Sense, Sense-making and the Changing Character of Warfare

Abstract Contemporary warfare is increasingly shaped by dense networks of sensors, data infrastructures, automated systems, and artificial intelligence that not only collect information but actively interpret it. This paper argues that the delegation of sensing and sense-making from humans to machines represents a fundamental transformation in the character, and potentially the nature, of war. Rather than treating digital systems as neutral enablers, the paper conceptualises them as political actors that structure perception, distribute agency, and condition authority on the battlefield. Drawing on Ruth Miller’s theory of mechanical constitutionalism, it advances the claim that digital networks function as constitutional infrastructures: they define what can be seen, known, and acted upon in war. The paper shows how moments of breakdown, such as electronic warfare, cyber interference, or AI misclassification, operate as sites of constitutional disclosure, revealing the hidden rules and power relations embedded within digital military systems. These failures expose the redistribution of agency across human–machine assemblages and generate new forms of strategic vulnerability. By engaging Clausewitzian concepts of friction, will, and the duel, the paper demonstrates how digital sensing and sense-making reconfigure foundational assumptions about control, responsibility, and political judgement in warfare. Ultimately, it contends that understanding contemporary war requires rethinking sense-making itself as a constitutional process increasingly shaped by machines.