Technological Trends with an Impact on Peace and Security

Image shows the cover of the publication CNTR Monitor 2024 with the title "Perspectives on Dual Use", the CNTR logo and a picture. The picture shows different images in the form of rays: a person with a microscope, a person in a radiation protection suit, a flying drone, a large cloud of smoke, a shelf full of medication and a computer chip. Superimposed on the images is the Earth's grid of degrees with various icons: a computer with crosshairs, a magnifying glass with a hook, an Erlenmayer flask, a DNA strand, a drone, an atom, 3D printing, a satellite and artificial intelligence.

International Security

First CNTR Monitor published

Rapid techno­logical pro­gress raises new challen­ges for inter­national security. In many cases, research with legiti­mate civilian appli­cations can also be used for mili­tary pur­poses or mis­used for mali­cious pur­poses. In biology in parti­cular, there is also a risk of unin­tended conse­quences, such as the emer­gence of new pan­demics. Politi­cal control of dual-use goods and respon­sibility within research are there­fore parti­cularly impor­tant. These topics are the focus of the CNTR Monitor – the new publi­cation of the inter­disciplinary Cluster for Natural and Technical Science Arms Con­trol Research (CNTR).

Artificial intelli­gence can be used, for example, to pro­cess large amounts of infor­mation in combat, auto­mate decisions and thus acce­lerate war­fare. This makes human control increa­singly diffi­cult – which not only raises ethical con­cerns, but also makes an assess­ment under inter­national law more diffi­cult.

AI can also be used in bio­logy to predict se­quences or even auto­mate entire experi­ments. In the wrong hands, it could be­come a tool for creating new biolo­gical threats.

How­ever, the publi­cation focuses not only on the risks but also on the oppor­tunities presented by new techno­logies: For exam­ple, new diag­nostic proce­dures are presen­ted to iden­tify gene­tically modified patho­gens and their origi­nators. This makes it easier to detect bio­terrorist activities and bring those respon­sible to justice.

The first issue of the CNTR Moni­tor is en­titled “Perspec­tives on Dual Use”. From artifi­cial intelli­gence and semi­conductors, drones and addi­tive manu­facturing to the unin­tended conse­quences of biolo­gical and medical research, but also new oppor­tunities for arms con­trol – the rele­vant actors and the politi­cal and legal frame­works are just as diverse as the ob­jects and techno­logies. The CNTR Moni­tor 2024 sheds light on va­rious dual-use issues, high­lights possi­bilities for politi­cal control and assesses the oppor­tunities and risks of selec­ted new techno­logies.

The CNTR Moni­tor is an open access publi­cation and can be read online and down­loaded from the CNTR website.

Download CNTR Monitor (PDF, non-accessible)
Read the CNTR Monitor online in accessible web format