How smartphones are changing the reality of war

In a new book, Matthew Ford reveals how smartphones are reshaping modern war.
"This raises serious questions for those countries preparing to mobilise their societies for total defence", he says.

Thanks to smartphones, war is ever-present, carried in our pockets, shared on social media, and replayed on screens across the globe. In War in the Smartphone Age, Matthew Ford, Senior Lecturer in war studies at the Swedish Defence University, argues that what we see on our phones not only shapes how war is understood, but also how it is fought.

“Smartphones are potential weapons. They blur the boundaries between war and daily life,” says Ford. “Apps and platforms don’t just tell the story of conflict, they can directly shape military operations.”

Smartphones as weapons

From Lebanon, where Hezbollah feared smartphones were being used for surveillance, to Ukraine, where citizens report Russian troop movements via the eVorog app, Ford shows how digital connectivity has turned ordinary people into participants on a “digitally mediated battlefield.”

“If civilians contribute to targeting, do they lose their protection under the laws of war? What responsibilities fall to app developers, whose platforms may be repurposed for combat?” Ford asks.

Challenging narratives

Ford also critiques the way viral images and memes, which is common for example in Ukraine, frame public understanding.

“Pictures of Russian tanks towed by Ukrainian tractors foster optimism and boost morale. But they risk obscuring the brutal realities of attritional conflict,” he says.

A wake-up call for the future

Building on his earlier collaboration with Andrew Hoskins in Radical War, Ford now goes further, showing how digital technologies influence not just representation, but the conduct of war itself.

“War is still about tanks, bombs and trenches. But there is now a digital overlay that changes how it is experienced, understood, and fought,” says Ford.

War in the Smartphone Age raises urgent questions for governments, militaries and societies alike: how should civilian-generated intelligence be used? How do tech giants act as geopolitical players? And how can policymakers navigate a chaotic, fast-moving digital information environment?