Two prominent Western defense think tanks are raising alarms that artificial intelligence is evolving faster than the military and security alliances designed to govern its use in conflict.
According to the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, AI is outpacing NATO's hybrid defense playbook — the set of doctrines and frameworks the alliance relies on to counter threats that blend conventional warfare with cyberattacks, disinformation, and other non-traditional tactics. The concern is that the rules, protocols, and command structures NATO has built were designed for a slower-moving threat environment.
Separately, the Royal United Services Institute (RUSI), a leading British defense research organization, is pushing back on what it calls surface-level coverage of military AI. In a piece titled "Defence AI Beyond the Headlines," RUSI signals that public and policy understanding of how AI is actually being integrated into defense — and where the gaps are — lags well behind the technology itself.
Together, the two analyses point to a growing consensus among Western defense analysts: institutions built through decades of Cold War and post-9/11 doctrine are struggling to adapt quickly enough to AI-driven threats and capabilities.
Hybrid warfare — already difficult to detect and counter — becomes significantly harder to manage when adversaries can deploy AI tools to automate influence operations, accelerate cyberattacks, or process battlefield intelligence faster than human decision-makers can respond.
Why it matters: if NATO's frameworks can't keep pace with AI, the West risks fighting tomorrow's conflicts with yesterday's rulebook.