Contemporary & Future War

OVERVIEW

The toughest problems in warfare often drive military experimentation, adaptation, and technological innovation. Ukraine is the defining battlefield shaping the future of warfare, a proving ground where the character of war is changing in real time. From drone swarms and electronic warfare to dispersed command structures and hybrid operations, the dynamics unfolding in Ukraine are rewriting the rules of modern conflict.

“The war in Ukraine is transforming the character of war in ways that will affect all future wars. The United States and its allies and partners must understand and internalize the lessons of this war and rapidly adapt themselves in order to address the fundamental problems of contemporary warfare that the war in Ukraine is exposing. These fundamental problems are not confined to the combatants in this conflict, to the specific theater in which they are fighting, or to their particular capabilities and limitations. The more advanced technologies and systems that the United States, NATO, and China, among others, can field neither automatically resolve these problems nor render them obsolete. The path to successful military adaptation runs through Ukraine,” as ISW President Kimberly Kagan and her coauthors wrote in their landmark publication Ukraine and the Problem of Restoring Maneuver in Contemporary War.