Tom F A Watts
Biographic Data
| ID | 1032402 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Tom F A Watts |
| GIVEN NAMES | Tom F A |
| FAMILY NAME | Watts |
| SIGNATURE | WATTS T F A |
| AFFILIATIONS | Royal Holloway University of London |
| ORCID | 0000-0002-5385-6334 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 17 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 39 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 17 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 1947 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2026 |
| H-INDEX | 4 |
Science fiction, sociotechnical imaginaries and future war: New avenues for Critical Security Studies research
In what ways can science fiction (de)stabilise dominant sociotechnical imaginaries of future war? While existing Critical Security Studies scholarship has examined the relationship between science fiction and world politics, this collection of interventions extends these insights by building on the growing conceptual interest in the study of sociotechnical imaginaries. We make two significant contributions to Critical Security Studies scholarship…
Monsters of our own making? Skynet, sociotechnical imaginaries, and nuclear risk in today’s era of great power competition
Drawing on Bruno Latour’s reading of Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein, this intervention challenges the tendency to treat Skynet as the sole ‘monster’ in The Terminator and Terminator 2: Judgment Day. I argue that responsibility for Judgement Day lies not only with Skynet but also with the human policymakers who designed, activated, and subsequently abandoned the system in an effort to manage geopolitical competition with the Soviet Union. By studying…
The offset imaginary: Great power competition, security imaginaries, and the making of artificial intelligence in American defense planning
Interrogating the imaginary turn: Technology, war, and world politics in an era of great power competition
References to the “imaginary” have become prevalent in the study of technology and war in contemporary world politics. As an introduction to this special issue, this article interrogates the “turn” to the “imaginary” by tracing how the concept has been deployed across three overlapping research traditions pertaining to social imaginaries, sociotechnical imaginaries, and security imaginaries. The article addresses two key questions at the heart of…
Ensuring the exercise of human agency in AI-based military systems: Concerns across the lifecycle
Over the past years, the number of governance initiatives on applications of artificial intelligence (AI) in the military domain has expanded. As actors across the governance landscape turn towards implementing these initiatives, principles will need to be spelled out in practical terms, marking a decisive phase in the governance process. This includes the exercise of human agency in the context of using AI-based systems in the military domain. T…
Cross-cultural narratives of weaponised artificial intelligence: Comparing France, India, Japan and the United States
Stories about 'intelligent machines' have long featured in popular culture. Existing research has mapped these artificial intelligence (AI) narratives but lacks an in-depth understanding of (a) narratives related specifically to weaponised AI and autonomous weapon systems and (b) whether and how these narratives resonate across different states and associated cultural contexts. We speak to these gaps by examining narratives about weaponised AI ac…
Prospects for the global governance of autonomous weapons: Comparing Chinese, Russian, and US practices
Beyond the neoconservative legacy in American counterterrorism policy: From George W. Bush to forever war
More than two decades after the 9/11 attacks, the militarised approach to counterterrorism initiated by the George W. Bush Administration remains firmly in place. Growing frustration with these actions has prompted debates on ‘forever war’. This article traces the origins of ‘forever war’ to the interplay of neoconservatism and conservative nationalism in the George W. Bush Administration, which aimed at preserving American primacy through the cu…
Algorithmic Warfare: Taking Stock of a Research Programme
Contains fulltext : 298367.pdf (Publisher’s version ) (Open Access)
Machine guardians: The Terminator, AI narratives and US regulatory discourse on lethal autonomous weapons systems
References to the Terminator films are central to Western imaginaries of Lethal Autonomous Weapons Systems (LAWS). The puzzle of whether references to the Terminator franchise have featured in the United States’ international regulatory discourse on these technologies nevertheless remains underexplored. Bringing the growing study of AI narratives into a greater dialogue with the International Relations literature on popular culture and world poli…
The Political Economy of the Weinstein Scandal
