Please note: this is a hybrid seminar. There will be 4 block sessions as well as 5 online sessions, which are as follows:

20. October 14-16 Online

27. October 14-16 Online

3. November 14-16 Online

10. November 14-16 Online

15. December 12-16 in-person

16. December 9-14 in-person

5. January 12-16 in-person

6. January 19-14 in-person

9. February 14-16 Online

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Today, technologies such as unmanned aerial vehicles and AI systems are developed across increasingly blurred civil-military boundaries. The term dual-use refers to such technologies—as well as the underlying processes of research, development, and production—that can serve both civilian and military purposes and shift easily between peaceful and violent applications. While civil-military convergence is a pressing issue in the context of the current Fourth Industrial Revolution, the fundamental questions it raises about security and ethics are far from new.

This seminar explores historical dual-use dynamics in research, development, and technology use since the late 19th century. In this period, the dual-use potential of artefacts and knowledge carried various—often contradictory—meanings: it implied economic efficiency and served as camouflage or legitimation for high-risk research. Dual-use technologies have consistently functioned as instruments of power and violence. They became contested objects within international regimes and sites of public debate.

Embedding these dynamics within the broader historical patterns and contexts of their time, the seminar examines dual-use strategies and the resulting societal and geopolitical challenges. It traces the roots of the military-industrial complex back to the imperial era and investigates the influence of seemingly civilian technologies on colonial rule. The seminar explores how state and technoscientific actors—especially in Europe and the U.S.—increasingly established dual-use structures in research and development before and during both World Wars and the Cold War.  It addresses the diversification strategies of global industrial players and the covert arms trade, both of which were simultaneously supported by state governments and constrained by export controls. At the same time, it highlights debates on research ethics and scientific responsibility, as well as instances of individual resistance dating back to the First World War.

By placing current public debates—such as those surrounding AI or drones—into historical context, the seminar reveals the underlying processes, dynamics, and patterns of global dual-use politics, and offers critical perspectives for confronting today’s challenges close