Victims of Drone Warfare: Stretching the Boundaries of Conflict; Ethics and Remote Control Warfare

Abstract

The growing use of (un)armed drones in warfare raises a number of concerns about the protection of civilians in armed conflict, international human rights law and the lowering of the threshold for using armed violence as a means of solving conflict. This chapter will highlight the practical and ethical challenges of drone use in conflict. This will be done by focusing on the proliferation of dual-use drone technology to state and non-state actors and implications for new ways of war. Furthermore, it will elaborate on how the changing nature of conflicts (e.g. intra-state, hybrid conflicts) and growing use of proxy wars through armed non-state actors, vis-a-vis lowered political support in the West, could see an increase in the risk-free use of armed drones and robots. We will also highlight the need for transparency and accountability when using armed drones. In particular, we discuss the issue of civilian casualties in the context of the War on Terror by providing testimony from those affected by drone strikes in Pakistan and Yemen.