On 11 June 2025, the PLATFORM WARS project hosted a workshop with Roberto Gonzalez, Professor of Anthropology at San José State University. In a fruitful discussion, we exchanged ideas about the role of Silicon Valley in a transforming US military-industrial complex, in which tech giants like Google or Microsoft and defense tech firms like Palantir and Anduril become increasingly prominent.
Roberto, who has published numerous books and articles on this issue, shared his insights with our team members, providing valuable feedback on their research projects. We discussed, among other things, conceptual differences between Big Tech and defense tech firms, changing procurement in the Pentagon, the business model of the digital platform and its impact on private-military relations, the potential of labor movements in disrupting the disinhibited datafication of warfare, and the interrelations between private sector technology development and questions of international law.
Many thanks to Roberto and Yiokasti Mouratidi, PhD researcher at the Swedish Defense University and Utrecht University, who joined us for the workshop and shared her research plans with us.
