Dr Vincent Boulanin

Programme Director

Dr Vincent Boulanin

Vincent Boulanin is Senior Researcher and Director of the Governance of Artificial Intelligence Programme at SIPRI. He leads SIPRI’s research on how to govern the impact of artificial intelligence on international peace and security. He has written extensively on the development, use and control of autonomy in weapon systems and military applications of artificial intelligence. He has briefed the UN Security Council on the impact of emerging technologies on international peace and security and presented several times before the UN Group of Governmental Experts on Emerging Technologies in the Area of Lethal Autonomous Weapons Systems. He has led collaborative projects with international organisations such as the United Nations Office for Disarmament Affairs (UNODA) and the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), Institute for Electronic and Electric Engineers (IEEE). He was appointed high-level expert to the Global Commission on Responsible AI in the military domain in 2024. He is currently co-leading an EU-funded initiative on "Promoting Responsible Innovation in AI for Peace and Security", which focuses on the risks associated with the misuse of civilian AI research and innovation and on responsible innovation as a form of upstream technology governance. He co-hosts of the Responsible AI for Peace Podcast, which is produced by SIPRI and the United Nations Office for Disarmament Affairs. Before joining SIPRI in 2014, he completed a doctorate in Political Science at École des Hautes en Sciences Sociales in Paris.

Subject expertise

Autonomous weapons systems; artificial intelligence and robotics; arms production; defence industry; cybersecurity and surveillance technologies; securitization theory and risk governance; and international political sociology

Regional expertise

Europe, especially France and Sweden

CONTACT Dr Vincent Boulanin

Languages

French, English, Swedish

SIPRI COMMENTARY

Dilemmas in the policy debate on autonomous weapon systems (Topical backgrounder, February 2025 )
Arms production goes cyber: a challenge for arms control (Essay, May 2013 )

SIPRI AND PARTNER PUBLICATIONS

Kim, K. and Boulanin, V., Artificial Intelligence for Climate Security: Possibilities and Challenges (SIPRI, Stockholm: December 2023)
Bo, M., Bruun, L. and Boulanin, V., Retaining Human Responsibility in the Development and Use of Autonomous Weapon Systems: On Accountability for Violations of International Humanitarian Law Involving AWS (SIPRI, Stockholm: October 2022)
Autonomous Weapon Systems and International Humanitarian Law: Identifying Limits and the Required Type and Degree of Human–Machine Interaction (SIPRI, Stockholm: June 2021)
Limits on Autonomy in Weapon Systems: Identifying Practical Elements of Human Control (SIPRI, Stockholm: June 2020)
Artificial Intelligence, Strategic Stability and Nuclear Risk (June 2020)
Boulanin, V., Brockmann, K., and Richards, L., Responsible Artificial Intelligence Research and Innovation for International Peace and Security (SIPRI, Stockholm: November 2020)
Responsible Military Use of Artificial Intelligence: Can the European Union Lead the Way in Developing Best Practice? (SIPRI, Stockholm: November 2020)
Turell, J., Su, F. and Boulanin, V., Cyber-incident Management: Identifying and Dealing with the Risk of Escalation (SIPRI, Stockholm: September 2020)
Brockmann, K., Bauer, S. and Boulanin, V,, Bio Plus X: Arms Control and the Convergence of Biology and Emerging Technologies (SIPRI, Stockholm: March 2019)
The Impact of Artificial Intelligence on Strategic Stability and Nuclear Risk, Volume I, Euro-Atlantic perspectives (May 2019)
SIPRI Compendium on Article 36 Reviews (December 2017)
Article 36 Reviews: Dealing with the Challenges posed by Emerging Technologies (December 2017)
Boulanin, V., Verbruggen, M., Mapping the Development of Autonomy in Weapon Systems (November 2017)
Boulanin, V., Mapping the Development of Autonomy in Weapon Systems: A Primer on Autonomy (December 2016)
Boulanin, V., Mapping the Innovation Ecosystem Driving the Advance of Autonomy in Weapon Systems (December 2016)
Boulanin, V., Mapping the Debate on LAWS at the CCW: Taking Stock and Moving Forward (March 2016)
Boulanin, V., Implementing Article 36 Weapon Reviews in the Light of Increasing Autonomy in Weapon Systems (November 2015) 27 pp.

