This July, Keio University Global Research Institute (KGRI) and Cyber Civilization Research Center (CCRC) hosted an one-day workshop in collaboration with the International College of Innovation (ICI), at the National Chengchi University (NCCU), Taipei, Taiwan, focusing on game-changing technologies and their impact on national security and global military and security affairs. The workshop was the result of an earlier visit by Prof. Tsuchiya and Project Assistant Professor Tobias Burgers in April to the institute, during which both sides agreed to explore possibilities for further cooperation between both universities.
Prof. Tsuchiya, the Deputy Director of KGRI, led the delegation from KGRI, which included Mr. Burgers, Ms. Kajiwara, a Visiting Institute Member, and Associate Prof. Tsuruoka, Prof. Mori, of the department of global politics, Housei University, as well as Associate Professor Kotani, of the Faculty of International Relations, Meikai University, joined the delegation from Japan. The Taiwanese counterparts consisted of faculty members of the NCCU, as well as researchers from Taiwan’s National Defense University, government (affiliated) think tanks and from other universities.
We covered a wide arrange of perspective on new technological innovations and their impact was discussed. The program was divided into three sections and started with a keynote lecture by Dr. Eddie Chien, General Director of the Dual-use Technology Development Center, National Chung-Shan Institute of Science and Technology – the Taiwanese equivalent of DARPA that also develops Taiwan’s next-generation defense systems. Following Dr. Chien’s lecture, a broad discussion on the dual-use technologies ensued, with both sides highlighting the dangers of dual-use technologies, particularly in the domain of cyber and AI development. In the ensuing three panels, the historic, contemporary and future perspectives on new arising technologies were discussed by the participants.
Finalizing the workshop was the fourth panel, in which the central question was what could and should be done to adapt to the new security environment and how to respond to challenges arising from the introduction of new technologies. In their concluding remarks, both Prof. Tsuchiya, and Prof. Liu – Dean of the College of Innovation of NCCU – agreed on the need for further research on this subject. In this, the workshop highlighted the existing problems and illustrated the need for further cooperation by both universities to tackle research questions on this subject.