When Private Satellites Go to War: Commercial Satellite Technology, the War in Ukraine, and Implications for National Security Policy

Abstract: How are governments adapting to emerging technologies that leave states with fewer national security secrets? The growing availability of commercial satellite images and other open-source technologies has eroded the near-monopolies governments have traditionally enjoyed over the collection and dissemination of sensitive national security information. These platforms have empowered private actors to expose government activities that were once largely hidden from public view, from the details of ongoing military operations to the development of nuclear arsenals. And in the war in Ukraine, these technologies are transforming the conduct of modern conflict by reshaping public information campaigns and streamlining information-sharing on the twenty-first century battlefield. This seminar will explore the opportunities and risks that these evolving technologies offer as states craft their foreign and national security policies.

Bio: Dr. Theo Milonopoulos is a 2021-2022 postdoctoral fellow at the University of Pennsylvania's Perry World House. His research examines national security decision-making, civil-military relations, and emerging technologies. His work has been supported by fellowships from the Clements Center for National Security and the Smith Richardson Foundation, among other entities. From 2009 to 2011, Theo served as a lead research assistant to former Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice as she wrote her memoirs at Stanford University's Hoover Institution. He has held research assistant and intern positions at the RAND Corporation, the Center for New American Security (CNAS), the International Institute for Strategic Studies (IISS) in London, and Stanford's Center for International Security and Cooperation (CISAC). A graduate of Stanford University with honors in international security studies, Theo received his PhD in political science at Columbia University and an MA in War Studies at King's College London, where he studied as a Fulbright Scholar. Later this month, he will join the faculty at the U.S. Naval War College as an assistant professor of national security affairs.