Critiques of Global Settings for Technology Impact Assessment Affecting Peace and Stability

2.00pm AEST 11 April (Sydney)

9.30am IST 11 April (Delhi)

6.00am CEST 11 April (Berlin)

Speakers:

• Dr Rajeswari Pillai Rajagopolan, Australian Strategic Policy Institute

• Dr Jürgen Altmann, TU Dortmund University

Topic

The webinar will present the perspectives of two highly qualified, international security researchers on the global settings affecting any Joint Impact Assessments by Australia and India for Critical technologies affecting ‘peace and stability’. Their remarks will address fundamental issues of new military technologies and broad geopolitical trends, drawing especially on the speakers’ experiences in a variety of institutional environments relevant to technology impact assessments. Their views are to support the understanding of the potential uses and shortcomings of technology impact assessment by Australia and India in the service of peace and stability.

Project

The project aims to create a co-operative network in the two countries involving government, business interests, policy researchers and technology specialists to foster joint assessments on a continuing basis. The championing of a co-operative approach to cross-border technology assessment would position these countries for complementary work in the Quad and larger multilateral settings. This initiative will publish research papers and public commentaries, host workshops and webinars for stakeholders, and draft a syllabus for professional education of stakeholders in this field. The project aims to enhance diplomatic and stakeholder support on the global stage for joint or multilateral studies of critical emerging technologies assessing the potential risks to peace and stability.

Speaker Bios

• Dr Rajeswari (Raji) Pillai Rajagopalan is Resident Senior Fellow at the Australian Strategic Policy Institute (ASPI), Canberra, Australia. Prior to joining ASPI, she was the Director of the Centre for Security, Strategy & Technology (CSST) at the Observer Research Foundation, New Delhi.  In 2020, she was Co-chair for a thematic group on “Strategic Technologies” for Science, Technology, and Innovation Policy (STIP 2020) Report, Office of Principal Scientific Advisor, Government of India and Department of Science and Technology, Government of India. In 2018-19, Dr. Rajagopalan was the Technical Advisor to the United Nations Group of Governmental Experts (GGE) on Prevention of Arms Race in Outer Space (PAROS).  She was also a Non-Resident Indo-Pacific Fellow at the Perth US Asia Centre from April-December 2020.  She was also a Visiting Professor at the Graduate Institute of International Politics, National Chung Hsing University, Taiwan in 2012. From 2018-2024, she was a senior Asia defence writer and a weekly columnist for The Diplomat, focusing on Asian strategic issues. Dr Rajagopalan joined ORF after a five-year stint at the National Security Council Secretariat (2003-2007), Government of India, where she was an Assistant Director.  Prior to joining the NSCS, she was Research Officer at the Institute of Defence Studies and Analyses, New Delhi.

  
  

  Dr Rajagopalan has authored/co-authored or edited more than a dozen books including ORF-Global Policy Journal Special Issue, Future Warfare and Critical Technologies: Evolving Tactics and Strategies (2024), ORF-Global Policy Journal Special Issue, Future Warfare and Technology: Issues and Strategies (2022), Military Ambitions and Competition in Space: The Role of Alliances (2021), Global Nuclear Security: Moving Beyond the NSS (2018), Space Policy 2.0 (2017), Nuclear Security in India (2015), Clashing Titans: Military Strategy and Insecurity among Asian Great Powers (2012), The Dragon’s Fire: Chinese Military Strategy and Its Implications for Asia (2009). She has published research essays in edited volumes, and in peer reviewed journals such as India Review, Strategic Studies Quarterly, Air and Space Power Journal, International Journal of Nuclear Law and Strategic Analysis.  She has also contributed essays to newspapers such as The Washington Post, The Wall Street Journal, Times of India, and The Economic Times.  She has been invited to speak at international for a including the United Nations Disarmament Forum (New York), the UN Committee on the Peaceful Uses of Outer Space (COPUOS) (Vienna), Conference on Disarmament (Geneva), ASEAN Regional Forum (ARF) and the European Union.

  
  

• Dr. Jürgen Altmann is a physicist and peace researcher (retired) at TU Dortmund University, Germany. He is a co-founder and the chair of the German Research Association for Science, Disarmament and International Security (FONAS). He studied physics and did a doctoral dissertation on laser radar (University of Hamburg, Germany, 1980). After research work in computer pattern recognition, since 1985 he has studied scientific-technical problems of disarmament, first concerning high-energy laser weapons, then European ballistic-missile defence. In 1988 he founded the Bochum Verification Project (Ruhr-University Bochum, Germany) that does research into the potential of automatic sensor systems for co-operative verification of disarmament and peace agreements. Experiments and evaluations dealt with acoustic, seismic, and magnetic signals from tanks, trucks, and military aircraft. Since 1999 he has worked at TU Dortmund University. Acoustic and seismic measurements were also used in work towards safeguards for an underground nuclear-fuel storage site. Prospective assessment of new military technologies and analysis of preventive arms control measures form another focus of his work. One area is non-lethal weapons, with a major study of potential acoustic weapons. Another project looked at the interactions between civilian and military technologies in aviation research and development.   He studied potential military uses of the broad fields of microsystems technologies and nanotechnology. More recently, he has investigated uninhabited armed vehicles and autonomous weapon systems, with a proposal how a ban could be verified. In the area of preventive arms control he did several studies for the German Office of Technology Assessment (TAB).

   

  Web site: https://e3.physik.tu-dortmund.de/cms/de/AG-Altmann/index.html