Eyes in the sky – bodies on the ground
Gregory on the human impacts of technological warfare.
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.
Remote warfare is only remote for some. While politicians portray it as humanitarian, so-called ‘precision’ airstrikes often lead to mass civilian casualties. The distance at which this type of war is waged and the inaccessibility of its battlefields often leads to these casualties being overlooked. In recent years, however, a growing community of NGOs have utilised remote-sensing techniques to monitor local claims of civilian harm. The resulting contestation of the exact numbers of civilian casualties has provoked intense debate. This raises pressing questions about the impact of the violence executed and democratic control.
Journal Article: Vicarious warfare: The counterproductive consequences of modern American military practice
Thomas Waldman details how delegation, darkness and danger-proofing contribute to blowback effects for states waging remote warfare.
Digital civilian detectives
This documentary from Schuchen Tan examines the use of open-source intelligence for monitoring and investigating conflict.
Unmanned: America’s Drone Wars
This documentary presents an overview of remote warfare's inconvenient truths: violations of international law, loss of innocent life, psychological and societal trauma, and potential blowback.
Journal Article: Drone Warfare in Yemen: Fostering Emirates through Counterterrorism?
Hudson, Owens and Callen examine the political blowback of drone trikes in Yemen.
Journal Article: Drone warfare: Blowback from the New American way of war
Hudson, Owens and Flannes investigate the radicalising effects of targeted killings.
Blowback: The Costs and Consequences of an American Empire
Chalmers Johnson on the unintended outcomes of covert operations.