Paddy Ashdown – or Baron Ashdown of Norton-sub-Hamdon – to give him his proper title, former Royal Marine, intelligence service officer and leader of the Liberal Democrats has an opinion piece in the Times entitled ‘If you’re opposed to drones, then think… Read More ›
Challenging ‘pro-drone’ arguments
A challenge to drone apologists – where is your evidence?
Over the past few week there has been increasing attention to the issues raised by the growing use of armed unmanned drones. As protests at factories and bases have taken place, newspapers have begun to editorialize, politicians have formed committees… Read More ›
New reports shed some light on drone warfare
Four important reports that touch on the issue of drone warfare have appeared in recent weeks. While space forbids a detailed review of the reports, each in turn is extremely useful and well worth reading. Cage Prisoners have released Unnecessary… Read More ›
Are drones compatible with the idea of just war?
This is an edited version of an article by US Catholic theologians Tobias L. Winright and Mark J. Allman that first appeared in the 18th August 2012 edition of the international Catholic weekly, The Tablet (www.thetablet.co.uk) as ‘Obama’s drone wars:… Read More ›
Reflecting on the recent rash of writing on morality and drones
There have been a number of articles published recently on the morality of drone wars, many of them suggesting that those of us with grave concerns about the growing use of drones have either got it wrong, are confused, or… Read More ›
Drone strikes poll shows mass disapproval
A poll released this week by the US-based Pew Research Center examining international attitudes towards the US included a specific question about US drone strikes. Asked “Do you approve or disapprove of the United States conducting missile strikes from pilotless aircraft… Read More ›
Book Review: Drone Warfare: Killing by Remote Control by Medea Benjamin
Paperback Publisher:OR Books (2012) ISBN-10: 1935928813 Reviewed for Peace News May 2012 As if the peace movement hasn’t enough on its plate already, the military-industrial complex goes and invents a new and easier way to wage war: the unmanned drone…. Read More ›
CodePink's Drone Summit
Over the weekend Codepink, CCR and Reprieve hosted an international summit on drone warfare in Washington DC. Unfortunately we were not able to attend but did take part ‘virtually’ via twitter and livestream feed. Lots of videos and more from the… Read More ›
Drones and the 'propensity to kinetic action'
The concern that drones make armed attacks and military intervention more likely is often rejected by the military and the drone industry, who argue that the drone pilots are able to stand above the ‘fog and friction’ of the battlefield and to… Read More ›
The Real Drone Virus
Since Wired announced last week that a computer virus has infected the Ground Control stations of the USAF Reaper and Predator drone fleet at Creech Air Force Base, the blogosphere as well as the general media have been awash with the story…. Read More ›
Liam Fox on Drone Strikes: Our Response
We have recently been forwarded a number of replies from the MoD in response to letters about the use of armed drones. This letter from Secretary of State for Defence, Dr Liam Fox – asserting that the UK completely complies with international law and… Read More ›
Turning away from the drone evolution
Responding to a parliamentary question from Caroline Lucas about the civilian victims of UK drone strikes in Afghanistan last week, David Cameron said “I do not think that the answer is to turn our face away…” Was the Prime Minister… Read More ›