Is conventional warfare dead in the Age of Drone killings?
Wednesday 11 July 2012
The mass efforts of armed forces on conventional battle fields or facing insurgencies such as in Iraq and Afghanistan may soon become a thing of the past as new technologies like drones replace these tactics and sweeping cuts are made to UK armed forces.
In this context, targeted killings which are increasingly being used to achieve foreign policy and security objectives will be the focus of study by academics at the University of Surrey at a special workshop called ‘Hitting the Target’ on July 12 and 13.
Jamie Shea, NATO's Deputy Assistant Secretary General, one of those due to attend, says: “As NATO's ISAF mission prepares to leave Afghanistan in 2014, speculation is rife that the operations of the future will be different from the peacekeeping, nation building and stabilisation missions that we have become used to in Afghanistan, Iraq and the Balkans over the past two decades.
“Will these next operations be more covert, more in the shadows and relying principally on Special Forces, drones, surveillance technologies and local proxies? If so, is this choice either wise or inevitable and what are the consequences for the NATO Allies in terms of technology, international law, tactics and the ability to continue to plan and operate together? This conference comes at the best possible time to explore these important issues and to provide answers as to the way ahead".
The academic workshop, organised by cii – the Centre for International Intervention based in the School of Politics – and funded by the University’s Institute of Advanced Studies, looks specifically at the capabilities provided by technological advances in the area of so-called ‘precision strikes’, whether they be from conventional weaponry or unmanned aerial systems, now colloquialised as ‘drones’, asking:
• how behavioural and social scientists can help engineers and physical scientists understand and address the implications of new technologies for the people who use them and the people who are affected by them
• what responsibility, if any, the developers of technology have for the social and ethical consequences of its use
• how our society ensures that policy and legal frameworks remain abreast of new capabilities, rather than lagging behind them.
The workshop will involve academics from a wide range of disciplines from both within Surrey and universities all over the world, as well as practitioners from government, the military, industry and NGOs.
Professor Sir Mike Aaronson, co-organiser of the workshop and co-director of cii, said: “There is considerable public debate about the rights and wrongs of these new technologies, but the workshop will allow us to get behind the headlines and look in greater depth at their implications for scientists, policy-makers and society as a whole. Our aim is to generate ideas for future collaborative research programmes across disciplines, geographies and the academic/practitioner divide.”
The event will take place on 12 and 13 July.
For more information, please visit: www.ias.surrey.ac.uk/workshops/intervention/index.php.