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Abstract
The use of drones in recent conflicts by Western states has proved controversial. Obama's ‘kill list’ and the use of remote ‘execution’ have inspired passionate debates about the ethics and use of these systems. Proponents of their use highlight their alleged ‘precision’ and make the point that such weapons may prevent the necessity for ‘boots on the ground’; at least in certain contexts. In this article we wish to build on the idea of drones as both useful but also perhaps as ‘virtuous’. We do not make this case for the universal deployment of drones but rather for the specific case of United Nations peacekeeping missions.
Keywords:
Disclosure statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.
Notes on contributors
Caroline Kennedy is Professor of War Studies at the University of Hull. She was previously Professor of War Studies at the University of Warwick. She has published extensively on the issue of contemporary security and especially on improvised explosive devices in contemporary wars as well as on Russia and the cold war. She has a First Class Honours Degree in History, an MscEcon in Strategic Studies and a D-Phil in International Relations.
James I. Rogers is a doctoral candidate and a member of the Centre for Security Studies at the University of Hull. The recipient of an institutional scholarship, James specializes in contemporary security issues with a specific focus on American strategic thought and UN Peacekeeping.
Notes
1 K. Anderson, ‘Written Testimony Submitted to Subcommittee on National Security and Foreign Affairs: Rise of the Drones: Unmanned Systems and the Future of War’, 23 March 2010. http://digitalcommons.wcl.american.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1002&context=pub_disc_cong
2 P.W. Singer, Wired For War (London: Penguin Group, 2010), 194.
3 See for example the outrage expressed by Frank Ledwidge in Losing Small Wars British Military Failure in Iraq and Afghanistan, over the absence of training and kit. F. Ledwidge, Losing Small Wars British Military Failure in Iraq and Afghanistan (New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 2011).
4 By illusory we mean that in current conflicts it is quite often difficult to understand who or what may be the innocent parties. In areas of conflict, for example, the presence of children or, more specifically, child soldiers can complicate intervention while it is not unknown for peacekeepers to find themselves caught in complex emergencies in which ‘truth’, ‘justice’ and notions of ‘rights' are highly contestable. See D. Keen, Useful Enemies (New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 2012).
5 DPKO and DFS, A New Partnership Agenda: Charting a New Horizon for UN Peacekeeping (New York: DPKO & DFS, 2009), Foreword.
6 Ibid., v.
7 DPKO and DFS, The New Horizon Initiative: Progress Report No. 2 (New York: DPKO & DFS, 2011), 26.
8 DPKO and DFS. A New Partnership Agenda, 5.
9 UN News Centre, ‘Senior UN Officials Highlight Diversity and Challenges of Peacekeeping’, 21 February 2012. http://www.un.org/apps/news/story.asp?NewsID=41321#.VBsRefmwIn5
10 A. Boutellis, ‘Will MONUSCO Fall With Goma?’, 3 December 2012. theglobalobservatory.org/analysis/394-will-monusco-fall-with-goma.html
11 Ibid.
12 J. Verini, ‘Should the United Nations Wage War to Keep Peace?’, 27 March 2014. http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2014/03/140327-congo-genocide-united-nations-peacekeepers-m23-kobler-intervention-brigade/
13 J. Irish, V. Buffery, and L. Ireland, ‘France Urges Review of U.N. Mandate in Congo’, 20 November 2012. http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/11/20/us-congo-democratic-fabius-idUSBRE8AJ13520121120
14 Boutellis, ‘Will MONUSCO Fall With Goma?’
15 United Nations General Assembly, ‘A/64/573: Implementation of the Recommendations of the Special Committee on Peacekeeping Operations', 2009. http://www.un.org/en/ga/search/view_doc.asp?symbol=A/64/573, 2.
16 This is for the system alone, without the extra cost of training personnel to operate the craft. See, Center on International Cooperation and United States Global Peace Operations Initiative, ‘Assessment of Helicopter Force Generation Challenges for United Nations Peacekeeping Operations', December 2011. usun.state.gov/documents/organization/179150.pdf, 4–6.
17 UN News Centre, ‘Senior UN Officials Highlight Diversity and Challenges of Peacekeeping’, 21 February 2012. http://www.un.org/apps/news/story.asp?NewsID=41321#.VBsRefmwIn5
18 J. Masters, ‘Targeted Killings', 23 May 2013. http://www.cfr.org/counterterrorism/targeted-killings/p9627
19 Figures correct of 6 August 2014. See, Department of Peacekeeping Operations, ‘Fatalities by Mission, Year and Incident Type’, August 2014. http://www.un.org/en/peacekeeping/fatalities/documents/stats_4a.pdf
20 United Nations Department of Peacekeeping Operations, United Nations Infantry Battalion Manual: Volume 2 (New York: United Nations Department of Peacekeeping Operations, 2012), 292.
