Language and new forms of warfare

Abstract

Warfare is constantly changing and in recent years there have been major changes in both the strategies and the operational methods adopted by state and non-state actors. There is an increasingly porous border between military and civilian activities, which language plays a key role in shaping. This chapter reviews some of the new forms of warfare and explores the role that language and languages play in their development. It takes activities often characterised as remote warfare and focuses on the areas of (a) unmanned vehicles and lethal autonomous weapons systems and (b) cyber conflict and information strategy. It examines both the terminology that contributes to shaping strategy and the language content of operations. It concludes that many questions remain, including how language itself is now weaponised.