PAPERS
The Smartphone as Weapon part 1: the new ecology of war in Ukraine (April 2022)
Matthew Ford
“The war in Ukraine is heavily mediated by connected devices and social media platforms. The smartphone for example is being used for all sorts of purposes, ranging from calling home to sharing news about the war. Crucially these devices also provide targeting information that can be used by both sides to identify what to attack and how successful attacks have been…”
Download. Geolocate. Fire and Forget: the smartphone at war (March 2022)
Originally commissioned by @UnHerd
Matthew Ford
“War is everywhere I go. I cannot seem to escape it. I’m using my favourite music streaming service in the hope of getting away from it and the protests about Joe Rogan have already been supplanted by the notice Help Ukraine; Stop the War. War is in the palm of my hand, and I can’t put it down. The whole of my life is locked into the mobile connected ecosystem that is my smartphone and the war has me gripped…”
VIDEOS
#BruteCast S4 E10 – “War in the Age of the Smartphone” (March 2022)
This episode continues #TeamKrulak’s focus on Russia’s ongoing invasion of Ukraine and the many new dynamics we’ve been seeing on that battlefield.
Matthew and Andrew discuss their latest thoughts on how we’re witnessing the dynamics of Radical War’s new war ecology in Ukraine.
On accidental archives and shaping the military understanding of war (January 2022)
In discussion with Michael Innes, Matthew Ford and Andrew Hoskins discuss how patterns of digitisation create both accidental and more immediately accessible archives of war: a key theme in Radical War.
War Studies KCL: Roundtable discussion on New Directions in the History of Warfare and Violence (September 2021)
The Sir Michael Howard Centre for the History of War’s 2021-22 academic year seminar series inaugural event.
Professor Susan Carruthers; Professor Tarak Barkawi, Professor Kim Wagner and Dr Matthew Ford to reflect on some of the big changes over the past several decades in the way we conceptualise the study of the history of war and violence.
(From 53:00 mins)
SMA IIJO – Speak Series (May 2021)
Matthew provided a presentation titled ‘On the New War Ecology’ through which he explored Radical War with an online audience comprised of members of the US DOD, Joint Chiefs Of Staff and HQ US Air Force.
PODCASTS
History Hack: Radical War (March 2022)
To celebrate the release of their new book, Radical War: Data, Attention and Control in the Twenty-First Century, Dr Matthew Ford and Professor Andrew Hoskins join Zack and boney to discuss how data, and the smartphone, is changing the face of war, how we perceive it and, crucially, how we will remember it.
Information Innovation @ UTS (November 2020)
Host Matthew Moore interviewed Radical War authors Dr Matthew Ford and Andrew Hoskins to discuss their rationale for writing the book and its central themes of the relationship between data, attention and control. They also explored the utility of the Radical War framing as a lens for highlighting the complex intra-dependent relationship between war, smart devices and web platforms.