The scandal surrounding Hollywood mogul and convicted rapist Harvey Weinstein has put gender-based violence (GBV) in the global media spotlight, opening up a wider public conversation about issues of sexual consent, power, and gender in the United States and beyond. In this article, we turn attention to the specific process in which systematic wrongdoing is made public and accountable. How was Weinstein’s abuse made into a matter of public record…
Remote Warfare and the Retooling of American Primacy
This paper argues for the utility of remote warfare as a means of analysing the geopolitics of American primacy. Through the use of new technologies and surrogate forces to address security challenges with a minimal military footprint, remote warfare (re)imposes political distance between the United States and the sites of its military interventions. Its constitutive modalities of intervention range from drones and Special Operations Forces to Pr…
Remote warfare – Buzzword or Buzzkill
The debates around remote warfare have grown significantly over the last decade, leading to the term acquiring a certain buzz in the media, think-tank, and policy discourse. The lack of any serious attempt to reflect and take stock of this body of scholarship informs the scope of this special issue, in general, and of this article in particular. This paper addresses this former gap and, in doing so, serves a threefold purpose. First, to provide a…
Revisiting the remoteness of remote warfare: US military intervention in Libya during Obama’s presidency
This paper aims to develop the study of remote warfare’s constitutive “remoteness.” It proposes a novel definition of remoteness as the degree of the American public’s socio-psychological detachment from the realities of political violence fought at a physical distance from the continental United States, as mediated through spectatorship of the use of military force. The remoteness of remote warfare has physical, psychological, and social propert…
When ends Trump means: Continuity versus change in US counterterrorism policy
This article utilizes a historical materialist informed framework to analyse change and continuity in US counterterrorism policy. Although Donald Trump’s “America First” discourse conveyed a “new” approach to counterterrorism, in practice his administration has largely reinforced pre-existing tendencies, expanding the military campaigns against ISIS and al-Qaeda. In accordance with America’s longstanding objectives in the global south, which cent…
Foreign policy issues for America: The Trump years; Counter-terrorism from the Obama administration to President Trump: caught in the fait accompli war
At the core of Donald Trump's pledge to ‘make America great again’ was the promise of change, including a significant recalibration of American foreign policy. Since his inauguration, the scholarly debate on change and continuity in American foreign policy has crystallized into two broad camps. Many have argued that Trump has diverged from the governing principles of postwar American foreign policy by undermining the liberal international order. …
An Essay on the Proper Method for Forming the Man of Business: 1716
Machine guardians: The Terminator, AI narratives and US regulatory discourse on lethal autonomous weapons systems
References to the Terminator films are central to Western imaginaries of Lethal Autonomous Weapons Systems (LAWS). The puzzle of whether references to the Terminator franchise have featured in the United States’ international regulatory discourse on these technologies nevertheless remains underexplored. Bringing the growing study of AI narratives into a greater dialogue with the International Relations literature on popular culture and world poli…
Remote Warfare and the Retooling of American Primacy
This paper argues for the utility of remote warfare as a means of analysing the geopolitics of American primacy. Through the use of new technologies and surrogate forces to address security challenges with a minimal military footprint, remote warfare (re)imposes political distance between the United States and the sites of its military interventions. Its constitutive modalities of intervention range from drones and Special Operations Forces to Pr…
Remote warfare – Buzzword or Buzzkill
The debates around remote warfare have grown significantly over the last decade, leading to the term acquiring a certain buzz in the media, think-tank, and policy discourse. The lack of any serious attempt to reflect and take stock of this body of scholarship informs the scope of this special issue, in general, and of this article in particular. This paper addresses this former gap and, in doing so, serves a threefold purpose. First, to provide a…
Revisiting the remoteness of remote warfare: US military intervention in Libya during Obama’s presidency
This paper aims to develop the study of remote warfare’s constitutive “remoteness.” It proposes a novel definition of remoteness as the degree of the American public’s socio-psychological detachment from the realities of political violence fought at a physical distance from the continental United States, as mediated through spectatorship of the use of military force. The remoteness of remote warfare has physical, psychological, and social propert…
