More drones, more war
The notion that deploying drones will enable militaries to conduct war with greater precision and less civilian harm is neither new, nor accurate argues the IRW team in an op-ed for the NRC.
Technologies
The Technologies of Remote Warfare
The history of warfare has been defined by technological innovation. Everything from gunpowder to the atomic bomb has radically altered the way wars are fought and peace is achieved. Remote warfare is no exception. Conducting warfare from a distance is made possible by a complex network of technologies including unmanned vehicles, satellite communications and precision-guided munitions. By transforming what is possible on and off the battlefield, the ascendency of these technologies raises fresh questions about the role of humans in warfare as well as how the technologies themselves are developed and proliferate.
Here you will find our own research output and a variety of other thematically relevant publications, blogs, events and podcasts we have been inspired by in our investigations into the Intimacies of Remote Warfare.
How Remote is Remote Warfare?
Watch Intimacies of Remote Warfare project founder Prof. Jolle Demmers tackling the big questions surrounding remote warfare and call for more transparency in her recent talk for Stadium Generale.
Military & Technology: In Their Own Words
‘The conversation is not about the morality of going to war, but rather the technology of winning’ claims former US Marine Anthony Swofford in article for MIT Technology Review.
Crowded Skies: Drones in Nagorno-Karabakh
Whilst a deluge of video clips showing drone-captured footage of air and missile strikes on seemingly defenceless ground vehicles led some to proclaim the ‘death of the tank’, this may have been an overestimation of the real impact drones had in the conflict.
Drone Warfare: Today, Tomorrow, Forever?
This webinar addresses the trends in global drone development and use, and discusses where campaigners should be focusing their efforts in the coming years.
Remote Warfare & Technology: Innovation in Conflict
This IRW project develops a fuller understanding of how humans shape technologies, and how technologies shape our actions in warfare.
The latest arms race is not about bombs, but about algorithms
Are autonomous weapons provoking a security dilemma?
The Good War
This five part podcast series made by IRW’s Isa Zoetbrood reflects on The Netherlands’ use of remote warfare.
The Pentagon’s sword missile isn’t an endless war feel-good story
Kelsey Atherton reflects on the technological innovation and political stagnation of a forever war.
Algorithmic Warfare and the Reinvention of Accuracy
Project Maven and what the automation of data analysis means for targeting
The Ambiguities of Precision Warfare
What do we talk about when we talk about precision in warfare?
The Role of Civilian Innovation in the Development of Lethal Autonomous Weapon Systems
Maike Verbruggen considers the dynamics shaping civil-military relations surrounding LAWS
How (not) to talk about technology: International Relations and the question of Agency
Hoijtink and Leese explore new ways of thinking about new technologies.
Humanitized violence: Targeted killings and civilian deaths in the US war against the Islamic State
Bonds charts the rise of ‘humanitized violence’ in the war against ISIS.
Eyes in the sky – bodies on the ground
Gregory on the human impacts of technological warfare.
Digital civilian detectives
This documentary from Schuchen Tan examines the use of open-source intelligence for monitoring and investigating conflict.
A Theory of the Drone
Gregoire Chamayou’s searing critique of drone warfare.
The labor of surveillance and bureaucratized killing: new subjectivities of military drone operators
Peter Asaro explores what it means to be a soldier of remote warfare.