Opening Pandora’s box: the use of drones as preventive self-defense through the normative framework

Abstract

Since the United States began to use armed drones in its war on terror, the US has ignited a debate on the lawfulness of the use of force in preventive self-defense and about respect for international human rights. On the one hand, from a realist perspective, as rational actors in an anarchic international system, states seek to first bolster their security and, therefore, try to compile as many drones as they can in case their neighbors should attack them. On the other hand, from the normative framework, states justify their use of drones through international documents, as the US and Israel do when they argue that their use of armed drones on battlefields satisfies the law of war principles of distinction and proportionality. By applying Sandholtz’s cyclic theory of norm change, this article examines how the US invasion of Iraq and the US’s use of drone technology in the war’s aftermath have changed the doctrine of preventive self-defense. In doing so, the article argues that although states are now beginning to proliferate drones in preventive self-defense, states are also justifying their action through norms found in international conventions, mainly international humanitarian law and international human rights law.

Keywords:

• drones
• preventive self-defense
• realism
• norms
• normative framework
• international human rights law
• international humanitarian law

Acknowledgments

The author thanks Dr. George J. Andreopoulos (Professor of Political Science and Criminal Justice at City University of New York) for his lectures, encouragement, and comments; Dr. Leslie Alan Hansen (Doctoral Lecturer of English at John Jay College of Criminal Justice) for proofreading; the Institute for the Study of Human Rights at Columbia University for providing classes related to this area of study; and last, but not least, the Center for International Relations for selecting the author as a winner in its Spring 2014 International Affairs Forum Student Writing Award Competition and making this publication possible.

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Daniel Golebiewski

Daniel Golebiewski (BA in Political Science, minors in History and English, from John Jay College of Criminal Justice – City University of New York) is a MA student in Human Rights Studies at Columbia University – Graduate School of Arts & Sciences. He is also an Editor-at-Large for E-International Relations. His interests include international relations and international human rights.