Antoine Bousquet
@ajbousquet.bsky.social
Martial Empiricist | Author of 'The Scientific Way of Warfare' & 'The Eye of War' | Currently has nukes & AI on the brain | Swedish Defence University
Pinned
How did philosophy respond to the advent of nuclear weapons? How did Cold War thinkers make sense of the unprecedented threat of planetary cataclysm presented by the Bomb? What remedies did they offer to escape its peril and what can lessons can we draw from them today? A🧵
Daniel Ellsberg in 1959 on the political uses of madness, the extraordinary case of Adolf Hitler & its implications in a nuclear age: "What Hitler was, no man - we must hope - aspires to be. But what Hitler knew, others can learn and use. And win with it - until they fail, and smash all humankind."
November 13, 2025 at 3:29 PM
Daniel Ellsberg in 1959 on the political uses of madness, the extraordinary case of Adolf Hitler & its implications in a nuclear age: "What Hitler was, no man - we must hope - aspires to be. But what Hitler knew, others can learn and use. And win with it - until they fail, and smash all humankind."
Last call for papers for this conference in Venice next year!
🚨 CALL TO PAPERS 🚨
Honoured to be delivering a keynote at the 8th International PhD Congress at Ca' Foscari University of Venice held from 18 to 20 February 2026. call to papers is out for contributions on "systems and knowledge." Deadline: 09 November 2025 www.unive.it/web/en/8275/...
Honoured to be delivering a keynote at the 8th International PhD Congress at Ca' Foscari University of Venice held from 18 to 20 February 2026. call to papers is out for contributions on "systems and knowledge." Deadline: 09 November 2025 www.unive.it/web/en/8275/...
October 29, 2025 at 12:49 PM
Last call for papers for this conference in Venice next year!
“There was never from about 2 weeks from the time I took charge [of the atomic bomb] project any illusion on my part but that Russia was our enemy and the project was conducted on that basis.”
- General Leslie Groves, testifying at the J. R. Oppenheimer hearing in 1954
- General Leslie Groves, testifying at the J. R. Oppenheimer hearing in 1954
October 29, 2025 at 8:11 AM
“There was never from about 2 weeks from the time I took charge [of the atomic bomb] project any illusion on my part but that Russia was our enemy and the project was conducted on that basis.”
- General Leslie Groves, testifying at the J. R. Oppenheimer hearing in 1954
- General Leslie Groves, testifying at the J. R. Oppenheimer hearing in 1954
Reposted by Antoine Bousquet
⏳ Excited to share my new piece, published in @millennjournal.bsky.social! I explore how imagined futures of emergent and disruptive tech loop back to shape present-day politics of war - and how the early history of military ballooning (1783-1907) shows us this recursive logic at work.
Balloonomania! Disruptive Technologies, War, and the Amnesia of the Moment - Frederik Carl Windfeld, 2025
Contemporary discussions over emergent and disruptive technologies in military affairs are often framed in futurist and existential terms. The article theorises...
journals.sagepub.com
October 16, 2025 at 8:09 AM
⏳ Excited to share my new piece, published in @millennjournal.bsky.social! I explore how imagined futures of emergent and disruptive tech loop back to shape present-day politics of war - and how the early history of military ballooning (1783-1907) shows us this recursive logic at work.
Legal settlement with AI company Anthropic means authors may be in line for compensation if their work was used to train models.
The latest on the Anthropic settlement with authors
The landmark $1.5 billion settlement between AI company Anthropic and authors has received preliminary approval. Here’s what you need to know.
www.alcs.co.uk
September 30, 2025 at 2:51 PM
Legal settlement with AI company Anthropic means authors may be in line for compensation if their work was used to train models.
🚨 CALL TO PAPERS 🚨
Honoured to be delivering a keynote at the 8th International PhD Congress at Ca' Foscari University of Venice held from 18 to 20 February 2026. call to papers is out for contributions on "systems and knowledge." Deadline: 09 November 2025 www.unive.it/web/en/8275/...
Honoured to be delivering a keynote at the 8th International PhD Congress at Ca' Foscari University of Venice held from 18 to 20 February 2026. call to papers is out for contributions on "systems and knowledge." Deadline: 09 November 2025 www.unive.it/web/en/8275/...
September 26, 2025 at 8:14 AM
🚨 CALL TO PAPERS 🚨
Honoured to be delivering a keynote at the 8th International PhD Congress at Ca' Foscari University of Venice held from 18 to 20 February 2026. call to papers is out for contributions on "systems and knowledge." Deadline: 09 November 2025 www.unive.it/web/en/8275/...
Honoured to be delivering a keynote at the 8th International PhD Congress at Ca' Foscari University of Venice held from 18 to 20 February 2026. call to papers is out for contributions on "systems and knowledge." Deadline: 09 November 2025 www.unive.it/web/en/8275/...
