Drones ← Joshua Foust

Human Agency and the Moral Imperative of Robot Warfare

May

2013

There have been a number of responses to my FP article on robot autonomy and warfare — some serious, some laughably unserious. Among the more serious and considered is Jay Adler. Writing for The Algemeiner, he brings up the biggest and, I think, most serious objection to increasing automation in warfare: human agency. He also, perhaps ...

Do Drones Work?

May

2013

For the American Prospect, I ask do drones actually accomplish the goal they’re meant to? Taken as a whole, drones seem to be quite good at what they’re supposed to do: disrupting terrorist groups. But that isn’t enough to actually end the threat posed by terror groups. Are the civilian and psychological costs drones incur ...

Why Drone Autonomy Might Actually Be Good for Human Rights

May

2013

Over at Foreign Policy, I have a piece suggesting autonomous drones might actually be good for us. Yet many experts are uncertain whether autonomous attack weapons are necessarily a bad thing, either. “Can we program drones well? I’m not sure if we can trust the software or not,” Samuel Liles, a Purdue professor specializing in ...

Quoted in Business Insider

May

2013

Business Insider’s Michael Kelley quoted me extensively in this article on why targeted killings came to dominate Obama’s counterterrorism policy. “The outcry over extraordinary rendition — which was how President Bush went about capturing and interrogating a lot of these suspected individuals — was incredibly unpopular … abroad [and] in the U.S.,” Foust said. “Frankly, killing people ...

Talking to the Loopcast about drones

Apr

2013

Last night I spoke with Loopcast’s Sina Kashefipour about drones. You can listen below: <div> <audio controls=”controls” id=”auidoplayerhtml5podbeanc6aa0fbf122664744b336abbc7563b85″> <source src=”http://theloopcast.podbean.com/mf/play/38cdd/Episode20.mp3″ type=”audio/mpeg” autoplay=”no”> Your browser does not support the audio element. </audio> <script type=”text/javascript”> var audioTag = document.createElement(‘audio’); if (!(!!(audioTag.canPlayType) && (“no” != audioTag.canPlayType(“audio/mpeg”)) && (“” != audioTag.canPlayType(“audio/mpeg”)))) { document.getElementById(‘auidoplayerhtml5podbeanc6aa0fbf122664744b336abbc7563b85′).parentNode.removeChild(document.getElementById(‘auidoplayerhtml5podbeanc6aa0fbf122664744b336abbc7563b85′)); document.write(‘<object classid=”clsid:d27cdb6e-ae6d-11cf-96b8-444553540000″ codebase=”http://fpdownload.macromedia.com/pub/shockwave/cabs/flash/swflash.cab#version=6,0,0,0″ width=”210″ height=”25″ id=”mp3playerlightsmallv3″ ...

Interviewed in The Telegraph

Apr

2013

I’m quoted in this Rob Crilly story about UN Special Rapporteur Ben Emmerson’s comments on the legality of drone strikes. In an interview with CNN, Mr Emmerson, the UN’s special rapporteur on counter-terrorism and human rights, said: “If it is lawful for the US to drone al-Qaeda associates wherever they find them, then it is also ...

Sky News Arabia Segment on Drones in America

Apr

2013

I was on Sky News Arabia to talk about the issues of drones, privacy, and civil liberties in America. The full segment, in Arabic, is below.

Proportionality and Discrimination: How the Drone Debate Misses the Point

Apr

2013

April is, apparently, to be a month of protest against drones. The protesters, working off the assumption that drones are indiscriminate killing robots, plan to build public opposition to the aircraft through nation-wide protest events at various cities and even a few drone manufacturers. These protesters, however, will run up against two very big problems ...

For PBS: The Islamabad Drone Dance

Mar

2013

The U.N. Special Rapporteur on Counter-Terrorism and Human Rights,Ben Emmerson, conducted a three-day visit to Islamabad, Pakistan last week. Despite his stated purpose to investigate drone strikes, he did not speak with any of the agencies responsible for those strikes, or even visit any strike sites. Instead, Mr. Emmerson met with some government officials, dutifully reported what ...

Huffington Post Live Segment on Drones and Assassination

Mar

2013

I was on a Huffington Post Live segment today about drones and assassination. Watch here: