Drone Nation

Drone Nation unveils an unexpected scenario where international drone warfare leads to a state of permanent war through increasing numbers of assassinations of the western world’s declared enemies. It provides historical context for the rise and acceptance of drone warfare and examines likely future impacts. The book discusses the broad political-economic forces at play in the United States. Topics include US strategic traditions, domestic political institutions, military-industrial complex, intra-military pressures, think tanks, media, and international law. The authors argue that social progress is not necessarily continuous. While there was widespread social and economic progress from the 1950s through 1970s in the United States, the country is now in a period of economic and political regression. The rise of drone warfare, and the domestic use of drones, is partly to blame. This gradual and important change signals a major departure from the traditional embrace of international law, military ethics, and domestic privacy.

One Nation Under Drones is an interesting and informative review of how robotic and unmanned systems are impacting every aspect of American life, from how we fight our wars; to how we play; to how we grow our food. Edited by Professor John Jackson, who holds the E.A. Sperry Chair of Unmanned and Robotic Systems at the United States Naval War College, this highly readable book features chapters from a dozen experts, researchers, and operators of the sophisticated systems that have become ubiquitous across the nation and around the world. Press reports have focused primarily on Unmanned Aerial Vehicles, officially designated as UAVs, but more often referred to as "drones". This book takes you behind the scenes and describes how Predators, Reapers, Scan Eagles and dozens of other pilotless aircraft have been used to fight the Global War on Terrorism. Although these systems seemed to emerge fully-developed into the skies above America's distant battlefields following the attacks of 9-11-2001, readers will discover how they actually trace their lineage to the First World War, when the "automatic airplane/aerial torpedo", designed and built by the Sperry Gyroscope Company, made its first flight just over a century ago. Unmanned aircraft were used by various combatants in World War II, and took many forms: from converted manned bombers to inter-continental attacks on the American homeland by rice-paper balloons. Technology developed in the latter decades of the 20th century enabled crews stationed thousands of miles away to attack targets on remote battlefields. Such long-range and remote-controlled weapons have been extensively used, but are controversial from both legal and ethical stand-points. Chapters written by international law specialists and drone pilots with advanced education in ethics address these issues from both sides of the argument. The book also details how robotic systems are being used on land, in and below the seas, and in civilian applications such as driverless cars. Three dozen photographs display drones as small as an insect up to those as large as a 737 airliner. One Nation Under Drones covers such a wide array of topics that it will be of interest to everyone from the casual reader seeking to know more about these systems, to national security professionals, both in and out of uniform, who will be making decisions about their procurement and use in decades to come. This work will become the definitive volume on the subject, providing the facts and avoiding the hype about systems that have moved off the pages of science fiction and into the environment all around us.

With “an unforgettable cast of characters” (W.E.B. Griffin) and nonstop action, Mike Maden’s Drone kicks off an explosive thriller series exploring the hard realities of drone warfare. Troy Pearce is the CEO of Pearce Systems, a private security firm specializing in drone technologies. A former CIA SOG operative, Pearce used his intelligence and combat skills to hunt down America’s enemies—until he opted out, having seen too many friends sacrificed for political expediency. Now Pearce and his team choose which battles they will take on. Pearce is done with the United States government for good, until a pair of drug cartel hit men assault a group of American students on American soil. New U.S. president Margaret Myers secretly authorizes Pearce Systems to locate and destroy the killers wherever they are. Now Pearce and his team are in a showdown with the hidden powers behind the El Paso attack—unleashing a host of unexpected repercussions.

While conventional warfare has an established body of legal precedence, the legality of drone strikes by the United States in Pakistan and elsewhere remains ambiguous. This book explores the legal and political issues surrounding the use of drones in Pakistan. Drawing from international treaty law, customary international law, and statistical data on the impact of the strikes, Sikander Ahmed Shah asks whether drone strikes by the United States in Pakistan are in compliance with international humanitarian law. The book questions how international law views the giving of consent between States for military action, and explores what this means for the interaction between sovereignty and consent. The book goes on to look at the socio-political realities of drone strikes in Pakistan, scrutinizing the impact of drone strikes on both Pakistani politics and US-Pakistan relationships. Topics include the Pakistan army-government relationship, the evolution of international institutions as a result of drone strikes, and the geopolitical dynamics affecting the region. As a detailed and critical examination of the legal and political challenges presented by drone strikes, this book will be essential to scholars and students of the law of armed conflict, security studies, political science and international relations.

"This volume is a collection of four reports that collectively address these issues by exploring the themes of legitimacy, civilian protection, and national security interests. They address questions in the modern counterterrorism context.This volume provides concrete recommendations for policy makers as well as military commanders, a number of which have, since the time of its writing, been incorporated into the recent U.S. policy guidelines related to civilian casualties. Although this volume focuses specifically on current counterterrorism practices, its analysis, frameworks, and conclusions can be applied in varying degrees to emerging technologies as well. These considerations can help a government ensure that its use of force is not only effective, but also responsible and consonant with its larger interests."--Provided by publisher.

Drone Wars presents a diverse and comprehensive interdisciplinary perspective on drones and the current state of the field.

Body and Nation interrogates the connections among the body, the nation, and the world in twentieth-century U.S. history. The idea that bodies and bodily characteristics are heavily freighted with values that are often linked to political and social spheres remains underdeveloped in the histories of America's relations with the rest of the world. Attentive to diverse state and nonstate actors, the contributors provide historically grounded insights into the transnational dimensions of biopolitics. Their subjects range from the regulation of prostitution in the Philippines by the U.S. Army to Cold War ideals of American feminine beauty, and from "body counts" as metrics of military success to cultural representations of Mexican migrants in the United States as public health threats. By considering bodies as complex, fluctuating, and interrelated sites of meaning, the contributors to this collection offer new insights into the workings of both soft and hard power. Contributors. Frank Costigliola, Janet M. Davis, Shanon Fitzpatrick, Paul A. Kramer, Shirley Jennifer Lim, Mary Ting Yi Lui, Natalia Molina, Brenda Gayle Plummer, Emily S. Rosenberg, Kristina Shull, Annessa C. Stagner, Marilyn B. Young

This book constitutes the thoroughly refereed post-conference proceedings of the Second International ICST Conference on Complex Sciences, COMPLEX 2012, held in Santa Fe, New Mexico, USA in December 2012. The 29 revised full papers presented were carefully reviewed and selected from various submissions. The papers cover aspects on foundations and analysis of complex systems, complex biological systems, complex social systems, complex engineering systems.