The Diplomat | Author
Jacob Parakilas
Jacob Parakilas is an author, consultant, and analyst working on U.S. foreign policy and international security.
He has over a decade’s professional experience spanning think tanks, NGOs, the U.S. government, and academia. He started his career in 2007 working on student visa issues for the U.S. government before returning to academia and earning a Ph.D. at the London School of Economics. From 2014 until 2019 he was the deputy head of the U.S. and the Americas Programme at Chatham House, the Royal Institute of International Affairs, where his job was to explain the key issues in U.S. foreign and domestic policy to non-American audiences. Jacob is currently based in Lagos, Nigeria, and is also an Associate with LSE IDEAS.
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January 13, 2021
Militaries Are Planning for an Autonomous Revolution. What if the Tech Isn’t Up to It?
By Jacob Parakilas
The path to robust, reliable military autonomy is long and winding – with a lot of potential dead ends.
January 08, 2021
Tech Companies Can’t Stay Out of National Security — Irrespective of What They Want
By Jacob Parakilas
The January 6 storming of the U.S. Capitol by a pro-Trump mob once again brings the role of social media in maintaining public security and safety to the foreground.
December 30, 2020
4 Predictions for Defense, Strategy, and Technology in 2021
By Jacob Parakilas
From armed robots and cyberattacks to grand strategic questions, four things to watch in the new year.
December 23, 2020
The Lesson of 2020? Security Doesn’t Mean What You Think It Does
By Jacob Parakilas
And science and technology will only take us so far when it comes to future threats, conventional or otherwise.
December 15, 2020
Remote Warfare – And How Video Games Might Help Understand It
By Jacob Parakilas
Future operators may also need to be real-time strategy games adepts.
December 08, 2020
How Much Longer Can Space Remain Demilitarized?
By Jacob Parakilas
As access to space becomes easier and space-based assets cheaper, the prospect of demilitarization is bleak.
December 02, 2020
Can Arms Control Make a 21st-Century Comeback?
By Jacob Parakilas
An increasingly fractured international system, along with lack of a meaningful hierarchy of threats, is making prospects of arms control difficult.
November 25, 2020
Europe as a Major Military Power in Asia? Don’t Bet on It
By Jacob Parakilas
Despite symbolic assertions, European countries face fundamental constraints in establishing a larger military footprint in Asia.
November 18, 2020
Swarms of Glory
By Jacob Parakilas
Sooner or later, swarms of autonomous weapons are likely to transform militaries. But how long will they take to transform our relationship to weapons and armed violence?
November 11, 2020
Can an Incoherent Polity Have a Coherent Foreign Policy?
By Jacob Parakilas
Donald Trump’s refusal to concede his loss in the presidential election will not stop Joe Biden from taking office, but it seriously complicates his ability to marshal American authority and power.
November 03, 2020
Fighting Tomorrow’s Wars with Yesterday’s Rifle
By Jacob Parakilas
The basic design of small arms has been stable for decades, even as other warfighting technologies have undergone revolutions. How much longer can that be true?
October 29, 2020
Imagination, Probability, and War
By Jacob Parakilas
Artificial intelligence may help us make sense of large, complex questions, but imagining the future of war needs to remain a fundamentally human exercise.