This thesis provides an analysis of the sociotechnical reforms that took place during the period of the United States’ Third Offset Strategy. The work investigates the processes of technological innovation, institutional reform and development of new operational concepts that took place during this period. It argues that the Third Offset is best understood as an era of intense proliferation and contestation of ideas and beliefs about how wars could (and should) be fought, and about what the role of humans and machines should be in fighting them. Using the theory of sociotechnical imaginaries, the thesis explores how visions of different technological futures were projected in the Third Offset Strategy, how they were shaped, and how they coproduced sociotechnical reform in the period under study. The investigation into the development of these visions and reforms is structured around four key imaginaries: Uncertainty; Distributed Lethality; Human-Machine Teaming; and Mosaic Warfare.
Sociotechnical Imaginaries, the Future and the Third Offset Strategy
Hobson, T. (Author). 22 Feb 2023
Student thesis: Doctoral Thesis › PhD