Efron Speaker Series: Technology, Critical Infrastructure, and Irregular Warfare: Mapping the Future of Global Security Dynamics (Corri Zoli)

This talk focuses on critical infrastructure and supply chains in today’s global security dynamics—from the role of technology in irregular warfare to the use of strategic leverage by non-state actors. Any military professional knows that supply chains—or logistics—win wars. Yet, little attention has traditionally been paid to critical infrastructure in the field of IR, despite their importance for global security dynamics. Current conflict events in the Red Sea have made the importance of critical infrastructure for security undeniable: the Yemen-based nonstate armed group, the Houthis, have successfully sunk a British ship, caused Maersk to halt shipping operations, and engaged in maritime escalation that threatens global trade throughout the Suez Canal and Gulf of Aden’s Bab Al Mandeb strait. As we begin to make sense of these developments from an IR lens, emergent and nontraditional experts—diverse analysts from the Global South, military-logistics specialists—are advancing our understanding of international security today.