Military Drones

Drone warfare represents one of the most pressing moral and political problems of contemporary military ethics. Since the beginning of the American drone program in the late twentieth century, drone technologies have been used to conduct remote extrajudicial assassinations, to violate national sovereignty, and to conduct intrusive surveillance in contravention of international human rights norms, among other controversial uses. Today, military drones are used by dozens of military forces. As such, these technologies pose urgent questions which problematize well-established ways of thinking about central aspects of the ethics of warfare, such as justice, sovereignty, battlefield trauma, the political and physical limits of conflict, and, perhaps most prominently of all, the legitimacy of military violence. Though some of these concerns are well-worn, their central role in – and reconfiguration by – drone warfare means that they deserve serious reconsideration.

Drone warfare represents one of the most pressing moral and political problems of contemporary military ethics. Since the beginning of the American drone program in the late twentieth century, drone technologies have been used to conduct remote extrajudicial assassinations, to violate national sovereignty, and to conduct intrusive surveillance in contravention of international human rights norms, among other controversial uses. Today, military drones are used by dozens of military forces. As such, these technologies pose urgent questions which problematize well-established ways of thinking about central aspects of the ethics of warfare, such as justice, sovereignty, battlefield trauma, the political and physical limits of conflict, and, perhaps most prominently of all, the legitimacy of military violence. Though some of these concerns are well-worn, their central role in – and reconfiguration by – drone warfare means that they deserve serious reconsideration.