Search: drones
22 Oct Self-Defense and Non-International Armed Conflict in Drone Warfare
...not immune from attack will not remotely be up for discussion, whether on an armed conflict view or an independent self-defense view of targeted killing and drone strikes. I am (still) completing a new essay on the operational roles of drones, a roster of strategic uses, one that leaves aside the legal issues in favor of trying to get an analytic handle on the increasingly variegated uses of drones and targeted killing. It seems to me important for legal analysis because the variations are sufficiently great at this stage that...19 Jul The Space Bar and the Drone
Though I am generally upbeat about the use of drones in military applications, one must recognize design flaws: The Navy’s latest multi-million pound drone has the unfortunate feature of starting to self-destruct if the pilot accidentally presses the space bar on his keyboard …. The Navy are planning to buy hundreds of drones of the MQ-8B Fire Scout, one of which helicopter almost exploded after the drone’s operator accidentally pressed the space bar with a wire from his headset – which launches the self destruct mechanism on the vehicle....22 Jan Council on Foreign Relations Coming Out Against Drone Strikes?
...2nd para. quoted. And drones are just a platform on which certain weaponry can be placed -- and drones may come in increasingly smaller sizes -- like model airplanes, dragonflies. AGW Jordan, I think a good start would be getting the administration to explain how they determine who is a 'militant' (none of this military aged male rubbish), and the legal basis for killing American citizens (or indeed, anyone) outside a zone of armed conflict. I do agree with you though that there is no need for a 'code of...02 Aug Search and Rescue and the Spread of UAVs
Mihai Martoiu Ticu The problem is still that those targeted with drones/robots cannot go to any (international) court and sue US. And the danger lies not only in drones/robots, but other developments as well. CIA invests in technology that monitors the web in real time — and says it uses that information to predict the future. The information one gathers is too great and that means that there are not enough humans to process it and make decisions. More and more of the decision-making will be left to computers. Computers...21 Feb Another Warbot Metaphor: Nanobot Swarms and Regulatory Challenges
...with. But if weaponized drones really do become prevalent in conflicts, such drones can be mass produced, and they are all virtually identical, it seems we have lost one of our comparative advantages. The end result of such a conflict might end up coming down to manufacturing capacity (i.e., which state can produce drones faster). Ok, enough speculative fiction for now. John C. Dehn Chris, Very interesting posts of late! My initial take is that the basic principles of international humanitarian law (IHL) will remain and are timeless. Think of...08 May Harold Koh’s Speech at the Oxford Union
...question should be: “How to End the Forever War?” Our Approach should be what I would call: “Translate, not Black Hole.” And our three-part answer should be: “(1) Disengage from Afghanistan, (2) Close Guantanamo, and (3) Discipline Drones.” This speech is a sort of book-end with former Department of Defense General Counsel Jeh Johnson’s recent speech (also at the Oxford Union) that mentioned there will come a time when we transition from looking at this as an armed conflict against an organized enemy to a counter-terrorism effort against individuals. Koh’s...27 Oct The Washington Post’s Three Article Series on “The Permanent War”
...community, however. Within important parts of the international law community, on the other hand, many of these same practices are seen as contentious and illegal from a law and policy standpoint. Pretty much every aspect of US “counterterrorism-on-offense” is challenged by important parts of the international law community, particularly its advocacy and activist wings. There might be some modest countertrends in the international community, I suppose, particularly when it comes to actual practices. French drones to Mali, for example, or Germany perhaps acquiring weaponized drones. Perhaps just the simple fact...15 Oct BU Law School’s “Ten Years In” Conference
...voice. He offered a blistering critique of COIN (and pretty much every other strategic option as well, including counterterrorism via drones, I should add). I was part of the second panel, on targeted killing and drones. Michael Schmitt of the Naval War College offered a vigorous defense of drones as being essentially like any other weapon system, and on this occasion, at least, it was interesting to see how much agreement there was between him and Human Rights First’s Gabor Rona. For my part, I gave a shortened and simplified...
21 Apr New Article with Lena Trabucco About “Killer Robots” and IHL
A little-known aspect of the war in Ukraine is that both Russia and Ukraine have deployed weapons that are capable of being used fully autonomously: for Russia, Lancet drones; for Ukraine, Punisher drones. Both weapons are capable of being operated semi-autonomously, and it is not clear whether Russia or Ukraine has used them in their fully autonomous mode. But the mere possibility indicates that, like it or not, we are drawing inexorably closer to the day when autonomous weapons systems (AWS) are regular participants in armed conflict. It is quite...23 Mar Proportionality and Autonomous Weapons Systems
...event that the combined attacks would cause fires and cut off all escape routes for civilians. It seems that in the event that multiple AWS are deployed together, as in the example of ‘swarms’ of autonomous drones, the collateral damage that the individual drones cause as individual systems must also be calculated collectively. Thus, an operational level proportionality calculation must also be conducted. This operational proportionality assessment would be based partly on the combined proportionality calculations on a tactical level, as well as other considerations dictating the military advantage on...