard University, the Balkans Task Force in the U.S. Department of Defense, and the International Peace Academy. Singer received his Ph.D. in Government from Harvard University and a BA from the Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs at Princeton University.