Review of the special issue ‘robotics autonomous systems and warfare,’<i>Small Wars and Insurgencies</i>31, 4 June 2020

Abstract

The purpose of this review article is to assess the strengths and weaknesses of a recent special issue of Small Wars & Insurgencies, “The impacts of robotics and autonomous systems (RAS) across the conflict spectrum,” as it relates to the case of drone warfare. The special issue both reinforces and expands on the preceding “three waves” of drone warfare literature. Specifically, contributing authors further explain the proliferation of drones among states, problematize their effectiveness, and unpack the normative implications of their use. The authors also raise important questions regarding the proliferation of drones to non-state actors, the social-psychology of leaders’ use of drones, and scholars’ inconsistent understanding of the rightful conduct of drone strikes by states in regional and global contexts. The special issue, therefore, constitutes an important inflection point in the extant literature on drone warfare. It sets the conditions for a future research agenda that requires scholars to better link the competing logics that inform states’ use of drone strikes to the trade-offs imposed on global order, as well as the managerial recourses that are available to member states of international society.