Don’t Fear the Reaper An Analysis of the United States’ Drones (original) (raw)

Rise of the Drones: Unmanned Systems and the Future of War

2010

Washington College of Law, American University, Washington DC, and a member of the Hoover Task Force on National Security and Law, The Hoover Institution, Stanford University, Stanford CA. My areas of specialty include the laws of war and armed conflict, international law, and national security law. I have attached a brief biography as an appendix to this statement.

The Role of Drones in Contemporary Warfare

This master degree dissertation thesis examines the role of drones in the contemporary warfare, using the quantitative and interpretative method to analyse the surrounding issues. This thesis provides basic background to the origins of drones and their evolution. Main focus of this thesis is to examine whether the US conduct of those strategies is justifiable and appropriate for the war on terror. Arguing that drones have undergone a severe transformation of capabilities – from surveillance to target killing – and thus there should be change in the military conduct and the use of appropriate strategies. Applying the Just war theory, Beck’s theory of World Risk Society and threat of terrorism.

THE IMPORTANCE OF DRONES IN MODERN WARFARE AND ARMED CONFLICTS

Kutbilim Journal of Social Sciences Vol.1, Issue 2 , 2021

This article analyzes the importance of drones in modern warfare and armed conflicts. It explains how states and non-state actors use drones for various purposes. The United States of America was the first country globally to use drones twenty years ago to eliminate dangerous terrorists. George W. Bush was the first president of USA who used drones for counterterrorism operations in different countries. Drones proved to be very effective tool during the war on terror. If USA used drones only as killing machines for the elimination of terrorists, Azerbaijan was the first country that used them for military purposes in the war against Armenia. The massive usage of drones by the armed forces first took place in the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict in 2020. This conflict often referred to as the "war of drones," demonstrated how effective drones could be in modern warfare if used wisely and rationally. This conflict has shown that even a small state can achieve total air supremacy in the conflict if it uses drones properly and effectively. After the Second Nagorno-Karabakh War, the number of states willing to purchase drones has increased considerably. However, it is also noteworthy that not only states are interested in drones, but also terrorist organizations and aggressive non-state actors. Many terrorist organizations have started to use drones in order to achieve their goals. One of the main challenges that faces states today is to develop effective defense mechanisms to neutralize and eliminate threats coming from drones quickly. The research question of this paper is: how did the usage of drones affected modern warfare and what are the advantages and disadvantages of the massive usage of drones? The main goal of this article is to find out positive and negative sides of the usage of drones in modern warfare. The aim of this article is also to find what threats to do the states face because of the massive usage of drones by the terrorist organizations.

Drone Warfare-A Critical Appraisal

2013

The US-led global war on terror, the US Af-Pak strategy, the phenomenon of terrorism and the employment of predator drones by the US administration in various parts of the world and particularly in Pakistan has drawn criticism on drone warfare. The introduction of armed drones to kill individuals or destroy targets inside other countries' territories has raised various important questions of the rationale, necessity, targeting strategy and mechanism of drone operations. Moreover, the important notions of state sovereignty, monopoly over use of force and territorial integrity have also been put to test by the use of force in the form of armed drones, against individuals inside other states, without the formal declaration of wars. In addition, whether global war on terror is to be conducted and fought inside only a few selected states or anywhere where the terrorists are actually or perceived to be based or not. Lastly, the technological, psychological, moral, social and legal imp...

A strategic, moral, and legal analysis of drone warfare

2013

An analysis of the the use of Unmanned Combat Aerial Vehicles (UCAVs) and Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs), arguing that recent uses of the new technology are untenable on moral, strategic, and legal grounds. Written to 3000 word limit.