Algorithmic Warfare: Taking Stock of a Research Programme
Contains fulltext : 298367.pdf (Publisher’s version ) (Open Access)
When ends Trump means: Continuity versus change in US counterterrorism policy
This article utilizes a historical materialist informed framework to analyse change and continuity in US counterterrorism policy. Although Donald Trump’s “America First” discourse conveyed a “new” approach to counterterrorism, in practice his administration has largely reinforced pre-existing tendencies, expanding the military campaigns against ISIS and al-Qaeda. In accordance with America’s longstanding objectives in the global south, which cent…
Interrogating the imaginary turn: Technology, war, and world politics in an era of great power competition
References to the “imaginary” have become prevalent in the study of technology and war in contemporary world politics. As an introduction to this special issue, this article interrogates the “turn” to the “imaginary” by tracing how the concept has been deployed across three overlapping research traditions pertaining to social imaginaries, sociotechnical imaginaries, and security imaginaries. The article addresses two key questions at the heart of…
Cross-cultural narratives of weaponised artificial intelligence: Comparing France, India, Japan and the United States
Stories about 'intelligent machines' have long featured in popular culture. Existing research has mapped these artificial intelligence (AI) narratives but lacks an in-depth understanding of (a) narratives related specifically to weaponised AI and autonomous weapon systems and (b) whether and how these narratives resonate across different states and associated cultural contexts. We speak to these gaps by examining narratives about weaponised AI ac…
The Political Economy of the Weinstein Scandal
The scandal surrounding Hollywood mogul and convicted rapist Harvey Weinstein has put gender-based violence (GBV) in the global media spotlight, opening up a wider public conversation about issues of sexual consent, power, and gender in the United States and beyond. In this article, we turn attention to the specific process in which systematic wrongdoing is made public and accountable. How was Weinstein’s abuse made into a matter of public record…
An Essay on the Proper Method for Forming the Man of Business: 1716
Foreign policy issues for America: The Trump years; Counter-terrorism from the Obama administration to President Trump: caught in the fait accompli war
At the core of Donald Trump's pledge to ‘make America great again’ was the promise of change, including a significant recalibration of American foreign policy. Since his inauguration, the scholarly debate on change and continuity in American foreign policy has crystallized into two broad camps. Many have argued that Trump has diverged from the governing principles of postwar American foreign policy by undermining the liberal international order. …
When ends Trump means: Continuity versus change in US counterterrorism policy
This article utilizes a historical materialist informed framework to analyse change and continuity in US counterterrorism policy. Although Donald Trump’s “America First” discourse conveyed a “new” approach to counterterrorism, in practice his administration has largely reinforced pre-existing tendencies, expanding the military campaigns against ISIS and al-Qaeda. In accordance with America’s longstanding objectives in the global south, which cent…
Remote warfare – Buzzword or Buzzkill
The debates around remote warfare have grown significantly over the last decade, leading to the term acquiring a certain buzz in the media, think-tank, and policy discourse. The lack of any serious attempt to reflect and take stock of this body of scholarship informs the scope of this special issue, in general, and of this article in particular. This paper addresses this former gap and, in doing so, serves a threefold purpose. First, to provide a…
Revisiting the remoteness of remote warfare: US military intervention in Libya during Obama’s presidency
This paper aims to develop the study of remote warfare’s constitutive “remoteness.” It proposes a novel definition of remoteness as the degree of the American public’s socio-psychological detachment from the realities of political violence fought at a physical distance from the continental United States, as mediated through spectatorship of the use of military force. The remoteness of remote warfare has physical, psychological, and social propert…
The Political Economy of the Weinstein Scandal
The scandal surrounding Hollywood mogul and convicted rapist Harvey Weinstein has put gender-based violence (GBV) in the global media spotlight, opening up a wider public conversation about issues of sexual consent, power, and gender in the United States and beyond. In this article, we turn attention to the specific process in which systematic wrongdoing is made public and accountable. How was Weinstein’s abuse made into a matter of public record…
Remote Warfare and the Retooling of American Primacy
