Drones and the Future of Armed Conflict

Drones and the Future of Armed Conflict PDF Author: David Cortright
Publisher: University of Chicago Press
ISBN: 022647836X
Category : Law
Languages : en
Pages : 308

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Book Description
During the past decade, armed drones have entered the American military arsenal as a core tactic for countering terrorism. When coupled with access to reliable information, they make it possible to deploy lethal force accurately across borders while keeping one’s own soldiers out of harm’s way. The potential to direct force with great precision also offers the possibility of reducing harm to civilians. At the same time, because drones eliminate some of the traditional constraints on the use of force—like the need to gain political support for full mobilization—they lower the threshold for launching military strikes. The development of drone use capacity across dozens of countries increases the need for global standards on the use of these weapons to assure that their deployment is strategically wise and ethically and legally sound. Presenting a robust conversation among leading scholars in the areas of international legal standards, counterterrorism strategy, humanitarian law, and the ethics of force, Drones and the Future of Armed Conflict takes account of current American drone campaigns and the developing legal, ethical, and strategic implications of this new way of warfare. Among the contributions to this volume are a thorough examination of the American government’s legal justifications for the targeting of enemies using drones, an analysis of American drone campaigns’ notable successes and failures, and a discussion of the linked issues of human rights, freedom of information, and government accountability.

Drones and the Future of Armed Conflict

Drones and the Future of Armed Conflict PDF Author: David Cortright
Publisher: University of Chicago Press
ISBN: 022647836X
Category : Law
Languages : en
Pages : 308

Get Book

Book Description
During the past decade, armed drones have entered the American military arsenal as a core tactic for countering terrorism. When coupled with access to reliable information, they make it possible to deploy lethal force accurately across borders while keeping one’s own soldiers out of harm’s way. The potential to direct force with great precision also offers the possibility of reducing harm to civilians. At the same time, because drones eliminate some of the traditional constraints on the use of force—like the need to gain political support for full mobilization—they lower the threshold for launching military strikes. The development of drone use capacity across dozens of countries increases the need for global standards on the use of these weapons to assure that their deployment is strategically wise and ethically and legally sound. Presenting a robust conversation among leading scholars in the areas of international legal standards, counterterrorism strategy, humanitarian law, and the ethics of force, Drones and the Future of Armed Conflict takes account of current American drone campaigns and the developing legal, ethical, and strategic implications of this new way of warfare. Among the contributions to this volume are a thorough examination of the American government’s legal justifications for the targeting of enemies using drones, an analysis of American drone campaigns’ notable successes and failures, and a discussion of the linked issues of human rights, freedom of information, and government accountability.

Drone Warfare

Drone Warfare PDF Author: John Kaag
Publisher: John Wiley & Sons
ISBN: 0745685358
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 200

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Book Description
Choice Outstanding Academic Title for 2015 One of the most significant and controversial developments in contemporary warfare is the use of unmanned aerial vehicles, commonly referred to as drones. In the last decade, US drone strikes have more than doubled and their deployment is transforming the way wars are fought across the globe. But how did drones claim such an important role in modern military planning? And how are they changing military strategy and the ethics of war and peace? What standards might effectively limit their use? Should there even be a limit? Drone warfare is the first book to engage fully with the political, legal, and ethical dimensions of UAVs. In it, political scientist Sarah Kreps and philosopher John Kaag discuss the extraordinary expansion of drone programs from the Cold War to the present day and their so-called 'effectiveness' in conflict zones. Analysing the political implications of drone technology for foreign and domestic policy as well as public opinion, the authors go on to examine the strategic position of the United States - by far the world's most prolific employer of drones - to argue that US military supremacy could be used to enshrine a new set of international agreements and treaties aimed at controlling the use of UAVs in the future.

Drone Wars

Drone Wars PDF Author: Peter L. Bergen
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 1107025567
Category : Law
Languages : en
Pages : 495

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Book Description
Drone Wars presents a diverse and comprehensive interdisciplinary perspective on drones and the current state of the field.

Drones and Global Order

Drones and Global Order PDF Author: Paul Lushenko
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1000528804
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 213

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Book Description
This book explores the implications of drone warfare for the legitimacy of global order. The literature on drone warfare has evolved from studying the proliferation of drones, to measuring their effectiveness, to exploring their legal, moral, and ethical impacts. These "three waves" of scholarship do not, however, address the implications of drone warfare for global order. This book fills the gap by contributing to a "fourth wave" of literature concerned with the trade-offs imposed by drone warfare for global order. The book draws on the "English School" of International Relations Theory, which is premised on the existence of a society of states bounded by common norms, values, and institutions, to argue that drone warfare imposes contradictions on the structural and normative pillars of global order. These consist of the structure of international society and diffusion of military capabilities, as well as the sovereign equality of states and laws of armed conflict. The book presents a typology of contradictions imposed by drone warfare within and across these axes that threaten the legitimacy of global order. This framework also suggests a confounding consequence of drone warfare that scholars have not hitherto explored rigorously: drone warfare can sometimes strengthen global order. The volume concludes by proposing a research agenda to reconcile the complex and often counter-intuitive impacts of drone warfare for global order. This book will be of considerable interest to students of security studies, global governance, and International Relations.