Drones and the Future of Armed Conflict

2014

This collection aims to clarify the effects of drones on the conduct of modern warfare. Its editors (all Univ. of Notre Dame) and ten of fourteen contributors work at law and policy-oriented institutions and academic departments, mostly in the United States. Their specific objectives, according to the preface by United Nations Special Rapporteur Cristof Heyns (Univ. of Pretoria), is to enhance precaution standards, suggest a role for the UN, improve monitoring of drone killings, and shed light on state complicity in drone strikes. Though these are global issues, the authors concentrate on US policies and practice in light of ethical norms embodied in international law and just war theory (6). Following Cortright and Fairhurst's chapter 1 overview, "Assessing the Debate on Drone Warfare," the book's other chapters concern three major subjects: the morality of drone warfare; its strategic implications for counterterrorism policy; and its impacts on political accountability, freedom of information, and human rights. In chapter 2, "The Morality of 'Drone Warfare,'" Jennifer Welsh (European Univ. Inst., Florence) proffers an astute analysis of the human dimension of drone killing. She attempts to redefine "combatant" and to assess the difference between killings in war and non-war situations. She criticizes the loose equivalence between "imminence of" and "generally engaged in" terrorist activity. She concludes that drone killing is neither good nor bad in itself and may be a legitimate instrument of war in some circumstances. Martin Cook (US Naval War College), in chapter 3, "Drone Warfare and Military Ethics," addresses the morality of drone killing, through tactical, operational, and strategic "lenses," before turning to international law and grand strategy. He approves of drones as a means to an end, except in the case of "signature" strikes against all fighting age males. Operationally, he believes drone use has been appropriate in Afghanistan, but not always elsewhere. Strategically, drones often do more harm than good to users regardless of their tactical and operational efficacy. Some US attacks on al-Qaeda have conformed to international law, but not, Cook writes, the George W. Bush administration's concept of "anticipatory self-defense" (National Security Strategy of 2002). Since the United States is no longer the sole user of military drones (62), meaningful international standards for their deployment are a pressing need. In chapter 4, "International Law and Drone Attacks beyond Armed Conflict Zones," Mary Ellen O'Connell (Notre Dame School of Law) refutes eight supposed legal justifications of drone killings outside combat zones, arguing notably that appeals to some global war are counterfactual even as to Afghanistan; so a self-defense justification based on such a war fails (65-68). For example, a nation's "consent" to an outsider's intervention because it is "unable or unwilling" to deal with terrorists inside its borders is no legitimate reason for such intervention. Other justifications do not comply with the International Committee of the Red Cross definition of "continuous combat functions." Karen Greenberg (Fordham Univ.), in chapter 5, "Drone Strikes and the Law," exposes legal flaws in US drone policy. Under George W. Bush, "enemy" might denote not just a given nation but also

Mass Surveillance, Drones, and Unconventional Warfare

Behemoth : a Journal on Civilisation, 2015

The article argues that armed drones are weapons made for unconventional warfare and have little value for conventional interstate conflict. The rise of armed drones to prominence has to be considered as an indicator for the changed nature of contemporary armed conflict that has now become focused on countering terrorism, insurgencies, transnational organized crime and fighting ‘hybrid wars’ globally. The US military is preparing for both global counterinsurgency and for civil unrest at home as they are creating a global surveillance architecture reaching from outer space to cyber space, where everything and everybody can be continuously identified, tracked and located. Unmanned systems assist in global surveillance and provide the global reach for intervening in internal conflicts without the need of deploying large ground forces. The new technological capabilities, including drones, biometrics and cyber warfare, are very useful for global manhunts in the context of the ongoing war...

Does the advent of drones mark a fundamental change in the conduct of war

The emergence and development of the Unmanned Arial Vehicles (UAV), generally known as drones has revolutionised the conduct of war. Although the primary purpose of drones was to do surveillance, reconnaissance and intelligence gathering, they were armed to be used as a new military tactic for counterinsurgency campaigns, or the so called the 'War on Terror'. Drone use in warfare has been one of the most controversial issues at international level, with a high scepticism about its legacy and effectiveness. Therefore in order to crystallize the fundamental changes in the warfare brought about since the emergence of drones, this paper would initially consider the historical emergence of drones by answering the questions how, when and why they were invented. Secondly, it would illustrate on the major differences of contemporary drone warfare to pre-modern and modern warfare. Thirdly, it would focus on its strength and weakness in conducting wars as a weapon for targeted killings, and finally it would conclude by assessing the moral, ethical and legal aspects of drones and their future proliferation. The history of drones can be referred back as far as 18th century, during which around 200 pilotless balloons containing bombs were used by Austrians against the city of Venice in 1849. Later on, similar balloons were used in US civil war in 1862 and Spanish-American War in 1898 for the purpose of reconnaissance and bombardment.