What we're reading: November 2025
This month at the Defence Research Network, we’ve been examining how defence organisations can move from AI hype to real capability, and how the war in Ukraine is reshaping the legal and political foundations of the international order.
Show Me Don’t Tell Me: Lessons from Defence AI by Darrell Jaya Ratnam explores how militaries can move beyond hype and unrealistic expectations by learning directly from practitioners who have designed and deployed real AI systems, revealing what trustworthy, ethical and effective adoption actually requires. Meanwhile, Ukraine and the Legal Accountability of Russia: The Emergence of a New Global Order, edited by Yvonne Dutton, Michael P. Scharf, Milena Sterio and Paul R. Williams, examines how the war in Ukraine has transformed international law, from revived UN mechanisms to new investigative bodies and renewed approaches to accountability. Together, these books show how technological change and geopolitical upheaval are reshaping defence and global order in tandem.
Show Me Don't Tell Me: Lessons From Defence AI
By Darrell Jaya Ratnam
This new book explores how defence can cut through the hype surrounding AI by learning directly from those who have built and implemented real systems. It explains what AI actually is, how trust and ethics shape military adoption, and how practical development unfolds from concept to deployment. By highlighting lessons from genuine defence use cases, it shows how to avoid overpromising, overspending and underdelivering, ensuring AI provides real military advantage.
Ukraine and the Legal Accountability of Russia: The Emergence of a New Global Order
By Yvonne Dutton, Michael P. Scharf, Milena Sterio, Paul R. Williams
This new book examines how Russia’s 2022 invasion of Ukraine has reshaped international law, reviving the UN’s Uniting for Peace mechanism and pushing the International Criminal Court to the forefront of global politics. It explores the creation of new investigative bodies and tribunals, innovative approaches to war reparations, the crime of aggression and environmental harm, arguing that the conflict has revealed the surprising relevance, adaptability and resilience of modern international law.