11. International governance of artificial intelligence, cyberspace and outer space (Chapter, SIPRI Yearbook 2024)
10. Conventional arms control and regulation of new weapon technologies (Chapter, SIPRI Yearbook 2023)
13. Conventional arms control and new weapon technologies (Chapter, SIPRI Yearbook 2020)
9. Global instruments for conventional arms control (Chapter, SIPRI Yearbook 2019)
14. Conventional arms control (Chapter, SIPRI Yearbook 2017)
14. Conventional arms control and military confidence building (Chapter, SIPRI Yearbook 2015)
4. Arms production and military services (Chapter, SIPRI Yearbook 2013)
Appendix 5B. Major arms industry acquisitions, 2010 (Chapter, SIPRI Yearbook 2011)

External publications

Boulanin, V., ‘Risks and benefits of AI-enabled military decision making’, in Lahmann, H. and Geiß, R. (eds), Handbook on Warfare and Artificial Intelligence (Edward Elgar Publishing: Cheltenham, 2024).
Boulanin, V. and Lewis, D. A., ‘Responsible reliance concerning development and use of AI in the military domain’, Ethics and Information Technology, vol. 25, no. 8 (Feb. 2023).
Boulanin, V., ‘Regulating military AI will be difficult. Here’s a way forward’, Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists (Mar. 2021).
Boulanin, V., ‘Mapping the development of autonomy in the military sphere’, Paper presented at the United Nations Convention on Certain Conventional Weapons Informal Meeting of Experts on Lethal Autonomous Weapons Systems, in Geiß, R. (ed.), Lethal Autonomous Weapons Systems: Technology, Definitions, Ethics, Law and Security (Federal Foreign Office of Germany: Berlin, 2016).
Boulanin, V. and Ogilvie-White, T., ‘Cyber threats and nuclear dangers’, CNND Policy Brief, no. 17 (Nov. 2014).
Boulanin, V. and Bellais, R., ‘Toward a high-tech limes on the edges of Europe? Managing the external borders of the European Union’, in Vallet, E. (ed.), Fences, Walls, Borders: State of Insecurity (Ashgate: Farnham, 2014).

RESPONSIBLE AI FOR PEACE PODCAST

‘Responsible AI for Peace Podcast, Episode 10: Center for Responsible AI on the need to train future generation AI practitioners in Responsible AI’, Responsible AI for Peace Podcast (SIPRI and UNODA, 2024). Listen here.
‘Responsible AI for Peace Podcast, Episode 9: Frontier Model Forum on addressing the risk of misuse through red teaming’, Responsible AI for Peace Podcast (SIPRI and UNODA, 2024). Listen here.
‘Responsible AI for Peace Podcast, Episode 8: Google DeepMind on the use of responsible scaling policies and safety frameworks to guide the development and deployment of advanced AI systems’, Responsible AI for Peace Podcast (SIPRI and UNODA, 2024). Listen here.
‘Responsible AI for Peace Podcast, Episode 7: Partnership on AI on how to determine the misuse risks associated with open research and innovation’, Responsible AI for Peace Podcast (SIPRI and UNODA, 2024). Listen here.
‘Responsible AI for Peace Podcast, Episode 6: How to prevent AI from falling into the wrong hands and prevent misuse of AI technology: what states can and cannot do’, Responsible AI for Peace Podcast (SIPRI and UNODA, 2024). Listen here.
‘Responsible AI for Peace Podcast, Episode 5: UN Secretary-General’s Envoy on Technology on preventing misuse of civilian AI: what can the international community do?’, Responsible AI for Peace Podcast (SIPRI and UNODA, 2024). Listen here.
‘Responsible AI for Peace Podcast, Episode 4: Boston Dynamics on how to deal with possible misuse of general-purpose robots’, Responsible AI for Peace Podcast (SIPRI and UNODA, 2024). Listen here.
‘Responsible AI for Peace Podcast, Episode 3: Eleonore Pauwels on the dark side of AI for medicine, pharmacology and bioengineering’, Responsible AI for Peace Podcast (SIPRI and UNODA, 2024). Listen here.
‘Responsible AI for Peace Podcast, Episode 2: Emily Bender on the risks of large language models and generative AI’, Responsible AI for Peace Podcast (SIPRI and UNODA, 2024). Listen here.
‘Responsible AI for Peace Podcast, Episode 1: Not so peaceful technology? What risks may civilian AI pose to peace and security?’, Responsible AI for Peace Podcast (SIPRI and UNODA, 2024). Listen here.