The virtual seminar will be held from 12:30 to 2:00 p.m. (E.T.)
The role of rockets, missiles, and drones has become increasingly evident in modern warfare. Apart from their direct destructive effects, these weapons are tools of coercion. This presentation will use case studies, including World War II, the Iran-Iraq War, the 1991 Gulf War, and the Houthi-Saudi Arabian conflict in Yemen, to explore how rockets, missiles, and drones coerce by generating fear and panic in an adversary, amplifying political vulnerabilities, and prompting target states to divert military resources to address the threat from these systems. More broadly, it will assess how the coercive power of such weapons serves to damage the strategic aims of target states.
About the speaker: Jaganath Sankaran is an assistant professor in the Lyndon B. Johnson School of Public Affairs at The University of Texas at Austin and a non-resident fellow in the Foreign Policy program at the Brookings Institution. His work focuses on international security and science and technology. He has served on study groups of the National Academies of Sciences and the American Physical Society Panel on Public Affairs.