Just & Unjust Targeted Killing & Drone Warfare

Daedalus ◽  
2016 ◽  
Vol 145 (4) ◽  
pp. 12-24 ◽  
Author(s):  
Michael Walzer
Keyword(s):  
Decision Process ◽  
War On Terror ◽  
Public Debate ◽  
Targeted Killing ◽  
American Experience ◽  
Political Costs ◽  
Drone Warfare ◽  
Opening Up

Targeted killing in the “war on terror” and in war generally is subject to familiar and severe moral constraints. The constraints hold across the board; they don't change when drones are the weapon of choice. But the ease with which drones can be used, the relative absence of military risks and political costs, makes it especially tempting not only to use drones more and more, but also to relax the constraining rules under which they are used. It seems clear that the rules have, in fact, been relaxed in the course of the American experience with drone warfare – by presidential decision and without public debate. This essay is an argument for the opening up of the decision process to democratic scrutiny and in defense of the familiar constraints.

scholarly journals Extraordinary Measures: Drone Warfare, Securitization, and the “War on Terror”

2015 ◽  
Vol 15 (3) ◽  
pp. 221-245
Author(s):  
Scott Nicholas Romaniuk ◽  
Stewart Tristan Webb
Keyword(s):  
Unmanned Aerial Vehicles ◽  
War On Terror ◽  
Use Of Force ◽  
The United States ◽  
Targeted Killing ◽  
The Us ◽  
Security Label ◽  
Global Terrorism ◽  
Drone Warfare ◽  
Counterterrorism Policy

Abstract The use of unmanned aerial vehicles or “drones,” as part of the United States’ (US) targeted killing (TK) program dramatically increased after the War on Terror (WoT) was declared. With the ambiguous nature and parameters of the WoT, and stemming from the postulation of numerous low-level, niche-, and other securitizations producing a monolithic threat, US drone operations now constitute a vital stitch in the extensive fabric of US counterterrorism policy. This article employs the theories of securitization and macrosecuritization as discussed by Buzan (1991, 2006), and Buzan and Wæver (2009) to understand targeted killing, by means of weaponized drones, as an extraordinary measure according to the Copenhagen School’s interpretation. An overarching securitization and the use of the “security” label warrants the emergency action of targeted killing through the use of drones as an extraordinary measure. We argue that the WoT serves as a means of securitizing global terrorism as a threat significant enough to warrant the use of drone warfare as an extraordinary use of force. By accepting the WoT as a securitization process we can reasonably accept that the US’ response(s) against that threat are also securitized and therefore become extraordinary measures.

Representing Transnational Law: Drone Warfare and Transnational Legal Text

2021 ◽  
pp. 1068-1090
Author(s):  
Jothie Rajah
Keyword(s):  
Entertainment Media ◽  
Targeted Killing ◽  
Legal Text ◽  
Transnational Law ◽  
Drone Strikes ◽  
State Actors ◽  
Drone Warfare ◽  
British State ◽  
Fictional Representations

What can entertainment media tell us about a contemporary concept of law that is being transnationalized, and why should scholars pay attention to ostensibly fictional representations of law in transnational contexts? In this chapter, I consider representations of transnational law through an analysis of Gavin Hood’s 2016 film on drone warfare, Eye in the Sky (Eye). Eye is driven by a compelling narrative tension: a child is likely to be harmed if a missile is launched at a room occupied by terrorists loading suicide vests with explosives. But if this child is not risked (sacrificed?) and the terrorists conduct their suicide mission, a minimum of eighty civilian deaths is the probable result. With lives at stake, we watch a transnational alliance of American and British state actors debate law, the rules governing drone strikes, and accountability to publics, as the decision is made to conduct the targeted killing. Dramatizing questions of law in relation to the secretive workings of drone warfare, Eye offers a valuable representation of how a very specific account of law as security is being transnationalized.

Technology of Control and Control of Technology in Brian K. Vaughan’s Ex Machina

2018 ◽  
Vol 4 (58) ◽  
pp. 70-79
Author(s):  
Anna Oleszczuk
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
War On Terror ◽  
Civil Liberties ◽  
Overwhelming Majority ◽  
Domestic Security ◽  
Drone Warfare ◽  
And Control ◽  
Political Governance ◽  
Good And Evil