Drones and Support for the Use of Force

Drones and Support for the Use of Force PDF Author: James Igoe Walsh
Publisher: University of Michigan Press
ISBN: 047213101X
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 253

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Book Description
Combat drones are transforming attitudes about the use of military force. Military casualties and the costs of conflict sap public support for war and for political and military leaders. Combat drones offer an unprecedented ability to reduce these costs by increasing accuracy, reducing the risks to civilians, and protecting military personnel from harm. These advantages should make drone strikes more popular than operations involving ground troops. Yet many critics believe drone warfare will make political leaders too willing to authorize wars, weakening constraints on the use of force. Because combat drones are relatively new, these arguments have been based on anecdotes, a handful of public opinion polls, or theoretical speculation. Drones and Support for the Use of Force uses experimental research to analyze the effects of combat drones on Americans’ support for the use of force. The authors’ findings—that drones have had important but nuanced effects on support for the use of force—have implications for democratic control of military action and civil-military relations and provide insight into how the proliferation of military technologies influences foreign policy.

The Drone Wars

The Drone Wars PDF Author: Seth J. Frantzman
Publisher: Bombardier Books
ISBN: 1642936766
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 210

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Book Description
In the battle for the streets of Mosul in Iraq, drones in the hands of ISIS terrorists made life hell for the Iraq army and civilians. Today, defense companies are racing to develop the lasers, microwave weapons, and technology necessary for confronting the next drone threat. Seth J. Frantzman takes the reader from the midnight exercises with Israel’s elite drone warriors, to the CIA headquarters where new drone technology was once adopted in the 1990s to hunt Osama bin Laden. This rapidly expanding technology could be used to target nuclear power plants and pose a threat to civilian airports. In the Middle East, the US used a drone to kill Iranian arch-terrorist Qasem Soleimani, a key Iranian commander. Drones are transforming the battlefield from Syria to Libya and Yemen. For militaries and security agencies—the main users of expensive drones—the UAV market is expanding as well; there were more than 20,000 military drones in use by 2020. Once the province of only a few militaries, drones now being built in Turkey, China, Russia, and smaller countries like Taiwan may be joining the military drone market. It’s big business, too—$100 billion will be spent over the next decade on drones. Militaries may soon be spending more on drones than tanks, much as navies transitioned away from giant vulnerable battleships to more agile ships. The future wars will be fought with drones and won by whoever has the most sophisticated technology.

The Ethics of Drone Strikes

The Ethics of Drone Strikes PDF Author: James Igoe Walsh
Publisher: Department of the Army
ISBN: 9781584877004
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 64

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Book Description
Armed unmanned aerial vehicles--combat drones--have fundamentally altered the ways the United States conducts military operations aimed at countering insurgent and terrorist organizations. Drone technology is on track to become an increasingly important part of the country's arsenal, as numerous unmanned systems are in development and will likely enter service in the future. Concerned citizens, academics, journalists, nongovernmental organizations, and policymakers have raised questions about the ethical consequences of drones and issued calls for their military use to be strictly regulated. This level of concern is evidence that the future of drone warfare not only hinges on technical innovations, but also on careful analysis of the moral and political dimensions of war. The use of UAVs made survey participants more likely to support initiating a war, and this was consistent across four principal policy objectives that were the cause for war: counterterrorism, humanitarian intervention, foreign policy restraint, and internal political change. Military strategists, analysts, American civilians, and drone technology manufacturers may be interested in this study. Students pursuing coursework in military science, technology innovation, and warfare ethics may want a copy of this volume for continued research on this topic. Related products: Rethinking the Drone War: National Security, Legitimacy, and Civilian Casualties in U.S. Counter-terrorism Operations is available here: https: //bookstore.gpo.gov/products/sku/008-000-01213-0 Lethal and Legal? The Ethics of Drone Strikes can be found here: https: //bookstore.gpo.gov/products/sku/008-000-01176-1 Terrorist and Insurgent Unmanned Aerial Vehicles: Use, Potentials, and Military Implications can be found here: https: //bookstore.gpo.gov/products/sku/008-000-01199-1

Armed Drones and Globalization in the Asymmetric War on Terror

Armed Drones and Globalization in the Asymmetric War on Terror PDF Author: Fred Aja Agwu
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1351342576
Category : Law
Languages : en
Pages : 372

