Editorial Note
Mass-producing autonomous weapons could trigger “flash wars,” rapidly escalate conflicts and, exacerbate the unpredictability of AI weapons systems.
Mohsen Fakhrizadeh lived in the shadows. He was a nondescript professor of nuclear physics at Imam Hussein University in Tehran. He was dour and humourless, with almost no public appearances, either in academia or the media. However, in the West, his name consistently featured in highly classified documents of the International Atomic Energy Agency. Every confidential file related to Iran’s nuclear activities — such as project AMAD, Iran’s nuclear program, S.P.N.D (the Organisation of Defence Innovation and Research), and the Green Salt Project, which was associated with uranium production and enrichment — bore his signature.