Drones
317 Articles
Drones and Contractor Mission Creep
I have written previously about the transparency, oversight, and accountability issues that outsourcing aspects of the U.S. drone program can pose – issues that often get lost…
Drone Contractors: An Oversight and Accountability Gap
A slew of news reports have highlighted the crisis of drone pilot burnout in the United States military. Indeed, pilot shortages have prompted the US Air Force to cut the number…
CIA Operatives Should Not be Considered Armed Forces Under International Law
Just Security readers are now familiar with the German Federal Prosecutor General’s opinion regarding a 2010 drone strike in Pakistan attributed to the CIA. The opinion is remarkably…
CIA and OLC Must Release More “Secret” Documents on Aulaqi Drone Strike
On Thursday, a federal district court in New York issued its latest ruling in the ACLU’s long-running Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) litigation seeking the legal and factual…
A Drone Strike and the Debate on the Geography of the War Against al-Qaeda and its Associates
Last week, we read about a decision by the Federal Prosecutor General in Germany not to pursue criminal proceedings for the death of a German national as a result of a CIA drone…
Germany’s Highest-Ranking Prosecutor on the Legality of Drone Strikes – and Much More
In a must-read decision, the Federal Prosecutor General in Germany (the equivalent of the U.S. Attorney General) examines in great depth the legality of a drone strike that killed…
The CIA Can’t Keep Its Drone Propaganda Straight
This week, one government intelligence agency, after patiently and methodically tracking a terrorist leader for months through precise electronic surveillance, successfully targeted…
Guest Post: Is There an International Duty to Use More Accurate Weapons?
In the heated debate about drones, relatively little attention has been given to their use by the US military to carry out attacks in battlefield zones such as Afghanistan, Iraq,…
A Veteran’s Perspective on “Killer Robots”
Technological advances in robotics and other fields are already assisting soldiers with dull, dirty, and dangerous jobs on the battlefield. Within the military such advances should…
Public Opinion, International Law, and Drone Strikes: Some Reflections
We commend Professor Charles Dunlap for his excellent recent post on international law and public support for drone strikes. As he notes, there are many points of agreement between…
Casualties and Polls: Some Observations
In a recent post provocatively entitled “New Poll: American Support for Drone Strikes Plummets When Innocent US Civilians Killed,” Just Security’s editor Ryan Goodman energetically…
Why not, Secretary Carter?
Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula has announced that a U.S. drone strike recently killed one of AQAP’s senior commanders, Nasr Ibn Ali al-Ansi. This would, of course,…