On the New War Ecology

Speaker: Dr. Matthew Ford (University of Sussex)

Date: 11 May 2021

Speaker Session Summary

SMA hosted a speaker session with Dr. Matthew Ford (University of Sussex) as a part of its SMA IIJO Speaker Series.

Dr. Ford began his presentation by emphasizing that a changing information environment (IE) has affected how governments and their civilians participate in radical warfare (RW), or the interaction between media, technologies, and the politics of violence. He stated that three factors relating to RW have changed the ecology of war: 1) data collection and storage, 2) control of information, and 3) audience attention. Furthermore, many institutions have been accused of not learning from past communication errors or mishandling of data  due to their poor data storage, the overwhelming amount of data that needs to be processed, and/or biases held by in individuals within the institution. While the overwhelming amount of digitized information does allow information on historical events to be more accessible and easily stored, it also enables historical data to be used out of context and then easily thrown away. This process of misusing history is resulting in a new phenomenon: “memory decay.”

Dr. Ford argued that memory decay and its effect on RW has geopolitical implications because countries are constantly in a state of competition with each other. Also, due to the widespread availability of smartphones, everyday citizens can be active participants in RW by sharing or spreading information. It is important to note that countries’ RW capabilities are not advancing evenly across the globe because some regions still have limited access to the internet. However, those that do are preoccupied with increasing the speed at which information is collected and shared among their institutions so that these institutions can counter threats and increase their influence on the media cycle.

Speaker Session Recording

Note: We are aware that many government IT providers have blocked access to YouTube from government machines during the pandemic in response to bandwidth limitations. We recommend viewing the recording on YouTube from a non-government computer or listening to the audio file (below), if you are in this position.

Briefing Materials

Matthew Ford joined the University of Sussex as a Lecturer in International Relations in August 2013. Prior to this he was a lecturer in War and Security at the University of Hull (2010-2013), a Sessional Lecturer in International Security at Birkbeck College London (2008-2009) and a Teaching Assistant at King’s College London (2006-2008). Matthew has also occasionally taught as a Sessional Lecturer in History at the University of Birmingham (2009-2011). Matthew has a PhD from the Department of War Studies at King’s College London (KCL); an MA in War Studies from KCL and a BA (Hons) in Philosophy from the University of Reading. Prior to completing his PhD, Matthew worked for a top four global management consultancy. After completing his doctorate in 2008 he joined the UK Civil Service as a Strategic Analyst with the Policy and Capability Studies Department of Dstl, an agency of the UK Ministry of Defence. Matthew has published in a number of journals including the European Journal of International Security, International History Review, Journal of Strategic Studies, Small Wars and Insurgencies, War in History, Studies in Conflict and Terrorism and Parameters, the journal of the US Army War College. His research interests focus on military innovation, socio-technical change, the epistemology of battle and strategy. A former West Point Fellow and winner of the Society for Military History’s Russell F. Weigley Graduate award, Matthew has written extensively about military-technical change, especially as it relates to the infantry and their experience of battle. Matthew is an Honorary Historical Consultant to the Royal Armouries, Leeds, UK. Matthew’s first book is called ‘Weapon of Choice’ by Hurst & Co, London and Oxford University Press in New York in 2017. Matthew is the founding Editor of the British Journal for Military History, an Open Access, peer reviewed journal that offers a unique vehicle for distributing high-quality military history to an audience beyond academia. Matthew was a visiting scholar at the Naval Postgraduate School, Monterrey CA. in May 2019. Follow him on twitter: @warmatters Current Doctoral Researchers Rupert Culyer, “A Critical Analysis of Software-Based, Intelligence-led Targeting in Iraq and Afghanistan 2006-2014”

This speaker session supported SMA’s Integrating Information in Joint Operations (IIJO) project. For additional speaker sessions and project publications, please visit the IIJO project page.