Synopses & Reviews
During the past decade, armed drones have entered the American military arsenal as a core tactic for countering terrorism. When coupled with access to reliable information, they make it possible to deploy lethal force accurately across borders while keeping oneandrsquo;s own soldiers out of harmandrsquo;s way. The potential to direct force with great precision also offers the possibility of reducing harm to civilians. At the same time, because drones eliminate some of the traditional constraints on the use of forceandmdash;like the need to gain political support for full mobilizationandmdash;they lower the threshold for launching military strikes. The development of drone use capacity across dozens of countries increases the need for global standards on the use of these weapons to assure that their deployment is strategically wise and ethically and legally sound.
Presenting a robust conversation among leading scholars in the areas of international legal standards, counterterrorism strategy, humanitarian law, and the ethics of force, Drones and the Future of Armed Conflict takes account of current American drone campaigns and the developing legal, ethical, and strategic implications of this new way of warfare. Among the contributions to this volume are a thorough examination of the American governmentandrsquo;s legal justifications for the targeting of enemies using drones, an analysis of American drone campaignsandrsquo; notable successes and failures, and a discussion of the linked issues of human rights, freedom of information, and government accountability.
Review
and#8220;While the peak of drone usage may have passed, we will be evaluating and reevaluating the legality, justice, and utility of the drone war for decades. Cortright, Fairhurst, and Wall provide an important contribution to the broader discussion on drone warfare. Readers with an interest in political affairs and the use of force will find this book fascinating, and those studying international relations and international law will also find much to like."
Review
andldquo;Drones and the Future of Armed Conflict is a welcome addition to the growing literature on drone warfare, bringing together specialists on strategy, human rights, ethics, and law to discuss the implications of drone use for each of these areas. In particular, Cortright and Fairhurst make a forceful and convincing case for why drones or a militarized strategy more generally should not be central to our counterterrorism policy.andrdquo;
Review
andldquo;Will norms evolve for cyber warfare analogous to those . . . that have helped keep the world free from the use of nuclear weapons since 1945? This thoughtful and careful work parses this hugely important question with care and creativity. Bravo.andrdquo;andmdash;R. James Woolsey, former director of the Central Intelligence Agency and chairman of the Foundation for Defense of Democracies
Review
andldquo;Dr. Mazanecandrsquo;s pioneering work on cyber norms fills a void in the nascent canon of cyber-conflict knowledge and sets a path forward for further research. Informative and instructive for todayandrsquo;s policymakers.andrdquo;andmdash;Bob Gourley, former chief technology officer of the Defense Intelligence Agency and the first director of intelligence at the Joint Task Force on Computer Network Defense
Review
andldquo;The Evolution of Cyber Warand#160;is a significant contribution to the required canon for anyone interested in understanding this new prospective weapon of mass destruction.andrdquo;andmdash;Keith Payne, former deputy assistant secretary of defense for Forces Policy and current president of the National Institute for Public Policy
Review
andldquo;Brian Mazanec has produced a stellar work by creating a set of norms and then applying them across different evolutions of weapons platforms.andrdquo;andmdash;Jeffrey Carr, CEO of cyber security firm Taia Global, Inc., and author of Inside Cyber Warfare: Mapping the Cyber Underworld
Synopsis
In the wake of the 9/11 attacks, the United States declared war on terrorism. More than ten years later, the results are decidedly mixed. Here world-renowned author, diplomat, and scholar Akbar Ahmed reveals an important yet largely ignored result of this war: in many nations it has exacerbated the already broken relationship between central governments and the largely rural Muslim tribal societies on the peripheries of both Muslim and non-Muslim nations. The center and the periphery are engaged in a mutually destructive civil war across the globe, a conflict that has been intensified by the war on terror.
Conflicts between governments and tribal societies predate the war on terror in many regions, from South Asia to the Middle East to North Africa, pitting those in the centers of power against those who live in the outlying provinces. Akbar Ahmed's unique study demonstrates that this conflict between the center and the periphery has entered a new and dangerous stage with U.S. involvement after 9/11 and the deployment of drones, in the hunt for al Qaeda, threatening the very existence of many tribal societies.
American firepower and its vast anti-terror network have turned the war on terror into a global war on tribal Islam. And too often the victims are innocent children at school, women in their homes, workers simply trying to earn a living, and worshipers in their mosques. Battered by military attacks or drone strikes one day and suicide bombers the next, the tribes bemoan, "Every day is like 9/11 for us."
In The Thistle and the Drone, the third volume in Ahmed's groundbreaking trilogy examining relations between America and the Muslim world, the author draws on forty case studies representing the global span of Islam to demonstrate how the U.S. has become involved directly or indirectly in each of these societies. The study provides the social and historical context necessary to understand how both central governments and tribal societies have become embroiled in America's war. Beginning with Waziristan and expanding to societies in Central Asia, the Middle East, North Africa, and elsewhere, Ahmed offers a fresh approach to the conflicts studied and presents an unprecedented paradigm for understanding and winning the war on terror.
The Thistle and the Drone was the 2013 Foreword Reviews Gold winner for Political Science.
Synopsis
Former secretary of defense Leon Panetta once described cyber warfare as andldquo;the most serious threat in the twenty-first century,andrdquo; capable of destroying our entire infrastructure and crippling the nation.
Already, major cyber attacks have affected countries around the world: Estonia in 2007, Georgia in 2008, Iran in 2010, and most recently the United States. As with other methods of war, cyber technology can be used not only against military forces and facilities but also against civilian targets. Information technology has enabled a new method of warfare that is proving extremely difficult to combat, let alone defeat.
And yet cyber warfare is still in its infancy, with innumerable possibilities and contingencies for how such conflicts may play out in the coming decades. Brian M. Mazanec examines the worldwide development of constraining norms for cyber war and predicts how those norms will unfold in the future. Employing case studies of other emerging-technology weaponsandmdash;chemical and biological, strategic bombing, and nuclear weaponryandmdash;Mazanec expands previous understandings of norm-evolution theory, offering recommendations for U.S. policymakers and citizens alike as they grapple with the reality of cyber terrorism in our own backyard.
About the Author
Brian M. Mazanec is an assistant director for defense capabilities and management with the U.S. government and an adjunct professor in the School of Policy, Government, and International Affairs at George Mason University. He is the coauthor of Deterring Cyber Warfare: Bolstering Strategic Stability in Cyberspace, and his work has appeared in Strategic Studies Quarterly, the National Cybersecurity Institute Journal, Comparative Strategy, Politics and the Life Sciences, and the Journal of International Security Affairs.