Militaries are now turning to digital technologies to help level the playing field between male and female soldiers, as well as mitigate discrimination based on race and ethnicity. In the United Kingdom, the Ministry of Defence strategy Future Soldier, which sets out an ambitious plan to modernise the British Army over the next 20 years, foregrounds bio- and digital technologies as enablers of diversity and inclusion. This initiative coincides with an impetus among NATO states to harness digital technologies that enhance interoperability and improve operational advantage as part of rapidly evolving war-readiness efforts.
Advancing military readiness through technology
In July this year, the UK announced that British infantry soldiers were testing new body-worn technologies that they foresee will shape the next generation ‘digitally connected soldier’. These body-worn systems include drone thermal detection, ground sensors to identify and detect enemy movement, and laser detection systems to help warn if enemies are targeting personnel. Meanwhile, the US allocated a record $145 billion for research and development in 2024, focusing on advancements like human-machine warfare and ground robots. As early as 2021, it outlined a vision to develop biomedically enhanced technologies and optogenetics, aiming to create ‘superhuman’ cyborg soldiers by 2050.
Breaking stereotypes: Technology and inclusion in the military
Technology has long been associated with the heroic, hyper-masculine male warrior and soldier, as iconised in western popular culture by the film franchise Terminator and in more recent sci-fi/action movies such as The Drone Wars (2016) and Bloodshot (2020). So, it came as a surprise that digital technologies could somehow be used in the UK to help integrate women into the British Armed Forces and facilitate equality and diversity in the military workforce.
The rationale driving the British Armed Force’s approach to cultural change is that all combat soldiers, regardless of their sex, gender, sexuality, and heritage, should be recruited and trained to the same professional standards and should, therefore, be equal in ability and skills. Previously, military technologies were associated with heavy equipment and weapons that only men could operate. In contrast, digital tools like body-worn technologies, drones, and smartphones can be used by anyone, though they demand different cognitive abilities.
Representation in recruitment campaigns: Shaping modern military perceptions
The idea that digital technologies can help achieve gender equality and diversity is showcased in British Army recruitment adverts. In one advert, an androgenous humanoid robot sprints through a baron rural landscape, before scanning the area with green lasers projecting from its mechanical eyes. The humanoid robot morphs into a woman of colour in British army uniform – the digitally connected combat soldier – who extends her hand to release a micro-drone.
A voiceover remarks: “Technology will help us do incredible things, but nothing can do what a soldier can do.” These campaigns aim to move beyond the stereotypical image of the hypermasculine, physically dominant white male soldier. This shift raises an important question: how do white British infantrymen perceive their own relationships with technology, and how does this influence their understanding of militarized masculinity?
Research findings: Deployment and cyborg soldier identities
In 2020-21, I interviewed 16 soldiers, including two women who were among the first female infantry to deploy since the UK lifted its ban on women in ground close combat roles, as they prepared for deployment to United Nations Multidimensional Integrated Stabilization Mission in Mali (MINUSMA) in West Africa. I re-interviewed the combat soldiers on their return.
Pre-deployment dynamics
My research findings show that prior to their deployment, the British Army’s concept of the androgynous, seemingly a-racial cyborg soldier offers emancipatory potential for individuals who do not conform to traditional hegemonic masculine ideals. This inclusive identity enabled women and men from marginalized groups to gain acceptance in traditionally white male-dominated infantry regiments and combat units. The white men interviewed felt comfortable that the women they were deploying with had the same skills and abilities required of the infantry. Yet the cyborg soldier figuration also provided white infantrymen with a language and syntax to articulate institutional acceptance of white women and people of colour without risking disrupting their own sense of self and militarised masculinity.
The reality of deployment and biases under stress
However, the stresses of deploying to a high-risk and difficult UN peace operation posed significant challenges to the infantrymen’s sense of masculinity. White British men responded to these pressures in two main ways. First, they used semiotic strategies and gaming syntax to make sense of their experiences. The men conceptualized themselves as avatars in a computer game, creating psychological distance from the local Malian population, and positioning themselves as detached operators rather than embodied actors.
Second, the men subtly redefined the cyborg soldier figuration to suggest that it existed on an ‘organism-machine’ spectrum. Female soldiers were still cyborg soldiers but existed closer to organisms on the spectrum, while the men described themselves as more machine and, therefore, different from their female colleagues. This ‘engendering’ of the cyborg soldier figure allowed the men to reinforce hegemonic militarized masculinity while avoiding overt resistance to the British Army commitments to gender equality, diversity and anti-racism.
Post-deployment reconstruction
The six-month deployment itself was gruelling, with extreme temperatures of up to 50°C and the physical burden of 25 kilograms of gear. Soldiers consumed as much as 12 litres of water daily to stave off dehydration, but they struggled with heat exhaustion, poor hygiene and the risk of bacterial infections. Sleep deprivation compounded these challenges, undermining their sense of physical and mental strength. Comparisons to Christian Bale’s emaciated character in the film The Machinist reflected fears of losing their physical and mental strength and in turn, their militarised masculinity.
Psychological stress intensified as soldiers faced countersurveillance, knowing Islamic State fighters observed them. The resulting paranoia was described as a slow, sinister video game, reversing their role as dominant watchers. Amid these challenges, the peacekeeping operation was described by some men as a ‘masculine mission’, unbefitting women.
This suggests that the British Army’s efforts to use digital technologies to level the playing field between men and women in ground combat roles was effective until the men were faced with the harsh realities of deploying. At that point, unconscious biases took over for some men who began to regard women as mentally and physically weaker than them. Post-deployment, the male soldiers used social media and shared memories to reconstruct their militarized masculinity, portraying themselves as stronger, more experienced cyborg soldiers.
Moving forward, militaries should step up efforts to reduce unconscious biases within their workforces, for example, by providing enhanced training to help soldiers understand and recognise their biases and to foster bias-free decision-making, especially during deployments overseas. Military leaders should also continually review policies and practices to ensure that inequalities and subtle forms of discrimination that marginalise women and men who do not share all of the characteristics required of the ideal militarised masculinity are mitigated.
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Journal reference
Holmes, G. (2024). Digital peacekeeping, cyborg soldiers and militarised masculinities: a posthuman critique. Peacebuilding, 1-19. https://doi.org/10.1080/21647259.2024.2384203
