CNTR Monitor 2025: New Realities of AI in Global Security

The latest CNTR Monitor focuses on the current boom in artificial intelligence and its impacts on global security. Open access

Cluster for Natural and Technical Science Arms Control Research

We research emerging technologies and developments in the natural sciences from an interdisciplinary perspective. Military innovations, digital warfare and disinformation influence the balance of power and create uncertainty. In order to provide impetus for arms control at the international level, it is important not only to identify emerging problems at an early stage, but also to have the technical competence to address these problems. That is why we develop scientifically sound bases for recommendations for action to strengthen arms control.

In the CNTR research and transfer cluster, researchers from the natural and social sciences work together closely. We are based at the Peace Research Institute Frankfurt (PRIF), the Technical University of Darmstadt and Justus Liebig University Giessen.

CNTR is organized into three research groups:

These three groups work together on the cross-cutting topics of artificial intelligence and verification. The natural and technical science research is complemented by the research area “Arms Control Law”.

Warfare at Machine Speed: The Growing Use of AI in the Military

CNTR Monitor 2025 - Focus: Artificial Intelligence

Debate on AI’s military use has intensified, initially with regard to (lethal) autonomous weapon systems. Autonomous weapon systems independently select, prioritize, and engage targets, making them lethal when humans are targeted. Emerging around 2010, debates around these weapon systems can now be found in the UN Weapons Convention and the UN General Assembly. However, for too long critics of autonomous weapons narrowed the focus of debate to just two critical elements: target selection and engagement. This only changed recently with a debate focusing on the broader “reliability” of military AI and related pledges or national (military) AI strategies. While both the scope and capabilities of AI in military contexts are still being discussed, increasingly AI is being quietly implemented in seemingly non-critical military domains. While militaries celebrate this for gains in efficiency and application in seemingly benign roles and functions, it raises serious arms control policy questions, especially regarding the acceleration of warfare and the erosion of human control. While accepting states’ interest in the use of military AI, debates on the stability and security implications of widespread AI ought to intensify, while also extending their focus to questions beyond the ethical or legal.

Bibliographic record

Schörnig, N. (2025). Warfare at Machine Speed: The Growing Use of AI in the Military. In: Göttsche, M.; Reis, K. & Daase, C. (Eds.). New Realities of AI in Global Security. CNTR Monitor – Technology and Arms Control 2025. PRIF – Peace Research Institute Frankfurt.

Author

Dr. Niklas Schörnig

Open Access Publication

Read online (accessible)

Latest Publications

Warfare at Machine Speed: The Growing Use of AI in the Military

CNTR Monitor 2025 - Focus: Artificial Intelligence

Debate on AI’s military use has intensified, initially with regard to (lethal) autonomous weapon systems. Autonomous weapon systems independently select, prioritize, and engage targets, making them lethal when humans are targeted. Emerging around 2010, debates around these weapon systems can now be found in the UN Weapons Convention and the UN General Assembly. However, for too long critics of autonomous weapons narrowed the focus of debate to just two critical elements: target selection and engagement. This only changed recently with a debate focusing on the broader “reliability” of military AI and related pledges or national (military) AI strategies. While both the scope and capabilities of AI in military contexts are still being discussed, increasingly AI is being quietly implemented in seemingly non-critical military domains. While militaries celebrate this for gains in efficiency and application in seemingly benign roles and functions, it raises serious arms control policy questions, especially regarding the acceleration of warfare and the erosion of human control. While accepting states’ interest in the use of military AI, debates on the stability and security implications of widespread AI ought to intensify, while also extending their focus to questions beyond the ethical or legal.

Bibliographic record

Schörnig, N. (2025). Warfare at Machine Speed: The Growing Use of AI in the Military. In: Göttsche, M.; Reis, K. & Daase, C. (Eds.). New Realities of AI in Global Security. CNTR Monitor – Technology and Arms Control 2025. PRIF – Peace Research Institute Frankfurt.

Author

Dr. Niklas Schörnig

Open Access Publication

Read online (accessible)

All publications

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