Abstract
The expanding use of armed drones as weapons of war has put them squarely at the center of military strategy by a growing number of countries. The appeal of drones to military strategists derives from their greater scope and range of operation, endurance, and alleged precision. What makes this sudden expansion especially curious, however, is that drone technology has been around for quite a long time. Beyond technical and military capabilities, therefore, one needs to examine the broader socioeconomic, geopolitical, and cultural transformations that have pushed drones to the center stage on a global scale. In particular, epochal changes in the governance of capitalist economies provide the main backdrop for these developments. This chapter examines drone technologies and drone warfare as a point of convergence among three key developments: (i) the emergence of a new spirit of capitalism and, along with that, a new globalized economy defined by hyperconnectivity, hyperspeed, and polarization; (ii) the decline of nation-states as the dominant model of territorial governance and the rise of the model of government at a distance in developed liberal economies, on the one hand, and of non-state, informal, and illicit actors and organizations in a large part of the globe, on the other; and (iii) the development of a “new war” that borrows elements from earlier revolutionary, counterinsurgency, and “just” wars of the past. This chapter also examines some of the psychological, social, and global implications of drone warfare for individuals, communities, and societies around the globe, tracing the presence of computing technologies and practices throughout.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
References
Abizaid, J. P., & Brooks, R. (2014). Recommendations and report of the task force on US drone policy. Washington, DC: Stimson Center.
Boltanski, L., & Ciapello, E. (2005). The new spirit of capitalism. London: Verso.
Bourguignon, F. (2015). The globalization of inequality. Princeton, NJ: The Princeton University Press.
Braudel, F. (1977). Afterthoughts on material civilization and capitalism. Baltimore: The Johns Hopkins University Press.
Brookings Institution. (2012). Combat stress in Remotely Piloted/UAS operations. http://www.brookings.edu/~/media/events/2012/2/03%20military%20medical%20issues/0203_military_medical_issues.pdf
Chamayou, G. (2015). A theory of the drone. New York: The New Press.
Clark, A. (2003). International law and the preemptive use of military force. The Washington Quarterly, 26, 89–103. The Center for Strategic and International Studies and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
Cloud, D. (2011, April 10). Anatomy of an Afghan war tragedy. Los Angeles Times.
Cole, C. (2014). UK-France declaration reveals new reaper users club to rival European drone club. The Guardian. Web.
Congressional Budget Office. (2015). The budget and economic outlook: 2015 to 2025. Washington, DC: Government Printing Office.
Cullen, T. M. (2011). The MQ-9 Reaper remotely piloted aircraft: Humans and machines in action. Doctoral Dissertation, Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
Ekbia, H., Matiolli, M., Kouper, I., Arave, G., Ghazinejad, A., Bowman, T., Suri, R., Tsou, A., Weingart, S., & Sugimoto, C. (2015). Big data, bigger dilemmas: A critical review. Journal of American Society for Information Science and Technology, 66(8), 1523–1746.
Fallows, J. (2015, January/February). The tragedy of the American military. The Atlantic.
Gongloff, M., Hall, K., & Diehm, J. (2013, September 10). 5 years after the crisis, big banks are bigger than ever. Huffington Post.
International Human Rights and Conflict Resolution Clinic at Stanford Law School and Global Justice Clinic at Nyu School of Law, Living Under Drones. (2012). Death, injury, and trauma to civilians from us drone practices in Pakistan.
Kaldor, M. (2006). New and old wars: Organized violence in a global era. Palo Alto: Stanford University Press.
Koebler, J. (2013, May 28). Poll: Americans OK with targeting citizens overseas. US News and World Report. Web.
Kreps, S., & Zenko, M. (2014). The next drone wars: Preparing for proliferation. Foreign Affairs. Web.
Martin, M. J., & Sasser, C. W. (2010). Predator: The remote-control air war over Iraq and Afghanistan: A pilot’s story. Minneapolis: Zenith Press.
Miller, P., & Rose, N. (2013). Governing the present. London: Polity Press.
Rettman, A. (2013). Seven EU states create military drone ‘club’. EU Observer. Web.
Ricks, T. (2014). The future of war: Some questions for considering in light of changes. Foreign Policy. Web.
Stiglitz, J. (2014, June 29). Is inequality inevitable? New York Times.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Section Editor information
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2018 Springer International Publishing AG, part of Springer Nature
About this entry
Cite this entry
Ekbia, H.R. (2018). The Political Economy of Drone Warfare. In: Carayannis, E., Campbell, D., Efthymiopoulos, M. (eds) Handbook of Cyber-Development, Cyber-Democracy, and Cyber-Defense. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-09069-6_40
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-09069-6_40
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, Cham
Print ISBN: 978-3-319-09068-9
Online ISBN: 978-3-319-09069-6
eBook Packages: Economics and FinanceReference Module Humanities and Social SciencesReference Module Business, Economics and Social Sciences