21 See, The Guardian, ‘World Malaria Day: Which Countries Are the Hardest Hit?’, 25 April 2011. http://www.guardian.co.uk/global-development/datablog/2011/apr/25/world-malaria-day-data#data. Also see, World Health Organisation, World Malaria Report 2012 (Geneva: WHO Press, 2012).
22 United Nations Department of Peacekeeping Operations, United Nations Infantry Battalion Manual: Volume 2, 290–3.
23 Walter Dorn, ‘Dying for Peace’, in Center on International Cooperation, Annual Review of Global Peace Operations 2008 (London: Lynne Rienner, 2008), 70.
24 UNGA, ‘Manual on Policies and Procedures Concerning the Reimbursement and Control of Contingent-Owned Equipment of Troop/Police Contributors Participating in Peacekeeping Missions (COE Manual)’, 27 October 2011. http://www.un.org/en/peacekeeping/sites/coe/referencedocuments/COE_manual_2011.pdf, 100.
25 United Nations Department of Peacekeeping Operations, United Nations Infantry Battalion Manual: Volume 2, 290–3.
26 United Nations General Assembly, ‘A/64/573: Implementation of the Recommendations of the Special Committee on Peacekeeping Operations', 2.
27 To provide clarity it must be stated that the graphs in and are constructed of percentages of fatalities, not the total number of fatalities. As such, the increased number of peacekeepers deployed over this period has no impact on the findings as the percentage allows us to construct an unbiased average over the time period.
28 Stockholm International Peace Research Institute, Global Patterns of Major Armed Conflict 1989–95: SIPRI Yearbook 1996 (London: Oxford University Press, 1996), 15.
29 M. Kaldor, New Wars Organized Violence in a Global Era, 2nd ed. (London: Polity Press, 2012).
30 J. Black, War and the new Disorder in the 21st Century (London: Continuum, 2004).
31 E. Newman, ‘The “New Wars” Debate: Historical Perspective is Needed’, Security Dialogue 35, no. 2 (2004), 173–89.
32 BBC, ‘FBI Uses Drones for Surveillance Over US Soil’, 19 June 2013. http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-22976598
33 M. Mark, ‘Ivory Coast Mercenaries Train Child Soldiers for Attacks across Liberia Border’, 10 June 2012. http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2012/jun/10/ivory-coast-child-soldiers
34 N. Michelle, ‘Children Lured from Rwanda to Fight with Congo Rebels – U.N.’, 5 October 2013. uk.reuters.com/article/2013/10/05/uk-congo-democratic-rwanda-children-idUKBRE9940CD20131005
35 UNITAR, ‘Round Table Discussion on African Peacekeepers and Child Soldiers', October 2012. http://www.unitar.org/round-table-discussion-african-peacekeepers-and-child-soldiers
36 M. Ignatieff, The Warrior's Honor: Ethnic War and the Modern Conscience (New York: Henry Holt and Company, 1997), 6.
37 W. Reno, Warfare in Independent Africa (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2011). See also J. Gettleman, ‘Africa's Dirty Wars', The New York Review of Books, 8 March 2012. Caroline Kennedy and Thomas Waldman, ‘Wars of War in the 21st Century’ in 21 Century World Politics, ed. Mark Beeson and Nick Bisley (Palgrave Macmillan, 2013), 92–105.
38 Ignatieff, The Warrior's Honor, 6. See also Christopher Kinsek and Malcolm Hugh Paterson, eds, Contractors & War (Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press, 2002).
39 T. Onea, ‘Putting the “Classical” in Neoclassical Realism: Neoclassical Realist Theories and US Expansion in the Post-Cold War’, International Relations 26, no. 2 (2012): 152.
40 J. Mackinlay, ‘Defeating Complex Insurgency. The Conwallis Group X: Analysis for New and Emerging Societal Conflicts', 2005. thecornwallisgroup.org/pdf/cx_2005_03-MackinlayJ.pdf
41 On the challenges posed to UN missions in the 1990s, see Christopher Bellamy, Knights in White Armour: The New Art of War and Peace (London: Hutchinson, 1996).
42 Ibid., 88.
43 D. Keen, Conflict and Collusion in Sierra Leone (New York: Palgrave, 2005).
44 Ibid., 240.
45 Ibid.
46 N. Cooper, M. Turner, and R. Paris, ‘The End of History and the Last Liberal Peacebuilder: A Reply to Roland Paris', The Review of International Studies 37 (2011): 1995–2007.
