How do drones affect escalation dynamics? The emerging consensus from scholarship on drones highlights increased conflict initiation when drones allow decisionmakers to avoid the risks of deploying inhabited platforms, but far less attention has been paid to understanding how drones affect conflict escalation. Limited theorization and empirical testing have left debates unresolved. I unpack the underlying mechanisms influencing escalation decisions involving drones by proposing a logic of remote-controlled restraint: drones limit escalation in ways not possible when inhabited assets are used. To test this logic and explore its instrumental and emotional microfoundations, I field "comparative wargames." I immerse national security professionals in crisis scenarios that vary whether a drone or inhabited aircraft is shot down. I validate wargame findings using a survey experiment. The wargames shed light on the microfoundations of escalation, highlight limits of existing theories, and demonstrate the utility of comparative wargaming as an IR research tool.

无人机如何影响升级动态？关于无人机的学术共识凸显了当无人机允许决策者避免部署有人居住平台的风险时，冲突引发的增加，但对了解无人机如何影响冲突升级的关注却少得多。有限的理论化和实证检验使争论没有得到解决。我通过提出遥控约束的逻辑来解开影响涉及无人机的升级决策的潜在机制：使用有人居住的资产时，无人机以不可能的方式限制升级。为了测试这个逻辑并探索它的工具和情感微观基础，我使用了“比较兵棋推演”。我让国家安全专业人员沉浸在危机情景中，无论是无人机还是有人居住的飞机被击落，都会有所不同。我使用调查实验验证兵棋推演结果。兵棋推演阐明了升级的微观基础，突出了现有理论的局限性，并展示了比较兵棋推演作为 IR 研究工具的效用。