The Arms of the Future | Book Launch

Wednesday, Oct. 11 // 10:30–11:30 am (ET)

From sensor-fuzed munitions and autonomous weapons, to ground moving target indication radar, laser vibrometers and artificial intelligence, the weapons of warfare are undergoing a rapid transformation, with modern technologies reshaping how armies intend to fight in the twenty-first century.

The Arms of the Future analyses how the emergence of novel weapons systems is shaping the risks and opportunities on the battlefield. Drawing on extensive practical observation and experimentation, the book unpacks the operational challenges new weapons pose on the battlefield and how armies might be structured to overcome them.

At a time when defense spending across NATO is on the rise, and conflict with Russia raises new questions of what it means to fight a truly 'modern' war, Dr. Jack Watling examines not just the arms to be employed but how they can be fielded and wielded to survive and prevail in future wars.

Still to Come This Week

Into the Bright Sunshine: Young Hubert Humphrey and the Fight for Civil Rights

Thursday, Oct. 12 // 4–5:30 pm (ET)

Conventional wisdom says that the Civil Rights Movement essentially began in the 1950s with the Brown v. Board of Education decision and the Montgomery bus boycott. Conventional wisdom also says that Hubert Humphrey betrayed his liberal heritage with his support of the Vietnam War. While both of those statements contain elements of truth, speaker Samuel G. Freedman will be arguing that the young Humphrey played an instrumental role in the proto-Civil Rights Movement of the 1940s, which prepared the political soil for the breakthroughs of later decades.