1. The Changing
Face of War
Impact of Drones On
Society and Warfare
Technology, society and global dominance
(cultural, economic and military)
2. Background
Analysis by an American think tank The Brookings Institution
on drone attacks in Pakistan has shown that for every
militant leader killed, 10 civilians also have died.
The use of armed drones United States has been
by the United States in using drones in Pakistan
Afghanistan and Pakistan and other countries to
has increased massively, assassinate “terrorist
with 131 drone strikes leaders.”
reported in northwest
Pakistan alone since 2004,
of which a quarter took Singapore has recently
place in the first five invested in High Speed
months of 2010. Aerial Target Drones
3. What are Drones?
• Unmanned Aerial
Vehicles (UAVs)
• Controlled from the
ground or autonomous
following a pre-
programmed mission
• Used for combat,
reconnaissance and
surveillance purposes
6. 1. Laws of war has not caught up with
technology
No precedent or rule exists for the
placement of responsibility
Militaries operate with little heed
to the actual consequences
7. Keith Shurtleff, an army chaplain and ethics instructor at Fort
Jackson, South Carolina worries “that as war becomes safer
and easier, as soldiers are removed from the horrors of war
and see the enemy not as humans but as blips on a screen,
there is very real danger of losing the deterrent that such
horrors provide.”
Noel Sharkey, Professor of
Artificial Intelligence and Robotics
at the University of Sheffield
highlights: ‘The further away you
are, the easier it is to kill…it’s
changing the nature of war
dramatically’
8. 2.Society’s changing view of war and
bloodshed
• “Sanitising” the act of
killing
• Society and soldiers
desensitized to the costs
and effects of war
• War and bloodshed =
entertainment?
9. 3. Potential economic implications
• Growth of military-
industrial complex
• Defense contractors
grow in power and
influence
10. 4. How drone warfare affects the current
political distribution of power
• Manpower used to be
significant in determining
the power of a military or a
nation
• Technological and financial
capacity are now
determinants of a powerful
military force
11. 5. Risk to society
• Vulnerable to loss of signal
or a power surge
• Vulnerable to exploitation
like hacking.
13. Drone warfare’s newly
impersonal qualities may change
our view of war or change the
world’s balance of power as we
know it
Key takeaway messages
“The idea that slick, new
weapons will solve human
conflict is an old and enduring
myth. In truth, violence will not
bring an end to violence.”
17. Issues for discussion
•Drones do have advantages
in warfare, however does that
make the usage of drones in
war acceptable?
•What kind of law should be
put in place with regards to
drone combatants?
