The Morality of Drone Warfare and the Politics of Regulation PDF
Preview The Morality of Drone Warfare and the Politics of Regulation
MARCUS SCHULZKE THE MORALITY OF DRONEWARFARE AND THE POLITICS OF REGULATION New Security Challenges New Security Challenges Series Editor Stuart Croft Professor of International Security Department of Politics and International Studies University of Warwick, UK and Director of the ESRC’s New Security Challenges Programme Aim of the Series The last decade has demonstrated that threats to security vary greatly in their causes and manifestations and that they invite interest and demand responses from the social sciences, civil society, and a very broad policy community. In the past, the avoidance of war was the primary objective, but with the end of the Cold War the retention of military defence as the centrepiece of international security agenda became untenable. There has been, therefore, a signifi cant shift in emphasis away from traditional approaches to security to a new agenda that talks of the softer side of security, in terms of human security, economic security, and environmental security. The topical N ew Security Challenges series refl ects this pressing political and research agenda. More information about this series at http://www.springer.com/series/14732 Marcus Schulzke The Morality of Drone Warfare and the Politics of Regulation Marcus Schulzke University of York United Kingdom New Security Challenges ISBN 978-1-137-53379-1 ISBN 978-1-137-53380-7 (eBook) DOI 10.1057/978-1-137-53380-7 Library of Congress Control Number: 2016946990 © The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s) 2 017 The author(s) has/have asserted their right(s) to be identifi ed as the author(s) of this work in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988. This work is subject to copyright. All rights are solely and exclusively licensed by the Publisher, whether the whole or part of the material is concerned, specifi cally the rights of translation, reprinting, reuse of illustrations, recitation, broadcasting, reproduction on microfi lms or in any other physical way, and transmission or information storage and retrieval, electronic adaptation, computer software, or by similar or dissimilar methodology now known or hereafter developed. The use of general descriptive names, registered names, , trademarks, service marks, etc. in this publication does not imply, even in the absence of a specifi c statement, that such names are exempt from the relevant protective laws and regulations and therefore free for general use. The publisher, the authors and the editors are safe to assume that the advice and information in this book are believed to be true and accurate at the date of publication. Neither the pub- lisher nor the authors or the editors give a warranty, express or implied, with respect to the material contained herein or for any errors or omissions that may have been made. Cover image © US Air Force Photo / Alamy Stock Photo Printed on acid-free paper This Palgrave Macmillan imprint is published by Springer Nature The registered company is Macmillan Publishers Ltd. London Dedication To my parents, Rein and Pam. A CKNOWLEDGMENTS I am very grateful for the love and support from my family: Amanda, Ember, and Panda. I would not have been able to write this book without their support. My thinking about drones was infl uenced by my work with Jim Walsh. I am thankful for having the opportunity to work with him on related projects and for the many discussions we have had about the political and moral implications of drone warfare. Thanks to the anonymous reviewers for excellent comments that helped to strengthen the manuscript. Finally, I appreciate all of the assistance I received from the editors and production staff at Palgrave, especially Rosalind Bown and Samantha Snedden. vii C ONTENTS 1 Introduction 1 2 The Drone Revolution 2 7 3 The Moral Landscape of Drone Warfare 5 5 4 Evaluating Drones with J us ad bellum 7 9 5 Drones and the Principles of J us in Bello 1 17 6 Evaluating Autonomous Drones 1 49 7 The Politics of Drone Warfare: Enacting Restrictions Based on J us ad Bellum 173 8 Promoting Justifi able Drone Attacks i n Bello 199 9 Conclusion 2 21 Index 225 ix CHAPTER 1 Introduction The world is in the midst of a revolutionary shift in warfare that will have profound implications for the future of international security. It is a tran- sition away from traditional forms of combat that require humans to be physically present on the battlefi eld and toward a new mode of fi ghting that mobilizes drones as intermediaries between human opponents. Drones, which I will defi ne as machines that serve as remotely piloted or autono- mous proxies for human soldiers and manned vehicles, give armed forces unprecedented capacities for managing the risks associated with war. Drone operators fi ght without being personally exposed to the myriad hazards of the battlefi eld, and they gain greater control over when and how civilians and enemy combatants are attacked or spared. This, combined with their relatively low cost, precision, and the powerful political incentives that make drones attractive to policymakers, ensures that drones will be one of the defi ning instruments of war in the twenty-fi rst century. Although drones have existed for decades and were deployed in previ- ous wars, they were unable to take over the same roles as human combat- ants. During the Second World War and in the early years of the Cold War, unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) primarily served as targets for manned aircraft and anti-aircraft guns during training. 1 Remote-controlled devices that were meant to be used in combat, like the Goliath tracked mine that could be steered toward enemy vehicles and detonated, were u nreliable and typically operated at relatively short ranges. Over the following © The Author(s) 2017 1 M. Schulzke, The Morality of Drone Warfare and the Politics of Regulation, New Security Challenges, DOI 10.1057/978-1-137-53380-7_1 2 M. SCHULZKE decades, remote warfare was generally limited to single-use weapons, such as cruise missiles, homing torpedoes, and laser-guided bombs, which could strike from a distance, but without taking over roles performed by human combatants. It is only recently that satellite communications, global positioning systems (GPS), advanced optics, and artifi cial intel- ligence have enabled machines to operate as human proxies in combat roles. With these technologies in place and new advancements in artifi cial intelligence approaching, it is now possible to imagine a future of war in which humans are gradually replaced by machines. The prospect of drones altering the conduct of war is evident from the UAVs, and in particular the MQ-1 Predator and MQ-9 Reaper unmanned combat aerial vehicles (UCAVs), that rose to prominence during the US War on Terror. Between 2001 and 2015, UCAVs were used to carry out over 500 targeted killings of suspected terrorists and insurgents in Pakistan, Yemen, and Somalia, as well as thousands of other reconnais- sance and ground support operations in Iraq and Afghanistan. 2 Unarmed surveillance UAVs like the Global Hawk have likewise earned notoriety as new instruments in the US government’s enormous and rapidly expand- ing intelligence gathering apparatus. And these are only the examples that are publicly available. The crash of a RQ-170 drone in 2011 provides clear evidence that drones are involved in covert surveillance missions and indicates that the true extent of drone operations remains unknowable by the general public. Although UAVs are the most visible unmanned weapons platforms in the US military’s arsenal, they are far from unique. Drones are being cre- ated to carry out myriad dangerous missions. For Coalition soldiers in Iraq and Afghanistan, bomb disposal drones like the PackBot were one of the most effective countermeasures against improvised explosive devices (IEDs). Soldiers also relied on short-range tactical UAVs like the RQ-11 Raven and the ScanEagle to conduct reconnaissance. Although they were not sent into combat, the US military had SWORDS unmanned ground vehicles (UGVs) stationed in Iraq and poised to take part in ground com- bat. Small UGVs like the Dragon Runner were used for unarmed recon- naissance in urban areas, thereby providing a model for how armed UGVs could operate alongside human soldiers in future ground operations. The drones that will enter military service in the future could be even more revolutionary. US Defense Department research projects continually present ambitious new visions of the future of robotic warfare, with plans to create more sophisticated UAVs and UGVs, smaller machines that can
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