Defence and disruptive technologies

Abstract

For many centuries, organized warfare, as it is understood today, was an unfamiliar idea for mankind (for a detailed historical account of warfare, please refer Sabin et al. [1]). During the Stone Age, when wars (or fights/skirmishes) were fought for food, resources or survival, the methodology was very different from the kind of warfare humans engage in today. Large-scale armies and structuring differences aside, even the most basic tools used to attack an adversary or defend self were simplistic and crafted from easily available resources. Since the pre-war period (commonly understood as the period before the Second World War), documentation of wars has become increasingly accessible. The available evidence leads us to infer that technologies did impact warfighting in those periods. From both pre- and post-war history, it has emerged that technology has been an intricate part of defence strategies for many decades and played an important role in shaping military doctrines and rules of warfare. More importantly, technology appears to have been at the centre of deciding outcomes of war, often shaping the course of history through its presence or absence.