An excellent video on the past and perhaps future of Project Orion, the Cold War plan for space travel powered by nuclear detonations.
Earth to Mars in 10 Days
YouTube video by Real Engineering
youtube.com
September 22, 2025 at 9:20 PM
An excellent video on the past and perhaps future of Project Orion, the Cold War plan for space travel powered by nuclear detonations.
Words to ponder as we develop thinking machines whose inner workings are increasingly inscrutable and whose discoveries might soon surpass our understanding... From Hannah Arendt, The Human Condition (1958)
September 9, 2025 at 7:16 AM
Words to ponder as we develop thinking machines whose inner workings are increasingly inscrutable and whose discoveries might soon surpass our understanding... From Hannah Arendt, The Human Condition (1958)
I am interviewed on one of the Dagens Industri podcasts on the topic of the new landscape of military tech innovation.
Tech bros på frontlinjen - Den nya ekonomin
Framtidens försvar del 2: Kärnkraft, armbandsuret och internet – hundratals uppfinningar härstammar från det militära. Men håller den gamla sanningen om slagfältet som en plats för innovation på att b...
poddtoppen.se
September 4, 2025 at 1:30 PM
I am interviewed on one of the Dagens Industri podcasts on the topic of the new landscape of military tech innovation.
Hiroshima National Peace Memorial Hall. The red ball indicates the hypocentre of the nuclear explosion on August 6, 1945.
August 6, 2025 at 11:14 AM
Hiroshima National Peace Memorial Hall. The red ball indicates the hypocentre of the nuclear explosion on August 6, 1945.
My revisiting of The Scientific Way of Warfare in 2023: “The Persistent Appeal of Chaoplexic Warfare: Towards an Autonomous S(war)m Machine?” fhs.diva-portal.org/smash/record...
August 4, 2025 at 4:17 PM
My revisiting of The Scientific Way of Warfare in 2023: “The Persistent Appeal of Chaoplexic Warfare: Towards an Autonomous S(war)m Machine?” fhs.diva-portal.org/smash/record...
A quarter of a century on from its advocacy by the likes of Ronfeldt and Aquilla, the mode of chaoplexic warfare I described in my first book still remains the unfulfilled horizon of the military imaginary, always just around the corner yet perpetually deferred.
Drones Aren’t Swarming Yet — But They Could - War on the Rocks
Despite the hype, drone swarming doesn’t exist yet. That’s because the U.S. Department of Defense has been focused on platform capability inputs like
warontherocks.com
August 4, 2025 at 3:47 PM
A quarter of a century on from its advocacy by the likes of Ronfeldt and Aquilla, the mode of chaoplexic warfare I described in my first book still remains the unfulfilled horizon of the military imaginary, always just around the corner yet perpetually deferred.
“Scientists aren’t responsible for the facts that are in nature. It’s their job to find the facts. There’s no sin connected with it – no morals. If anyone should have a sense of sin, it’s God. He put the facts there." (Percy Bridgman, Robert Oppenheimer's undergraduate teacher)
July 16, 2025 at 9:56 PM
“Scientists aren’t responsible for the facts that are in nature. It’s their job to find the facts. There’s no sin connected with it – no morals. If anyone should have a sense of sin, it’s God. He put the facts there." (Percy Bridgman, Robert Oppenheimer's undergraduate teacher)
Einstein on relative difficulty of physics and politics (from John Herz, International Politics in the Atomic Age, 1959)
July 6, 2025 at 7:07 PM
Einstein on relative difficulty of physics and politics (from John Herz, International Politics in the Atomic Age, 1959)
The Sedan crater left by the shallow underground nuclear test (104kt) conducted in Nevada in July 1962 for research into using nukes for construction projects. 390m wide by 100m deep, it helped determine that ancient craters formed on earth and beyond result from meteor strikes, not volcanoes.
July 1, 2025 at 9:28 AM
The Sedan crater left by the shallow underground nuclear test (104kt) conducted in Nevada in July 1962 for research into using nukes for construction projects. 390m wide by 100m deep, it helped determine that ancient craters formed on earth and beyond result from meteor strikes, not volcanoes.
“The technical arrogance that overcomes people when they see what they can do with their minds”
Freeman Dyson on the seductive power of nuclear weapons
YouTube video by I of War
youtu.be
June 27, 2025 at 7:20 AM
“The technical arrogance that overcomes people when they see what they can do with their minds”
Job opening at the Swedish Defence University for an Associate Senior Lecturer in System Science for Defence and Security with a specialization in cyber defence. Scholars with social science and STS backgrounds welcome! fhs.varbi.com/en/what:job/...
