In association with the International Commission of Jurists

Search: drones

21 Apr

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...
21.04.22 | |

31 Dec

...my argument. I did not claim that the drone program is immoral because it lacks strategic justification. I claimed that the drone program is immoral because it causes the deaths of innocent people without countervailing strategic justification. If being concerned about needless and counterproductive killing is not a "moral consideration," I have no idea what is. As an aside, if there is a just-war argument for the US drone program, I'd be very interested to hear it. Annie Your objection to the use of drones seems to be that (a)...
31.12.12 | |

23 Mar

...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...
23.03.16 | |

27 Apr

...intelligence to the wider audience, and consequently it is impossible for other parties such as the Defense to verify the intelligence. A previous example of adaptation strategies when learning of secret intelligence gathering is the issue of predator drones used in the former Yugoslavia. Once armed groups realized that the drones observed them, Mi-8 HIP helicopters shot down the drones. Another example of adaptation concerns the Bosnian Serbs realizing the importance of the evidence that satellite imagery can provide, and as a result waiting for weather patterns that could obscure...
27.04.21 | |

15 Oct

...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...
15.10.11 | |

05 Jun

OJ’s good friend Marko Milanovic has offered a super-substantive response to my brief comments re self-defense in my not-yet-response to Professor Alston’s report on targeted killing and drones. I will have things to say about that and also my reactions to the interior of the Special Rapporteur’s report – happy to say that I avoided any $100 a day fines by completing the grading, but now face threats to my family from my editors, who have given me a drop-dead date for my US-UN relations book, which, by the way,...
05.06.10 | |

08 Sep

From Siobhan Gorman (of the Wall Street Journal’s national security team) a nicely done retrospective on the rise of the drones as part of strategy, technology, law, ethics and philosophy. It’s a reasonably short piece, quotes the Very Great Bobby Chesney, and gives a good sense of the history of how it came about, linking policy and strategy, all in a short piece. If you’re looking for a good introduction to a class, or a student looking for a way into the topic, this is a good place to begin....
08.09.11 | |

23 Jun

...Targeted Killings by U.S. Drones Under International Law Thursday, Jun 19, 2014 - 3:28pm Print Anticipating that targeted killings by drones may increase in the future, both by the United States and by other countries, the New York City Bar Association today released a report analyzing the legality of targeted killings by drones launched by the United States in the context of international law. While noting that there are serious constitutional, moral and policy issues associated with targeted killings using drones, some of which the City Bar has addressed elsewhere,...
23.06.14 | |

02 May

At last night’s White House Correspondents Dinner, President Obama cracked a funny joke about his administration’s use of Predator Drones for targeted killings. From the Politico: — “The Jonas Brothers are here! … Sasha and Malia are huge fans but boys don’t get any ideas. I have two words for you: Predator Drones. You’ll never see it coming.” Ha, ha, ha…er, on second thought, is it just me, or is this joke a little creepy?...
02.05.10 | |

28 Feb

My new Weekly Standard essay – although “polemic” is probably closer to it. And thanks, Julian, for the plug below! Well, regular readers have been hearing about this piece for a while, and I have posted various arguments from it (concerning targeted killing and Predator drones and the CIA and armed conflict and self-defense, and my general concern that the Obama administration has embraced a policy that its lawyers have not so far stood up publicly to defend as lawful against its gradually emerging critics in the international “soft law”...
28.02.10 | |

16 Apr

...the U.S. drones program. We also agree that U.S. actions must conform to a demanding application of constitutional law and international law. Nevertheless, we believe the petition is deeply misguided. Professor Koh has been a leading scholar of, and advocate for, human rights for decades. While some may disagree with him on particular issues of law or policy, he is widely known for his unquestionable personal commitment to human rights and his eminent professional qualifications to teach and write on the subject. Any number of reports confirm that Professor Koh...
16.04.15 | |

07 Mar

...of the remaining Democratic presidential candidates, for instance, have publicly expressed support for the program as it is currently being implemented. Hillary Clinton, as might be expected from a former Obama administration cabinet member, has endorsed such strikes on both a policy and legal basis. But so has her chief Democratic rival Bernie Sanders: In an interview with NBC’s Meet the Press scheduled for broadcast on Sunday, host Chuck Todd asked the independent senator from Vermont if drones or special forces would play a role in his counter-terror plans. “All...
07.03.16 | |