On December 22, Deputy Director of the Scowcroft Center for Strategy and Security Matthew Kroenig released an article in the US Air Force’s academic journal Strategic Studies Quarterly, titled “Will Emerging Technology Cause Nuclear War? : Bringing Geopolitics Back In.” Kroenig argues that when considering the effects of new technology on strategic stability, it is important to take into account which states are developing the technology. If status-quo oriented states like the United States and its allies deploy new strategic technology it may buttress stability by deterring revisionism. Conversely, if states like China and Russia deploy advanced weapon systems it may undermine stability by allowing them to coerce other members of the international community.
[S]tates employ technologies to achieve preexisting ends. It is not simply the technologies themselves that are destabilizing but the geopolitical ambitions of the states that possess them.
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