Prescription drones: On the techno-biopolitical regimes of contemporary ‘ethical killing’

Abstract

As military technologies progress at a pace that challenges human cognitive and reasoning capacities, it is becoming ever more difficult to appraise the ethics of their use. In this article I argue that the contours of ethical killing are shaped and constrained by a medical discourse that has its basis in a deeper regime of technobiopolitical expertise. Narratives and representations of drones as surgical, ethical, and wise instruments for counter-terrorism activities not only rely on the rendering neutral of both technology and practice, but also on a conflation of technology with practice as a biopolitical necessity. In this conflation, I argue, the practice of targeted killing is adiaphorized. Images and metaphors of the body politic turn drone strikes into a form of medicine that experts prescribe as a means of treating or preventing political cancers, diseases, and illnesses. Ethics, in turn, is treated as a primarily technical matter-something to be technologically clarified and administered from an expert space beyond the zone of ethical contestation. As long as this is the case, ethics will remain but a cog in our new killing machines.

Deciding on Appropriate Use of Force: Human‐machine Interaction in Weapons Systems and Emerging Norms

“…While questions of international law are also predominant in this research field, theoretically motivated studies have also investigated the effect of drone warfare on concepts of the use of force (Kaag and Kreps, 2014;Sauer and Sch€ ornig, 2012;Warren and Bode, 2015) and assessed technological features as well as political and sociological effects (Schwarz, 2016;Walters, 2014). While questions of international law are also predominant in this research field, theoretically motivated studies have also investigated the effect of drone warfare on concepts of the use of force (Kaag and Kreps, 2014;Sauer and Sch€ ornig, 2012;Warren and Bode, 2015) and assessed technological features as well as political and sociological effects (Schwarz, 2016;Walters, 2014).…”

“…Research on remote-warfare is dominated by the growing importance of armed drones, particularly in the US-led 'war on terror'. While questions of international law are also predominant in this research field, theoretically motivated studies have also investigated the effect of drone warfare on concepts of the use of force (Kaag and Kreps, 2014;Sauer and Sch€ ornig, 2012;Warren and Bode, 2015) and assessed technological features as well as political and sociological effects (Schwarz, 2016;Walters, 2014). However, drones are only part of a broader security network, comprising highly interrelated actors and technologies.…”

Robot Wars: US Empire and geopolitics in the robotic age

“…Since the US Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) increased the number of Predator drone strikes under the Obama administration, there has been a surge of interest in remote warfare. Scholars have researched its historical ( Kindervater, 2016 ; Satia, 2014 ), philosophical ( Chamayou, 2015 ), legal ( Shaw and Akhter, 2012 ), spatial ( Gregory, 2014 ), ethical ( Schwarz, 2016 ), and material dimensions ( Holmqvist, 2013 ; Walters, 2014 ). Drone warfare continues to complicate the relationship between humans and nonhumans ( Wilcox, 2017 ), as well as the status of sovereignty and territory ( Shaw, 2016 ).…”

Introduction to the Special Section: The Autonomisation of Weapons Systems: Challenges to International Relations

“…Research on drones as novel security instruments has produced important insights into the ethical, legal, social, and political consequences and implications of their deployment (Cavallaro et al, 2012;Sauer and Sch€ ornig, 2012;Gregory, 2015;Warren and Bode, 2014;Casey-Maslen, 2012;Schwarz, 2016;Chamayou, 2015). The US-lead escalation of 'drone-warfare' , facilitated by the introduction of increasingly sophisticated, remotely-controlled weapons systems, has become one of the most visible outcomes of this ongoing reconceptualization of interventionism and has not only gained significant academic but also political and public attention.…”

“…The US-lead escalation of 'drone-warfare' , facilitated by the introduction of increasingly sophisticated, remotely-controlled weapons systems, has become one of the most visible outcomes of this ongoing reconceptualization of interventionism and has not only gained significant academic but also political and public attention. Research on drones as novel security instruments has produced important insights into the ethical, legal, social, and political consequences and implications of their deployment (Cavallaro et al, 2012;Sauer and Sch€ ornig, 2012;Gregory, 2015;Warren and Bode, 2014;Casey-Maslen, 2012;Schwarz, 2016;Chamayou, 2015).…”