The History Of Drones Warfare

Improved Essays
However, Drones warfare represents one of the most dramatic developments in the United States’ continual effort to maintain military superiority by implementing new technology. Unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), controlled from half a world away, can perform extended surveillance and intelligence gathering missions. When required, they can conduct air strikes against enemy targets. These capabilities can be achieved without placing a pilot in danger or by relying upon a single individual to perform flight duty over extended periods. The technical capabilities have raised major ethical and moral issues, not the least of which is the possibility that UAVs may violate international and domestic law. In my paper you will explore the historical timeline

Related Documents

  • Improved Essays

    In his essay “In Defense of Drones: a historical argument,” David Bell defends the use of drones as a weapon from critics that doubt the moral and political implications of war “waged by one side without risk to the life and limb of its combatants.” Bell’s creates his arguments using comparisons, quotes, and facts. Bell’s first argument addresses the concern of drones “radically change[ing] the political dynamics of warfare” by comparing the purpose of drones to that of past weaponry. He states that the motivation of innovation in military technology has been, and still is, to “take out one’s enemies from a safe distance.”…

    • 945 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Drone warfare, enacted by George Bush and expanded on by President Obama to provide safety for Americans against al-Qaeda. Rather than retrieving intelligence from sources within the country, the use of weaponized unmanned surveillance drones allowed for far better independent targeting decisions. These strategic implications created a question among Americans, is the use of drones to target individuals ethical? This question has arisen due to a high number of civilian casualties, making it seem unmoral. Kenneth Anderson, however, provides readers a strong argument as to why drone warfare is strategically effective with his tone, organization, use of quotes, and appeal to logic in his article, “The Case for Drones.”…

    • 959 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    The key piece in shredding this myth apart, however, would be the usage of drones to create a technological warfare in which unmanned aircraft carriers would be used to attack intended targets. It also goes without saying that although the technology used requires human input as well which can lead to catastrophic disasters such as the Afghanistan hospital which was hit by a drone strike killing doctors and children or the amount of civilian casualties that have skyrocketed since the implementation of the drones. This section of the paper will detail the Obama administration’s usage of drones over the course of his two terms in office, the statistics of how many deaths there have been using this technology as well as legal responses to events such as the bombings of hospitals and the supposed ever-expanding kill list of the Obama administration.…

    • 1602 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Great Essays

    “The drone exemplifies the instrumentalization of violence and laws of war through a complex process of parenthetical disassociation” (Pugliese 186). Generally, drone operators use language when referring to drones that attempts to remove the act of killing from the operator itself, transferring it to the drone such as “the drone can see its target.” He argues that drones cannot ‘see’ what they execute, they only “execute what must be seen for them through sensor operators” (Pugliese 187). This entertains the thought that he drone does the killing, while the operator who launches it remains only as an afterthought, and not considered part of the action. This disconnect is what Pugliese argues leads to desensitization in drone operators and others involved in the mission.…

    • 1682 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Great Essays
  • Great Essays

    The Ethics surrounding drone warfare has been a controversial debate that has not yet captured the full attention of the public in the west. The main arguments for using drone warfare has been about saving lives and cost, but such argument pales in comparison to the arguments against it. To examine the counter arguments of why drone warfare is ethically wrong, we must look at the political stance of the governments using drone warfare, the society’s responsibility, the ethics of the way that the drone strikes are conducted, the effectiveness of drone warfare and the international irresponsibility and unethical nature of drone strikes. Drone warfare saves the lives of soldiers by placing them out of harms way; this is one of the arguments for…

    • 1913 Words
    • 8 Pages
    Great Essays
  • Great Essays

    By the time of Iraq/Afghanistan war, warfare had progressed much further into what is today called modern warfare. Attacks were no longer led on the front lines, but rather hundreds of miles away, strategically led from a safe location. The age of unmanned aerial vehicles emerged, dawning the use of the new word “drone”. Suddenly, an unmanned plane…

    • 1816 Words
    • 8 Pages
    Great Essays
  • Great Essays

    Drones In The Civil War

    • 2693 Words
    • 11 Pages

    Nick Mariano Dr. Mark Wilson ETH 2050 24 November 2014 Game of Drones In the Civil War, Confederate generals like Robert E. Lee dismissed guerilla warfare as dishonorable and immoral. It was akin to shooting a man in the back, they said. Today, guerilla warfare forms the foundation of modern military strategy.…

    • 2693 Words
    • 11 Pages
    Great Essays
  • Improved Essays

    The Joint Committee on Human Rights published a report on drone strikes discussing the legal justification used to defend the use of drone strikes. This report is clear…

    • 658 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Great Essays

    Aggressive Drone Warfare

    • 1948 Words
    • 8 Pages

    Drone Warfare: The United States and their Aggressive Drone Policy in Afghanistan The United States has shifted its military strategies for taking out foreign enemies by reducing the number of boots they put on the ground and increasing the use of unmanned aerial vehicles referred to as drones. The use of drones is effective at sparing the number of U.S. soldiers and pilots being sent to deal with terrorist organizations (Grayson 2016). However it is ineffective in reducing the number of civilians that are killed or wounded through the use of these counterinsurgency strategies (Khalili 2012). This essay argues that the current U.S. drone policy in the country of Afghanistan is too aggressive and is doing more harm than good.…

    • 1948 Words
    • 8 Pages
    Great Essays
  • Decent Essays

    The government’s policies of using unmanned drones to conduct military operations abroad. Drone warfare is now one of the most fundamental features of the United States against its enemies. Using the unmanned drones is better to protect country’s security. In the ordinary, the government can use drones to monitor the enemy's intelligence if they do something illegal. The unmanned drones can also find terror suspects and kill them.…

    • 231 Words
    • 1 Pages
    Decent Essays
  • Improved Essays

    The popular trend of personally owning and operating a drone has experienced explosive growth by hobbyists. Although this is an exciting new technology made available to private individuals, there are Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) laws already in existence for flying unmanned aircraft systems (UAS). In addition, state, city and county legislatures are regularly adapting new laws. The violation of these laws may result in criminal charges. Mandatory Registration of Hobby Drones…

    • 487 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Great Essays

    As our technology continues to advance and develop, many innovations are emerging to create more efficient solutions to our problems, especially in terms of warfare. Weapons and tactics continue to evolve with time and experience, but with these progressions come hesitancy and controversy about their reliability and morality. Drone combat is one form of new fighting methods that have caused a lot of uproar within communities. Drones, or Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) are unmanned aircrafts used by the United States since 2002 to target suspected militant-embedded regions in opposing or rival countries, which ultimately reduce the capabilities of terrorist organizations. Used in situations where manned flight is considered too risky or difficult,…

    • 1932 Words
    • 8 Pages
    Great Essays
  • Improved Essays

    The Use Of Drones In War

    • 642 Words
    • 3 Pages

    Drone Debate: Good in War or Hazardous We have reached a time in life where our technology has increased explosively. We now have robots that manage hotels, work cash registers, cars that drive themselves, drones used to deliver packages. Drones have been on the uprise for a while now, with complications from here and there. The thing is, are they good to use for war? Seeing and hearing some of the things that drones have done has me kind of a far from saying that they should be used in warfare.…

    • 642 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Great Essays

    Today, technological advances in warfare have challenged the foundational principles of Just War Theory and generated scrutiny around ethical behavior in combatant environments. Just War Theory refers to a set of rules that a sovereign state is expected to follow before engaging in war, during war, and after war—jus ad bellum, jus in bellum, and jus post bellum, respectively. With the increased employment of Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) or drone strikes under the Obama Administration, one may doubt the morality of these attacks. Specifically, the aims of this essay seek to answer the question on whether or not drone strikes in Yemen adhere to the principles of Just War Theory. Considering the unprecedented and regular use of this technology,…

    • 1540 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Great Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Drones In War Essay

    • 731 Words
    • 3 Pages

    The global issue raised in the article, “The Next Drone Wars: Preparing for Proliferation”, is that there are dangers of armed drones as we see an increase in technology capabilities and as more countries start to use them for military purposes. The…

    • 731 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays