7 September 2022

On 7 September 2022, the Azure Forum for Contemporary Security Strategy hosted a lunchtime briefing and discussion on: ‘Hypersonic Weapons, Deterrence and Strategic Stability’. The discussion, one of the first of its kind on this topic held in Ireland, invited experts to discuss modern warfare and challenge the value of hypersonic weapons in the contemporary landscape. Dr. Lydia Kostopoulos provided an initial briefing followed by a discussion moderated by Adjunct Senior Fellow Gareth Prendergast. This topical discussion posed a number of challenging questions on strategic stability including: with anti-satellite space weapons, offensive cyber capabilities, the modernisation of nuclear weapons, and the rise of algorithmically-enabled warfare, are hypersonic weapons a relevant necessity for defence? Do they provide a useful means of deterrence or is the pursuit of these capabilities unnecessarily exacerbating global strategic instability?

Dr. Lydia Kostopoulos is Senior Vice President of Emerging Tech Insights at KnowBe4. She is a multi-disciplinary professional whose expertise lies at the intersection of strategy, security and emerging technologies. Dr. Kostopoulos brings a systems thinking approach to her work, examining technology opportunities and risks in the context of global macro trends, geopolitics, international economics, climatic factors and demographic change. She continues to work with U.S. Special Operations, speaks at NATO events and has worked with the United Nations and the IEEE Standards Body. In the realm of technology ethics, she is an advisor for the Data Ethics Consortium for Security and for Ethical Intelligence Associates. Passionate about spreading awareness on emerging technologies, Dr. Kostopoulos makes art about technology and has a multilingual, reflective game on emerging technologies called Sapien 2.0, which explores the human and machine relationship.