History has shown that new technologies can change the face of war significantly. Today, experiencing the speed of innovation and the emergence of technologies made possible by the Fourth Industrial Revolution, even the classical Clausewitzian theory of the nature of war can be questioned. The United States is expected to have an early advantage in the area of quantum computing. However, China is also exploring the applications of quantum technology and has already surpassed the United States in the area of quantum communication. Therefore, recognizing the importance of quantum technology and its application, developing its integration, and understanding the strategic context laid in the US National Defense Strategy 2018 (NDS 2018), it is imperative to consider quantum technology in the paradigm of operational art. Quantum technology is an emerging technology that has the potential to reshape the world and provoke a new arms race. Given that we are in the early stages of quantum technology and there exists the potential of this technology providing the United States and her allies an advantage over adversaries, this monograph analyzes quantum technology and examines its potential importance in future warfare.
History has shown that new technologies can change the face of war significantly. Today, experiencing the speed of innovation and the emergence of technologies made possible by the Fourth Industrial Revolution, even the classical Clausewitzian theory of the nature of war can be questioned. The United States is expected to have an early advantage in the area of quantum computing. However, China is also exploring the applications of quantum technology and has already surpassed the United States in the area of quantum communication. Therefore, recognizing the importance of quantum technology and its application, developing its integration, and understanding the strategic context laid in the US National Defense Strategy 2018 (NDS 2018), it is imperative to consider quantum technology in the paradigm of operational art. Quantum technology is an emerging technology that has the potential to reshape the world and provoke a new arms race. Given that we are in the early stages of quantum technology and there exists the potential of this technology providing the United States and her allies an advantage over adversaries, this monograph analyzes quantum technology and examines its potential importance in future warfare.
While the fundamental nature of war remains constant, military strategies continue to evolve in response to capabilities enabled by new technologies. Therefore, military leaders must be aware of emerging and disruptive technologies to maintain forces that are relevant. One such technology is quantum technology, which has received a great deal of attention in the past few years due to its potential application in a wide range of areas. Particularly, quantum technology promises breakthroughs in various domains of warfare by significantly enhancing current military technology. This article explores three major defense applications of quantum technology—quantum computing, quantum sensing, and quantum communication—and their impact on future warfare based on realistic assessment.
Without quantum mechanics, the nuclear and information revolutions of the twentieth century would not have happened. In this article, we examine how new quantum technologies are coming to reshape war and peace in the twenty-first century. Research and development across quantum computing, communications, and sensing has taken on the dynamic of a “quantum race” between major powers, big tech, and academic institutions. A quantum advantage in these areas could radically reshape political and economic as well as strategic balances of power. In a world already marked by global entanglement, deep uncertainty, and superpositional states of war and peace, quantized modes of understanding need to expand from the natural and physical sciences into the social and political sciences, which remain stuck in causal, linear, and deterministic worldviews inherited from the seventeenth century. We use this article to begin to push beyond the classical limits of traditional international relations to consider new epistemic tools, ethical frameworks, and geopolitical strategies for a world order transformed by Quantum 3.0.
The so-called area of quantum technologies is a new and disruptive technological field, essentially from physics and engineering, with the ability to affect almost all human activities. They are based on the properties of quantum mechanics like quantum tunneling, quantum entanglement, and quantum superposition. Examples of areas of application of these emerging technologies are quantum computing, quantum communications, quantum sensing, quantum cryptography, quantum internet, quantum imaging, quantum metrology, quantum biology, among others. These technologies are of the interest of both the defense and security industry, and military and governmental actors. For military applications, and after a strong advanced engineering process, these technologies introduce new capabilities, improving effectiveness and increasing precision, thus leading to the so-called quantum warfare, wherein new military strategies, doctrines, policies, and ethics should be established. In particular, these military applications of quantum technologies can be described for various warfare domains like land, air, space, electronic, cyber, and underwater warfare and also for intelligence, surveillance, target acquisition and reconnaissance. Among those applications mentioned before, quantum computing is expected to have a number of important uses such as optimization and machine learning, associated to both artificial intelligence and blockchain. Quantum computers are perhaps best known for their expected ability to carry out Shor’s algorithm, which can be used to factorize large numbers and is an important process in the securing of data transmissions, essential for military applications. In this review of our own work, we show the physics and some of the applications of the Josephson junction which plays and important and essential role in the fabrication of quantum computers with superconducting qubits. Nowadays, applications of Josephson junction devices go from the most sensitive sensor to measure magnetic flux, called S.QU.I.D. (from Superconducting Quantum Interference Device) to the core of quantum computers, the quantum bits. The Josephson junction is an old quantum engine for a rising new world with incredible disruptive technological possibilities in engineering, especially in military applications where it plays a fundamental strategic differential for National Security and Defense.
Quantum technologies are reshaping the future for international relations as they introduce communication, computing, encryption, and sensing capabilities that are unprecedented. This paper explores how the United States and China are tactically racing to dominate quantum technologies, examining how this competition influences the national security strategy of Australia, a key actor within the Indo-Pacific region. Australia is known as a middle power as well as U.S. ally. Its detailed geopolitical context is shaped by new quantum abilities and treaty duties. Grounded in policy analysis and expert literature, this study evaluates the disruptive potential of quantum advancements in global power dynamics through Realism's theoretical lens using a qualitative methodology. The paper concludes quantum technologies represent not merely scientific breakthroughs, but powerful tools of calculated advantage as they carry far-reaching implications for international security, alliances, plus the future balance of power.
Quantum technologies constitute a major area of interest with real issues leading to new disruptive applications. Their mastery will give their designers a definite advantage, whether in the fields of communications, health, security, energy, space, the environment, etc. The United States, China, Europe, India and many other countries are opening research programs and promote investments with a view to acquiring certain technological sovereignty. My previous paper briefly exposed quantum technologies. In this new paper, after a reminder of the strategic context, the application domains of quantum computing, with some examples in the defense and security sectors, are presented. Elements of analysis of existing investments and ecosystems are presented. The images or figures in the article are the property of their cited authors. References are given at the end of each chapter.
The battlefield in the coming years is poised to enter a new phase of the Revolution in Military Affairs (RMA), potentially marking another transformative evolution. This is due to the ‘quantum ecosystems’ or simply quantum technology’s ability to supersede traditional technologies based on classical physics. The paper explores how quantum technology is poised to bring about changes in military affairs. Advancements in weapons, sensors, targeting capabilities, striking precision, and communications will significantly enhance military capabilities. The first half of the paper examines the elements of the RMA to assess whether they hold a comparable impact on warfare. The second section evaluates the potential influence of quantum technologies on future military affairs. The paper concludes that, although quantum technology is often portrayed as revolutionary, its current impact remains largely theoretical, as it has not yet been operationally deployed.