Today’s global environment of strategic competition poses new challenges from adversaries seeking to disrupt the international order and further their antidemocratic influence at the expense of US, ally, and partner interests. While the threat of a conventionally fought international war has, so far, deterred actions that might trigger a major conflict, adversaries are conducting hybrid operations that are often not attributable and/or fall below the threshold of a traditional casus belli.

Operational Energy (OE) can be thought of as a foundation of national defense and an indispensable attribute of military strength. Therefore, military members of all ranks should be educated on every aspect of OE. Over the past 100 years, energy has evolved to power literally every military capability of consequence; since the beginning of World War I, OE has played a decisive role in all major conflicts. In the present day, OE powers almost all forms of communication and sensing; fuels all air, land, sea, and space platforms; energizes all electrical devices; and is itself becoming a primary direct-fire weapon.

Freedom, democracy, and security threatened in many parts of the world by today’s strategic competition and hybrid threats. Critical infrastructure (CI), including electricity grids, transportation systems, water systems, and so on, is an essential component of modern societies’ economic strength, security, governance, and way of life. To mitigate the challenges posed by hybrid threats to CI, many nations are seeking to enhance the resilience of their critical infrastructure protection (CIP) systems through a range of legislation and government action.

The United States experienced 1.33 billion power outage hours in 2020, a 73 percent increase from about 770 million hours in 2019. This increasing number of power outages impacts other infrastructure sectors and threatens the health of US citizens, and the nation’s economy and security. The US Department of Defense (DoD) relies heavily on the nation’s commercial electrical infrastructure to conduct critical missions, such as piloting remote aircraft, reviewing reconnaissance, and planning supply logistics from DoD facilities within the continental United States rather than from overseas bases.

With the rise in frequency of hybrid warfare, combatants in various conflicts are increasingly targeting domestic energy infrastructure and energy supply flows. In conventional warfare, militaries traditionally have sought to meet their operational energy needs, gain access to energy supplies, and deny energy supplies to their adversaries. However, new energy-related elements of warfare have emerged.

The vast societal and technological changes that characterize the Information Age, such as the so-called “Internet of Things,” a more interconnected world, and faster and better digital networks, have both enriched and imperiled humanity. The four traditional operational environments of land, maritime, air, and space are now inextricable from a new, fifth domain: the information environment, or cyberspace.

Professor Bradley J. Strawser of the US Naval Postgraduate School (NPS) invited Dr. Jeremy Davis to address students in the Defense Analysis department on the ethical implications of using artificial intelligence in combat operations. Dr. Davis’s primary research explores questions of normative and applied ethics, particularly with regard to war and policing. The lecture took place at NPS on 27 September 2021.

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