Associate Senior Lecturer in in System Science for defence and Security with a specialization in cyber defence
The employment is placed at Department of Systems Science for Defence and Security in Stockholm. Do you want to research and teach at the intersection of technology, society and defense? We are lookin
fhs.varbi.com
June 23, 2025 at 1:45 PM
Job opening at the Swedish Defence University for an Associate Senior Lecturer in System Science for Defence and Security with a specialization in cyber defence. Scholars with social science and STS backgrounds welcome! fhs.varbi.com/en/what:job/...
Leo Szilard, How to Live with the Bomb and Survive (1960)
June 19, 2025 at 10:49 AM
Leo Szilard, How to Live with the Bomb and Survive (1960)
Finally, the first english translation of Günther Anders's most important work!
The Obsolescence of the Human
Now available in English—one of the twentieth century’s most important works on the philosophy of technology With this first English translation of influ...
www.upress.umn.edu
June 3, 2025 at 7:25 AM
Finally, the first english translation of Günther Anders's most important work!
“We have, in a real sense, reached a kind of “singularity”—but not the long-anticipated awakening of machine consciousness. Rather, what we’re entering is a new consciousness of ourselves.”
Will the Humanities Survive Artificial Intelligence?
Maybe not as we’ve known them. But, in the ruins of the old curriculum, something vital is stirring.
www.newyorker.com
May 25, 2025 at 9:30 AM
“We have, in a real sense, reached a kind of “singularity”—but not the long-anticipated awakening of machine consciousness. Rather, what we’re entering is a new consciousness of ourselves.”
Second postdoc opening at the Swedish Defence University for work on narrative politics for those with quants skills (incl. machine learning, data mining, etc.) - Deadline 31 August.
Postdoc with a focus on quantitative narrative geopolitics
Description The postdoctoral position is part of the interdisciplinary research environment on narrative geopolitics, established with funding from the Swedish Armed Forces. The role involves interdis
fhs.varbi.com
May 23, 2025 at 12:31 PM
Second postdoc opening at the Swedish Defence University for work on narrative politics for those with quants skills (incl. machine learning, data mining, etc.) - Deadline 31 August.
Opening for a three year postdoc with a focus on narrative geopolitics at our place! Deadline on 31 August.
Postdoc with a focus on narrative geopolitics
Description The postdoctoral position is part of the interdisciplinary research environment on narrative geopolitics, established with funding from the Swedish Armed Forces. The role involves interdis
fhs.varbi.com
May 23, 2025 at 10:04 AM
Opening for a three year postdoc with a focus on narrative geopolitics at our place! Deadline on 31 August.
Open seminar at SEDU on 19 May (live broadcast available): Whose nuclear umbrella in 2040?
Open seminar: Whose nuclear umbrella in 2040? The future of deterrence and the transatlantic security in a fragmenting world order
Welcome to a seminar focusing on nuclear deterrence and transatlantic security in an increasingly uncertain global environment.
www.fhs.se
May 16, 2025 at 5:42 AM
Open seminar at SEDU on 19 May (live broadcast available): Whose nuclear umbrella in 2040?
Reposted by Antoine Bousquet
🚨Register now for the Global Nuclear Order annual conference🚨
'Rethinking nuclear deterrence in an era of strategic uncertainty' - Friday 25 April 2025 on Zoom.
link👉 buff.ly/WWcPbYt
@gnobisa.bsky.social @lubazat.bsky.social @soulpark.bsky.social @ajbousquet.bsky.social @abhishek3690.bsky.social
'Rethinking nuclear deterrence in an era of strategic uncertainty' - Friday 25 April 2025 on Zoom.
link👉 buff.ly/WWcPbYt
@gnobisa.bsky.social @lubazat.bsky.social @soulpark.bsky.social @ajbousquet.bsky.social @abhishek3690.bsky.social
Global Nuclear Order annual conference 2025: Rethinking nuclear deterrence in an era of strategic uncertainty- Global Nuclear Order (GNO) | BISA
- Global Nuclear Order (GNO) Working Group
buff.ly
April 10, 2025 at 10:00 AM
🚨Register now for the Global Nuclear Order annual conference🚨
'Rethinking nuclear deterrence in an era of strategic uncertainty' - Friday 25 April 2025 on Zoom.
link👉 buff.ly/WWcPbYt
@gnobisa.bsky.social @lubazat.bsky.social @soulpark.bsky.social @ajbousquet.bsky.social @abhishek3690.bsky.social
'Rethinking nuclear deterrence in an era of strategic uncertainty' - Friday 25 April 2025 on Zoom.
link👉 buff.ly/WWcPbYt
@gnobisa.bsky.social @lubazat.bsky.social @soulpark.bsky.social @ajbousquet.bsky.social @abhishek3690.bsky.social