War in the Smartphone Age

Description

Thanks to smartphones, war is everywhere, all the time. Anyone can view, analyse and comment on photos, videos or other warzone media, far from the frontlines. Where did this technology come from? And what does it mean for the future of war?

This book explains why you see what you do on your phone. It asks how these devices shape our knowledge, conduct and representation of war in the 2020s. It shows why the smartphone is indispensable in peace and wartime, with a profound impact on modern conflict. Every smartphone is a potential weapon: lines blur between war and daily life, and conflict becomes a shared digital experience. Global tech giants orchestrate connectivity, displacing state-controlled narratives. Through social media, smartphones become powerful tools amplifying violence and shaping war’s legitimacy. Apps democratise conflict, enabling anyone to identify and attack perceived enemies. As the Ukraine war has shown, this new reality involves complex, unevenly distributed infrastructures, merging civilian communication with military targeting.

With war accelerating beyond our comprehension, militaries have raced to exploit and adapt to the smartphone age. As technology distorts our understanding of conflict, even while offering the hope of progress, Matthew Ford explores critical questions about today’s hyper-connected battlefield.

Reviews

‘This compelling book shows us how radically technologies have changed our relationship to war, blurring the line between combatant and civilian and upending everything built on that distinction.’ — Dana Eyre, Global Learning Officer, M+C Saatchi World Services

‘A must-read for anyone trying to grapple with the impact of data, artificial intelligence, and social media on both the modern battlefield and in the hearts and minds of soldiers and citizens.’ — Jackie Grace Schneider, Hargrove Hoover Fellow, Stanford University

‘This remarkable study makes a compelling case about how the smartphone is changing the contours of war. A truly important book for our highly turbulent times.’ — Steven Feldstein, Senior Fellow, Carnegie Endowment for International Peace

‘A peripatetic virtual tour of today’s battlefield, illuminating the breakneck pace of technological advancements and its impact on the character of modern warfare. Ford’s scholarship and energy make him the perfect guide.’ — Craig Whiteside, Associate Professor of National Security Affairs, US Naval War College

‘An incisive, disturbing, but uniquely fascinating account of how everyday technologies are now entangled in the mechanics of modern warfare. After reading this, your phone may still seem smart, but you might start to question whose side it is really on.’ — Michael Rainsborough, Professor of Strategic Theory, Australian War College

‘Matthew Ford’s insightful, original analysis and accessible style provide valuable lessons which our democracies should heed in bolstering our deterrence without undermining our values.’ — Benjamin Tallis, Chair, Democratic Strategy Initiative, Berlin

‘A major contribution and an extraordinarily timely and accessible work. A younger generation of readers without memory or direct experience of the conflicts in Iraq, Afghanistan and Syria will come to see their personal devices in a new light after reading War in the Smartphone Age.’ — Michael Innes, formerly NATO and the UN, author of Streets Without Joy: A Political History of Sanctuary and War, 1959–2009

Author(s)

Matthew Ford is Associate Professor in War Studies at the Swedish Defence University. The author of War in the Smartphone Age and Weapon of Choice and co-author of Radical War (all published by Hurst), he was the founding editor of the British Journal for Military History. His research focuses on technology and the conduct of war.