How Drones Are Changing Warfare

by Benjamin Wittes

Technology is to politics as the weather is to sports: We can't really control it, but we certainly have to live with it. In recent years the technology of unarmed aerial vehicles has made tremendous strides, allowing modern warfare to be conducted in many respects by remote control.

This may seem like a boon to technologically savvy countries like the United States, and in a sense it clearly is. But the moral calculus of war is rarely that simple: While drones can and do shield front-line troops from danger, and can often substitute for them entirely, they also have other effects. Drones can make it more likely that we will enter into wars, for example, and if so, then it's no longer clear that they help the ordinary soldier. Drones may increase casualties among noncombatants; their pinpoint accuracy is only as good as the human intelligence behind them, which now may be more subject to manipulation, not less. And drones are certainly being used by hostile states and nonstate actors, including terrorist groups like Hezbollah.

To discuss these issues, we have assembled a panel of experts on drones and ethics of war. Our lead essay is by David Cortright of the University of Notre Dame; he is joined by Benjamin Wittes of the Brookings Institution, Daniel Goure of the Lexington Institute, and Tom Barry of the Center for International Policy.

45 pages, Kindle Edition

First published January 9, 2012

About the author

Benjamin Wittes is a senior fellow in Governance Studies at The Brookings Institution. He co-founded and co-writes the influential Lawfare blog (http://www.lawfareblog.com/), which is devoted to non-ideological discussion of the "Hard National Security Choices,” and is a member of the Hoover Institution's Task Force on National Security and Law. Between 1997 and 2006, he served as an editorial writer for The Washington Post specializing in legal affairs. His writing has also appeared in a wide range of journals and magazines. Benjamin Wittes was born November 5, 1969 in Boston, Massachusetts, and graduated from Oberlin College in 1990. He recently earned a black belt in taekwondo.