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Autonomous Systems and Chinese Strategic Thinking

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Modelling and Simulation for Autonomous Systems (MESAS 2018)

Abstract

Since the 1980s, it has been possible to identify changes in the military-strategic dimension, which are associated with the concept of the Revolution in Military Affairs (RMA). The development of new (weapon) technologies (e.g. precision-guided munitions, unmanned aerial vehicles) represents opportunity (and challenges) especially for states to enhance their military power and change their status in the system of international relations. Nowadays, the U.S. still represent the main actor of this system, however, we can identify several rivals on the global or regional levels. People’s Republic of China (PRC) is one of these challengers. From this point of view, the development of autonomous systems (AxS) could strengthen the Chinese military capabilities and enhance the threat for the position of the U.S. and their allies (NATO). However, this presumption depends on the transformation of the Chinese strategic thinking that could address such opportunity. The aim of this paper is to analyse how the Chinese strategic thinking reflects the development of AxS and identify the changes which are connected with this issue. This paper will provide the necessary understanding of the PRC’s approach to the AxS, which, from this point of view, represents implications for military planning and strategy development not only of the U.S., but also NATO and its member states.

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Acknowledgements

The work presented in this paper has been supported by the Ministry of Defence of the Czech Republic (Research Project “STRATAL” No. 907930101023).

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Correspondence to Jakub Fučík .

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Fučík, J., Frank, L., Stojar, R. (2019). Autonomous Systems and Chinese Strategic Thinking. In: Mazal, J. (eds) Modelling and Simulation for Autonomous Systems. MESAS 2018. Lecture Notes in Computer Science(), vol 11472. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-14984-0_44

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-14984-0_44

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