Western allies need to develop a framework for data collection and information-sharing on a grand scale in order to maintain military preeminence in the 21st century, according to a top NATO commander.
“If we want again to win tomorrow, we will need this large, massive collection of data,” French Gen. Andre Lanata, one of the transatlantic alliance’s two strategic commanders, told the Washington Examiner. “So how do we set the conditions which will enable these nations to work together?”
That is a “key question” for Lanata, who has led Allied Command Transformation since 2018 and is overseeing NATO’s Emerging and Disruptive Technologies road map. Next-generation wireless technology and bulk data collection have brought technologies once reserved for science fiction into the realms of possibility, grand strategy, and national security.
“I’m convinced that the more data we will have, the more powerful [we] will be in this digital era,” Lanata said during an exclusive interview in Washington. “New algorithms in the artificial intelligence area are nothing if we do not have the right data — are nothing if we do not have the ability to share this data and to collect them massively, and so on and so on.”
That idea underpins Lanata’s effort to develop a road map for how to collect and share data within the 29-nation bloc that composes the transatlantic alliance. Lanata, emphasizing that “data will be the fuel of tomorrow,” acknowledged that but said the successful development of these systems will require Western governments to rectify the need for “massive” data collection and privacy rights.
“The last question is that we will face, probably, some ethical questions regarding … your data and everybody’s data,” he said. “And of course, as we are respecting individual liberties and so on, this is something where we probably touch very quickly if we collect, massively, open data.”
The general recognizes that sharing information between governments “is always sensitive at the political level,” he said. But he does not think that Western powers have the luxury of renouncing data collection as civilian companies around the world make breakthroughs in robotics, artificial intelligence, and other systems that could be used by private and military entities alike.
“This proliferation of technology also offers our adversaries greater capabilities to challenge the alliance technologically, militarily, and therefore politically,” he told the NATO-Industry Forum in November.
Russian President Vladimir Putin predicted that the winner of the race to develop artificial intelligence will “rule the world.” Lanata’s emphasis on the interdependence of these new technologies raises the possibility that China’s authoritarian system could offer an advantage over the West. Beijing’s high-tech surveillance state allows the regime to control the data of more than 1.3 billion people while Chinese officials compel pioneering next-generation wireless technology companies to collaborate with military and intelligence services.
“I recognize the challenge,” Lanata said. “China’s system seems, to me, much more integrated than ours.”
NATO officials nonetheless project confidence about the West’s ability to overcome such apparent disadvantages, trusting that “open societies … where people are free to think” will outstrip any authoritarian system, as NATO Deputy Secretary General Mircea Geoana put it last week.
Lanata isn’t sure yet how the policies governing data collection and sharing will take shape, as the subject is still under review.
“It’s more a question for me first of data standards, data policy, which will enable the nations to connect their tools in order to operate at 29,” he said. “I’m sure that we will succeed, but the key question to succeed will be our ability to adapt to this new environment.”
