Columbia World Affairs Council
February 12, 2009
All World Affairs Council Members and Friends are Cordially Invited to Attend A Distinguished Speaker Luncheon:
Peter W. Singer and his accredited book, Wired for War: The Robotics Revolution and Conflict in the 21st Century”
Peter Warren Singer is Senior Fellow and Director of the 21st Century Defense Initiative at the Brookings Institution
Most recently seen on the The Daily Show with John Stewart!
http://www.thedailyshow.com/full-episodes/index.jhtml?episodeId=217005
Sponsored by: McNair Law Firm and Global Heath Companion
What happens when science fiction becomes battlefield reality?
An amazing revolution is taking place on the battlefield, starting to change not just how wars are fought, but also the politics, economics, laws, and ethics that surround war itself. This upheaval is already afoot — remote-controlled drones take out terrorists in Afghanistan, while the number of unmanned systems on the ground in Iraq has gone from zero to 12,000 over the last five years. But it is only the start. Military officers quietly acknowledge that new prototypes will soon make human fighter pilots obsolete, while the Pentagon researches tiny robots the size of flies to carry out reconnaissance work now handled by elite Special Forces troops.
Wired for War takes the reader on a journey to meet all the various players in this strange new world of war: odd-ball roboticists working in latter-day “skunk works” in the midst of suburbia; military pilots flying combat mission from their office cubicles outside Las Vegas; the Iraqi insurgents who are their targets; journalists trying to figure out just how to cover robots at war; and human rights activists wrestling with what is right and wrong in a world where our wars are increasingly being handed over to machines.
Time: 12:00pm-2:00pm
Date: Tuesday, March 3rd, 2009
Location: The Summit Club
20th Floor, 1301 Gervais St.
Columbia, SC 29201
Cost: Members: $20; Non-Members: $27
RSVP by e-mailing [email protected] or by calling (803)-252-2197
About P.W. Singer
Peter Warren Singer is Senior Fellow and Director of the 21st Century Defense Initiative at the Brookings Institution. He is the youngest scholar named Senior Fellow in Brookings’s 90-year history. In 2005, CNN named him to their New Guard List of the Next Generation of Newsmakers. Singer has also been recognized by the Financial Times as Guru of the Week for the thinker that most influenced the world that week and by Slate Magazine for Quote of the Day. In his personal capacity, Singer served as coordinator of the Obama-08 campaign’s defense policy task force.
Dr. Singer is considered one of the world’s leading experts on changes in 21st century warfare. He has written for the full range of major media and journals, including the Boston Globe, L.A. Times, New York Times, Washington Post, Foreign Affairs, Current History, Survival, International Security, Parameters, Weltpolitik, and the World Policy Journal. He has been quoted in every major U.S. newspaper and news magazine and delivered talks at venues ranging from the U.S. Congress to over 40 universities around the world. He has provided commentary on military affairs for nearly every major TV and radio outlet, including ABC-Nightline, Al Jazeera, BBC, CBS-60 Minutes, CNN, FOX, NPR, and the NBC Today Show. He is also a founder and organizer of the U.S.-Islamic World Forum, a global conference that brings together leaders from across the US and the Muslim world (www.us-islamicworldforum.org).
