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.

摘要

这篇评论文章的目的是评估最近一期的《小规模战争与叛乱》（Small Wars＆Inssurencies）的优缺点。，“与机器人技术和自治系统（RAS）在整个冲突范围内的影响”，因为它与无人机战案有关。该特刊既加强又扩展了先前的无人机战争文学的“三波”。具体来说，有贡献的作者进一步解释了无人机在各州之间的扩散，使无人机的有效性出现问题并解开了无人机使用的规范含义。作者还提出了一些重要问题，涉及无人机向非国家行为者的扩散，领导人使用无人机的社会心理，以及学者对国家在区域和全球范围内对无人机袭击的正确行为持不一致的理解。因此，这一特殊问题构成了有关无人机战争的现有文献中的一个重要拐点。