47 Ibid.
48 Y. Matsumoto, ‘Young Afghans in “Transition”: Towards Afghanistan, Exit or Violence?’, Conflict, Security & Development 11, no. 5 (2011): 555–78.
49 Ibid.
50 Please note that much of the middle section of this article was inspired by the debate in The Review of International Studies in 2011 between Roland Paris and Neil Cooper, Mandy Turner and Michael Pugh. Please see Neil Cooper, Mandy Turner and Roland Paris, ‘The End of History and the Last Liberal Peacebuilder: A Reply to Roland Paris', The Review of International Studies 37 (2011): 1995–2007. Of considerable background interest was David Chandler, Empire in Denial: The Politics of State Building (London: Pluto, 2006).
51 M. Pugh, ‘Accountability and Credibility’, 2010. kms2.isn.ethz.ch/serviceengine/Files/EINIRAS/123563/ … /5.pdf
52 DPKO and DFS. A New Partnership Agenda, 6.
53 H. Ladsous, ‘Transcript: Department of Peacekeeping Operations Press Conference’, 6 February 2013. http://www.un.org/en/peacekeeping/articles/USG%20Ladsous.PC.transcript.060213.final.rtf.pdf
54 BBC, ‘UN Starts Drone Surveillance in DR Congo’, 3 December 2013. http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-25197754
55 M. Ladsous, ‘Remarks of Mr. Hervé Ladsous Under-Secretary-General for Peacekeeping Operations to the Special Committee on Peacekeeping Operations', 2012. http://www.un.org/en/peacekeeping/articles/HL_Speech_C34_Delivered_21022012.pdf
56 BBC, ‘UN Starts Drone Surveillance in DR Congo’.
57 Of course, the use of unarmed drones to gather intelligence before a peacekeeping intervention brigade is deployed could be argued to be a proactive role for this technology. Yet, although this would highlight a limited increase in making peacekeeping ‘more proactive’, such assistance does not reduce the need for peacekeepers on the ground in high- risk regions and does not address the issue of manifest shortfalls in the training, equipment and number of these peacekeepers. More can be done to proactively mitigate the cost to civilians and peacekeepers with armed drones.
58 Northrop Grumman, ‘RQ-4 Block 40 Global Hawk’, 2012. http://www.northropgrumman.com/Capabilities/GlobalHawk/Documents/Datasheet_GH_Block_40.pdf
59 D. Tutu, ‘Drones, Kill Lists and Machiavelli’, 13 February 2013. http://www.nytimes.com/2013/02/13/opinion/drones-kill-lists-and-machiavelli.html?_r=0
60 Ibid.
61 Ibid.
62 Masters, ‘Targeted Killings'.
63 Ibid.
64 Columbia Law School and the Center for Civilians in Conflict, ‘The Civilian Impact of Drones: Unexamined Costs, Unanswered Questions', 2012. civiliansinconflict.org/uploads/files/publications/The_Civilian_Impact_of_Drones_w_cover.pdf
65 D. Greenfield, ‘The Case Against Drone Strikes on People Who Only “Act” Like Terrorists', 19 August 2013. http://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2013/08/the-case-against-drone-strikes-on-people-who-only-act-like-terrorists/278744/
66 Ibid
67 A. Ahmed, ‘Drones and Taliban Attacks Hit Civilians, Afghans Say’, 8 September 2013. http://www.nytimes.com/2013/09/09/world/asia/two-deadly-attacks-in-afghanistan.html
68 Ibid.
69 Deputy District Governor for Nad ‘Ali District, Helmand Province, personal interview, University of Hull, March 2014.
70 Ibid.
71 UNGA, ‘Global Field Support Strategy: A/64/633′, 2010. http://www.un.org/en/ga/search/view_doc.asp?symbol=A/64/633
72 D. Schaffner, ‘Legality of Using Drones to Unilaterally Monitor Atrocity Crimes', Fordham International Law Journal 35, no. 4 (2012): 1121–64.
73 United Nations Security Council, ‘Resolution 1925 (2010)’, 28 May 2010. http://www.un.org/en/ga/search/view_doc.asp?symbol=S/RES/1925(2010)
74 H. O'Malley, ‘Children Maimed during M23 Attack on Goma’, 2012. http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/picturegalleries/worldnews/9700172/Children-maimed-during-M23-attack-on-Goma.html?frame=2408501
75 Boutellis, ‘Will MONUSCO Fall With Goma?’
76 Amnesty International, Ethnic Cleansing and Sectarian Killings in the Central African Republic (London: Amnesty International Publications, 2014), 6.
77 Schaffner, ‘Legality of Using Drones to Unilaterally Monitor Atrocity Crimes'.
78 J.M. Guehenno, ‘NPR Radio Interview Transcript’, 21 September 2010. http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=130021491