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Book Description
This book is a critical exploration of the war on terror from the prism of armed drones and globalization. It is particularly focused on the United States’ use of the drones, and the systemic dysfunctions that globalization has caused to international political economy and national security, creating backlash in which the desirability of globalization is not only increasingly questioned, but the resultant dissension about its desirability appears increasingly militating against the international consensus needed to fight the war on terror. To underline the controversial nature of the war on terror and the pragmatic weapon (armed drones) fashioned for its prosecution, some of the elements of this controversy have been interrogated in this book. They include, amongst others, the doubt over whether the war should have been declared in the first place because terrorist attacks hardly meet the United Nations’ casus belli – an armed attack. There are critics, as highlighted in this book, who believe that the war on terror is not an armed conflict properly so called, and, thus, remains only a law enforcement issue. The United States and all the states taking part in the war on terror are obligated to observe International Humanitarian Law (IHL). It is within this context of IHL that this book appraises the drone as a weapon of engagement, discussing such issues as personality and signature strikes as well as the implications of the deployment of spies as drone strikers rather than the Defence Department, the members of the U.S armed forces. This book will be of value to researchers, academics, policymakers, professionals, and students in the fields of security studies, terrorism, the law of armed conflict, international humanitarian law, and international politics.

One Nation Under Drones

One Nation Under Drones PDF Author: John E Jackson
Publisher: Naval Institute Press
ISBN: 168247240X
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 220

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Book Description
One Nation Under Drones is an interesting and informative review of how robotic and unmanned systems are impacting every aspect of American life, from how we fight our wars; to how we play; to how we grow our food. Edited by Professor John Jackson, who holds the E.A. Sperry Chair of Unmanned and Robotic Systems at the United States Naval War College, this highly readable book features chapters from a dozen experts, researchers, and operators of the sophisticated systems that have become ubiquitous across the nation and around the world. Press reports have focused primarily on Unmanned Aerial Vehicles, officially designated as UAVs, but more often referred to as "drones". This book takes you behind the scenes and describes how Predators, Reapers, Scan Eagles and dozens of other pilotless aircraft have been used to fight the Global War on Terrorism. Although these systems seemed to emerge fully-developed into the skies above America's distant battlefields following the attacks of 9-11-2001, readers will discover how they actually trace their lineage to the First World War, when the "automatic airplane/aerial torpedo", designed and built by the Sperry Gyroscope Company, made its first flight just over a century ago. Unmanned aircraft were used by various combatants in World War II, and took many forms: from converted manned bombers to inter-continental attacks on the American homeland by rice-paper balloons. Technology developed in the latter decades of the 20th century enabled crews stationed thousands of miles away to attack targets on remote battlefields. Such long-range and remote-controlled weapons have been extensively used, but are controversial from both legal and ethical stand-points. Chapters written by international law specialists and drone pilots with advanced education in ethics address these issues from both sides of the argument. The book also details how robotic systems are being used on land, in and below the seas, and in civilian applications such as driverless cars. Three dozen photographs display drones as small as an insect up to those as large as a 737 airliner. One Nation Under Drones covers such a wide array of topics that it will be of interest to everyone from the casual reader seeking to know more about these systems, to national security professionals, both in and out of uniform, who will be making decisions about their procurement and use in decades to come. This work will become the definitive volume on the subject, providing the facts and avoiding the hype about systems that have moved off the pages of science fiction and into the environment all around us.

The Future of Drone Use

The Future of Drone Use PDF Author: Bart Custers
Publisher: Springer
ISBN: 9462651329
Category : Law
Languages : en
Pages : 386

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Book Description
Given the popularity of drones and the fact that they are easy and cheap to buy, it is generally expected that the ubiquity of drones will significantly increase within the next few years. This raises questions as to what is technologically feasible (now and in the future), what is acceptable from an ethical point of view and what is allowed from a legal point of view. Drone technology is to some extent already available and to some extent still in development. The aim and scope of this book is to map the opportunities and threats associated with the use of drones and to discuss the ethical and legal issues of the use of drones. This book provides an overview of current drone technologies and applications and of what to expect in the next few years. The question of how to regulate the use of drones in the future is addressed, by considering conditions and contents of future drone legislation and by analyzing issues surrounding privacy and safeguards that can be taken. As such, this book is valuable to scholars in several disciplines, such as law, ethics, sociology, politics and public administration, as well as to practitioners and others who may be confronted with the use of drones in their work, such as professionals working in the military, law enforcement, disaster management and infrastructure management. Individuals and businesses with a specific interest in drone use may also find in the nineteen contributions contained in this volume unexpected perspectives on this new field of research and innovation. Bart Custers is Associate Professor and Head of Research at eLaw, the Center for Law and Digital Technologies at Leiden University, The Netherlands. He has presented his work at international conferences in the United States, China, Japan, the Middle East and throughout Europe and has published over 80 scientific, professional and popularizing publications, including three books.