Long-Term Effects of Targeted Killings by Unmanned Aerial Vehicles

Abstract

Abstract : This study contributes to the growing discussion regarding the employment of weaponized UAVs, specifically when executing targeted killings outside designated combat zones. As the dominant proprietor of UAVs, the United States inadvertently established precedence for their employment resulting in significant, future political and military ramifications. The primary question within the study is, what are the long-term implications of the US policy on targeted killing of individuals, identified as threats to national security, by UAVs outside a theater of operations or within sovereign nations with which it is not at war? This study proposes the way in which the United States currently employs UAVs in targeted killings is inadequately addressed in international law and difficult to justify on moral grounds. More importantly, US employment of UAVs risks establishing negative international precedents on killing outside a theater of operations as other nations develop UAV programs. To evaluate the contemporary practice of UAV targeted killings and reveal long-term effects, the study reviews Just War Theory and International Humanitarian Law / Law of Armed Conflict. Juxtaposed against these moral and legal frameworks, the study summarizes US legal justifications vindicating targeted killings by UAVs and presents the opposing legal arguments against the practice posited by the international community. To highlight the dangers of an emerging military precedence and public aversion to a weapons technology considered against the norms of war, this monograph uses case-study methodology to examine unrestricted submarine warfare during the interwar period, and post-World War II nuclear nonproliferation. Analysis of each case against the contemporary practice of UAV targeted killing reveals historical efforts to control a weapons technology, and exposes strengths and weaknesses applicable to future UAV employment control and nonproliferation efforts.