Reflections on Drone Strikes

Most people go about their lives unaware of this policy. It’s out of sight, out of mind. There is also not much else to do besides monitoring if you are a civilian. Most people who do focus on the issue, decry drone strikes without actual information and simply see it as an extrajudicial killing or assassination and go about their lives. There is a very specific type of outlet which actually monitors these strikes, and much of it is done on Twitter. There is also specific humanitarian organisations that monitor these issues as well as thinktanks. Human Rights Watch and Airwars are notable for this.

Evaluating the effectiveness of drone strikes.

What is the overall effect of a particular drone campaign?

The primary contention among military practitioners is over how drones affect human psychology. Air minded individuals cite an ever pressing surveillance eye monitoring terror groups as a significant deterrent. There some lingering racism in this argument that view some of these operations as idea is about 100 years old starting from when the RAF first began the practice of air policing. (The modern iteration of this policy is ‘Shock and Awe’).

Air critics mainly cite the humanitarian issues of extrajudicial killings and state that drone strikes are not reportedly surgical like military personnel tend to report. (See the work done by Airwars expose on the UK’s reporting of their civilian deaths from drone strikes during their role in Operation Inherent Resolve. (https://airwars.org/conflict/coalition-in-iraq-and-syria/)

And the specific report I’m mentioning is what caused the DoD to retract its annual report on civilian harm. Basically the DoD admitted to the UK, France, and Belgium were pulling the trigger and were the most culpable persons responsible for civilian deaths in OIR that were officially reported. The Intercept covered this issue too.

Others go much further making a decent argument but in my opinion lose sight of real world relevance. See perhaps: Satia, Priya. “Drones: A History from the British Middle East.” Humanity: An International Journal of Human Rights, Humanitarianism, and Development 5, no. 1 (2014): 1–31. https://doi.org/10.1353/hum.2014.0002.

For additional helpful critisim see Damage Control: The Unbearable Whiteness of Drone Work.

Threading the needle between the two has been a challenge for myself. The best academic resource I’ve come across is this:

Mir, Asfandyar. “What Explains Counterterrorism Effectiveness? Evidence from the U.S. Drone War in Pakistan.” International Security 43, no. 2 (November 23, 2018): 45–83. https://muse.jhu.edu/article/709434

I’ve read others but this is a very nuanced and specific case study that most academics fall short of doing.

Currently until otherwise proven wrong I continue to operate under the assumption that there is no direct change in human behavior from a deterrence perspective (only an adaptation to whatever the status quo is i.e., hiding, avoidance, or mitigation).