In the classic era of American comics, the overwhelming majority of superhero stories focused on the straightforward struggle between good and evil, with superheroes embodying the positive values such as justice, order, or patriotism. However, with time both the stories and the characters started to transform. By the end of the 1980s, new, darker series expressing distrust of political governance and all forms of authority started to emerge. In the aftermath of 9/11, this skepticism has found new fuel in a range of policies and actions collectively known as the War on Terror. The paper analyzes Brian K. Vaughan’s Ex Machina (2004-2010) focusing especially on the series’ exploration of domestic security in the post-9/11 United States. The author links the protagonist’s superpower, the ability to communicate with the machines, to the developments in surveillance and drone warfare and investigates the comic’s reflections of such major concerns related to America’s surveillance and security as the constraints on civil liberties

No Blank Check

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Marcus Müller
Keyword(s):  
War On Terror ◽  
Data Set ◽  
Party Leaders ◽  
Congressional Debates ◽  
Us Congress ◽  
The Us ◽  
Legislative Branch ◽  
Drone Warfare ◽  
Counterterrorism Policy

Much of the academic debate surrounding the War on Terror focuses on presidential power after 9/11. In this context, the role of the US Congress in directing the outcome of national security policies is often overlooked. This book illustrates how Congress played a key role in the War on Terror during Barack Obama’s presidency. Instead of arguing that Congress was a compliant bystander and incapable of making successful counterterrorism policy, the legislative branch did more than hand the president a blank check. In using an innovative data set on congressional debates and policymaking, the book shows that the interaction between congressional entrepreneurs and senior committee/party leaders determined the outcome of controversial policies, including drone warfare, Guantanamo and the NSA’s mass surveillance activities.

Counter-Terrorism and Its Ethical Hazards

2021 ◽  
pp. 149-175
Author(s):  
C. A. J. Coady
Keyword(s):  
Civil Rights ◽  
War On Terror ◽  
Targeted Killing ◽  
Ethical Problems ◽  
Counter Terrorism ◽  
State Terrorism ◽  
Regulatory Measures

Chapter 7 discusses ethical problems faced by contemporary counter-terrorism measures. The discussion is primarily focused on reactions of states to sub-state terrorism broadly understood. There is an initial discussion of whether, and in what circumstances, terrorists should be treated as combatants or criminals and the bearing of this upon military and non-military forms of counter-terrorism. Problems with military responses connected with the inflammatory slogan “the war on terror,” including “targeted killing,” are also discussed. Thereafter, the chapter deals mostly with non-military responses and their moral and political hazards. These are examined under the three categories of: (1) legal and regulatory measures; (2) diplomatic measures; and (3) measures to remove the grievance. Under (1), difficulties connected with legal definitions of terrorism, and their tendency to promote abuses of civil rights, are explored; under (2) and (3) the path of political diplomacy is supported, but obstacles to its success in practice are discussed.

The emergence of lethal surveillance: Watching and killing in the history of drone technology

2016 ◽  
Vol 47 (3) ◽  
pp. 223-238 ◽  
Author(s):  
Katharine Hall Kindervater
Keyword(s):  
Cold War ◽  
Knowledge Production ◽  
Early Years ◽  
Archival Research ◽  
Targeted Killing ◽  
Life And Death ◽  
History Of ◽  
Drone Warfare ◽  
The Cold War ◽  
And Control

This article examines the history of the development of drone technology to understand the longer histories of surveillance and targeting that shape contemporary drone warfare. Drawing on archival research, the article focuses on three periods in the history of the drone: the early years during World Wars I and II, the Cold War, and the 1990s. The history of the drone reveals two key trends in Western warfare: the increasing importance of intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance (ISR) and the development of dynamic targeting. These trends converge today in a practice of lethal surveillance where ISR capabilities are directly linked to targeted killing, effectively merging mechanisms of surveillance and knowledge production with decisions on life and death. Taking this history of lethal surveillance into account not only reframes current debates on drone warfare, but also connects the drone to other practices of security and control.

scholarly journals The latest casualty: Phillip Knightley and media failure

2003 ◽  
Vol 9 (1) ◽  
pp. 22-25
Author(s):  
Louise Matthews
Keyword(s):  
World War Ii ◽  
New Zealand ◽  
Civil Rights ◽  
News Media ◽  
War On Terror ◽  
Public Debate ◽  
World War ◽  
The Press

He covers the coverage of wars and the fine borderline that journalists might cross to become propaganda merchants: World War II, Vietnam, The Gulf, Kosovo, to name a few, and now the ‘War on Terror’. And the performance so far of the news media in this latest one has left Phillip Knightley, author of The First Casualty, underwhelmed: civil rights down the drain, public debate and dissent stifled, the news media hardly batting an eyelid. ‘Well, the press in Britain, Australia, and probably New Zealand, did a better job than their American counterparts,’ he sighs, ‘but that’s not saying much.’

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