This paper argues for the utility of remote warfare as a means of analysing the geopolitics of American primacy. Through the use of new technologies and surrogate forces to address security challenges with a minimal military footprint, remote warfare (re)imposes political distance between the United States and the sites of its military interventions. Its constitutive modalities of intervention range from drones and Special Operations Forces to Pr…
Prospects for the global governance of autonomous weapons: Comparing Chinese, Russian, and US practices
Beyond the neoconservative legacy in American counterterrorism policy: From George W. Bush to forever war
More than two decades after the 9/11 attacks, the militarised approach to counterterrorism initiated by the George W. Bush Administration remains firmly in place. Growing frustration with these actions has prompted debates on ‘forever war’. This article traces the origins of ‘forever war’ to the interplay of neoconservatism and conservative nationalism in the George W. Bush Administration, which aimed at preserving American primacy through the cu…
Algorithmic Warfare: Taking Stock of a Research Programme
Contains fulltext : 298367.pdf (Publisher’s version ) (Open Access)
Machine guardians: The Terminator, AI narratives and US regulatory discourse on lethal autonomous weapons systems
References to the Terminator films are central to Western imaginaries of Lethal Autonomous Weapons Systems (LAWS). The puzzle of whether references to the Terminator franchise have featured in the United States’ international regulatory discourse on these technologies nevertheless remains underexplored. Bringing the growing study of AI narratives into a greater dialogue with the International Relations literature on popular culture and world poli…
Cross-cultural narratives of weaponised artificial intelligence: Comparing France, India, Japan and the United States
Stories about 'intelligent machines' have long featured in popular culture. Existing research has mapped these artificial intelligence (AI) narratives but lacks an in-depth understanding of (a) narratives related specifically to weaponised AI and autonomous weapon systems and (b) whether and how these narratives resonate across different states and associated cultural contexts. We speak to these gaps by examining narratives about weaponised AI ac…
Ensuring the exercise of human agency in AI-based military systems: Concerns across the lifecycle
Over the past years, the number of governance initiatives on applications of artificial intelligence (AI) in the military domain has expanded. As actors across the governance landscape turn towards implementing these initiatives, principles will need to be spelled out in practical terms, marking a decisive phase in the governance process. This includes the exercise of human agency in the context of using AI-based systems in the military domain. T…
Science fiction, sociotechnical imaginaries and future war: New avenues for Critical Security Studies research
In what ways can science fiction (de)stabilise dominant sociotechnical imaginaries of future war? While existing Critical Security Studies scholarship has examined the relationship between science fiction and world politics, this collection of interventions extends these insights by building on the growing conceptual interest in the study of sociotechnical imaginaries. We make two significant contributions to Critical Security Studies scholarship…
Monsters of our own making? Skynet, sociotechnical imaginaries, and nuclear risk in today’s era of great power competition
Drawing on Bruno Latour’s reading of Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein, this intervention challenges the tendency to treat Skynet as the sole ‘monster’ in The Terminator and Terminator 2: Judgment Day. I argue that responsibility for Judgement Day lies not only with Skynet but also with the human policymakers who designed, activated, and subsequently abandoned the system in an effort to manage geopolitical competition with the Soviet Union. By studying…
The offset imaginary: Great power competition, security imaginaries, and the making of artificial intelligence in American defense planning
Interrogating the imaginary turn: Technology, war, and world politics in an era of great power competition
References to the “imaginary” have become prevalent in the study of technology and war in contemporary world politics. As an introduction to this special issue, this article interrogates the “turn” to the “imaginary” by tracing how the concept has been deployed across three overlapping research traditions pertaining to social imaginaries, sociotechnical imaginaries, and security imaginaries. The article addresses two key questions at the heart of…
Political science (10 works) · Law (8 works) · Politics (8 works) · Cybersecurity and Cyber Warfare Studies (7 works) · Sociology (7 works) · Law (5 works) · Political economy (5 works) · Computer Science (4 works) · Ethics and Social Impacts of AI (4 works) · European and Russian Geopolitical Military Strategies (4 works)