BOOK REVIEW: One Nation, Under Drones: Legality, Morality and the Utility of Unmanned Combat Systems
By Capt. John E. Jackson, USN, (Ret.) Editor, Naval Institute Press
Reviewed by Terence Check
The development of “drones”, it would seem, has come full circle. From a technology originally pioneered in the garages of a few enterprising visionaries to its current applications on the battlefield, the drone has evolved and proliferated to such an extent that novel uses of the technology are likely to come from the garages of terrorist groups and cartels.
As the uses of drone technology expand across geographies and functional areas, One Nation, Under Drones, edited by Captain John E. Jackson, USN (Ret.) is an essential and long-needed survey of the most pressing issues regarding the combat uses of drone technology. In an area where every day brings fresh developments and reporting on “drones,” One Nation, Under Drones helpfully elevates the discussion by calling on legal, ethical, technological, and military experts to examine the most critical aspects of combat applications of drone technology.
One Nation, Under Drones folds out in thirteen chapters. Roughly half of them pertain to specific uses of drone technology by the U.S. military. The other chapters examine technological, legal, or ethical questions raised by the combat applications of drones and other unmanned systems. Captain Jackson and his contributors do the essential work of laying down the factual foundation for the discussion of drones, as any fulsome discussion of the intellectual issues is impossible without a shared understanding what are drones, how are drones being used, and who is using them? Following this necessary overview, the later chapters begin to raise and examine the difficult ethical and legal questions regarding “drone warfare.”
Put simply, One Nation, Under Drones is a comprehensive survey of the technological, ethical, and legal considerations for drone warfare. Each chapter is accessible to a lay audience, and national security professionals should have little trouble in extracting useful information and perspectives from the esteemed group of experts assembled by Captain Jackson. At times, the alphabet soup of military terms and programs proved to be a little daunting: a glossary of acronyms and initialisms would have made reading the book easier. Additionally, the contributors separately used several different acronyms to reference the same general sort of technology under discussion. The lack of a common lexicon to discuss “drone” issues might complicate future legal and policy discussions.
Each of the chapters in the book is well written and extensively researched. In particular, the contributions by Michael Schmitt, Konstantin Kakaes, and P.W. Singer are especially noteworthy for their clarity and sharp analysis. There is not a weak link in the entire book, though some chapters will obviously resonate more with certain audiences over others.
I would have liked for the book to draw sharper lines between the legal and ethical issues posed by remote piloted aircraft and robotic systems that operate under full or partial autonomy. The former has its own significant issues, but such issues could be more understandable within existing paradigms under the law of armed conflict. The latter, though, will likely challenge existing norms in a more substantive way. The proliferation of autonomous or semi-autonomous drone systems in combat environments would, in the words of contributor Ron Arkin, provide a “revolution in military affairs.” The applications of autonomous combat systems may force lawyers, policy-makers, and military leaders to examine difficult ethical and legal problems in the near future.
In essence, autonomous weapons systems—of whatever scope or scale—would require the quite literal codification of nuanced legal and policy judgments in the programming of these drones. Ultimately, some might welcome our new robot comrades: after all, robots have no sense of self-preservation and are less likely to make critical errors, such as mistaking a cell phone for a gun. Others might be more pessimistic: complex environments tend to confound even experienced human operators, and the abilities of robots to fare as well as a human or better may be exaggerated. If a self-driving car would not be able to navigate downtown Washington at rush hour, why would one expect an autonomous drone to acquire targets and deliver a payload in other than the most mundane or clinical circumstances? One Nation, Under Drones provides plenty of reasons to think that both perspectives may be right in their own ways.
In summary, Captain Jackson and the contributors to One Nation, Under Drones have done an excellent job of posing the critical questions that will define a new age of warfare. One Nation, Under Drones will help national security professionals, lawyers, and ethicists begin the difficult work of formulating the answers to such questions.
This book earns an impressive 3.5 out of 4 trenchcoats
Terence Check is an attorney working for the federal government in the field of national security and administrative law. Terence is a graduate of American University and Cleveland State University.
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