Drones and the future of armed conflict : ethical, legal, and strategic implications / [edited by] David Cortright, Rachel Fairhurst, and Kristen Wall.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Preface: coming to terms with drones -- Assessing the debate on drone warfare -- The morality of "drone warfare" -- Drone warfare and military ethics -- International law and drone attacks beyond armed conflict zones -- Drone strikes and the law: from Bush-era detention to Obama-era -- Targeted killing -- Justifying the right to kill: problems of law, transparency, and accountability -- The strategic implications of targeted drone strikes for US global counterterrorism -- Security implications of drones in warfare -- Winning without war: evaluating military and nonmilitary strategies for countering terrorism -- Targeted killings and secret law: drones and the atrophy of political restraints on war power -- Understanding the gulf between public and US government estimates of civilian casualties in covert drone strikes -- The myth of precision: human rights, drones, and the case of Pakistan -- Conclusion: the future of drone warfare: research challenges and policy options.

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.

Print version record.

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