Hitting the target?
Subtitle: how new capabilities are shaping intervention
By: edited by Michael Aaronson and Adrian Johnson
Contributors: Royal United Services Institute for Defence and Security Studies; Centre for International Intervention (University of Surrey)
Series: Whitehall report -- 2-13; Whitehall report -- 2-13.
Publisher: Royal United Services Institute
Published: 2013
Place of publication: London, England
Language: eng
Format: [electronic resource] :
Number of pages: 124
Subjects: Intervention (International law); Targeted killing (International law); Drone aircraft; Moral and ethical aspects; Military weapons; Technological innovations
Description: While the US drone-strikes program is under renewed scrutiny, remotely piloted aircraft are but one element of modern precision-strike capability. Military action in Mali, Libya and elsewhere has demonstrated the continuing, critical reliance on advanced technological capabilities in modern Western intervention. This raises a number of important questions about the thresholds for military intervention, the way it is carried out, and its consequences; in particular, whether ethical, legal, and policy frameworks have kept up with the pace of technological change, and how this affects the behavior of those responsible for policy and for its implementation on the ground. Although intervention is a political act, and many of the activities that constitute contemporary military intervention are not new, some argue that unmanned capabilities will lead to a shift in the ease and conduct of warfare. This report considers the issues of media and public perception, including new data on British attitudes towards drone strikes; the technological, ethical and legal issues of unmanned capability; and a detailed assessment of targeted killing as a strategy.
Notes: First published March 2013.

Title from title screen (viewed on Apr. 7, 2013).

Includes bibliographical references.

Mode of access: World Wide Web.

System requirements: Adobe Reader.
Table of contents: title: Acronyms and abbreviations.; title: Editor's note.; title: Preface.; title: Introduction, Michael Aaronson and Adrian Johnson.; title: The public view: British attitudes to drone warfare and targeted killing, Joel Faulkner Rogers.; title: The five most common media misrepresentations of UAVs, Ulrike Esther Franke.; title: Remotely piloted aircraft and international law, Nathalie Weizmann.; title: Can new capabilities be illegitimate?; title: Tele-operated weapons systems: safeguarding moral perception and responsibility, Alex Leveringhaus and Tjerk de Greef.; title: Casualty recording as an evaluative capability: Libya and the protection of civilians, Jacob Beswick and Elizabeth Minor.; title: Precision-strike technology and counter-terrorism: conflating tactical efficiency with strategic effectiveness? Conway Waddington.; title: Dead on target? The strategic dead end of targeted killing as a way of war, Armin Krishnan.; title: Drone use in counter-insurgency and counter-terrorism: policy or policy component? David Hastings Dunn and Stefan Wolff.; title: Developing new capabilities: the European imperative, Tom Dyson.; title: Conclusion, Michael Aaronson and Adrian Johnson.; title: About the authors.