Lightning Bugs And Other Reconnaissance Drones

Object Lessons is a series of short, beautifully designed books about the hidden lives of ordinary things. Drones are in the newspaper, on the TV screen, swarming through the networks, and soon, we're told, they'll be delivering our shopping. But what are drones? The word encompasses everything from toys to weapons. And yet, as broadly defined as they are, the word “drone” fills many of us with a sense of technological dread. Adam Rothstein cuts through the mystery, the unknown, and the political posturing, and talks about what drones really are: what technologies are out there, and what's coming next; how drones are talked about, and how they are represented in popular culture. It turns out that drones are not as scary as they appear-but they are more complicated than you might expect. Drones reveal the strange relationships that humans are forming with their new technologies. Object Lessons is published in partnership with an essay series in The Atlantic.

While the use of drones is now commonplace in modern warfare, it was in its infancy during the Vietnam War, not to mention revolutionary and top secret. Drones would play an important – and today largely unheralded – role in the bloody, two-decade US air war over Vietnam and surrounding countries in the 1960s and ’70s. Drone aircraft spotted targets for manned US bombers, jammed North Vietnamese radars and scattered propaganda leaflets, among other missions. This book explores that obscure chapter of history. DRONE WAR: VIETNAM is based on military records, official histories and published first-hand accounts from early drone operators, as well as on a close survey of existing scholarship on the topic. In their fledgling efforts to send robots instead of human beings on the most dangerous aerial missions, US operators in South-East Asia in the 1960s and ’70s wrote the first chapter in the continuing tale of autonomous warfare.

Unmanning studies the conditions that create unmanned platforms in the United States through a genealogy of experimental, pilotless planes flown between 1936 and 1992. Rather than treating the drone as a result of the war on terror, this book examines contemporary targeted killing through a series of failed experiments to develop unmanned flight in the twentieth century. These experiments are tied to histories of global control, cybernetics, racism and colonialism. Drone crashes and failures call attention to the significance of human action in making technopolitics that comes to be opposed to "man" and the paradoxes at their basis.

This book provides an insightful introduction to the most important field of military innovation for the 21st century—robotic and drone weaponry. For centuries, warring nations have sought to lower the risk to highly vulnerable humans on the battlefield, typically by providing protective armor, making soldiers' positions more difficult to detect, or by striking from locations safe from retaliation. Autonomous weaponry has now reached the point where robotic systems can perform some key tasks that previously required direct human involvement. Military Robots and Drones: A Reference Handbook introduces the lay person to a highly specialized topic, providing the foundation necessary for further study in this field. Appropriate for high school and college-level students, as well as general readers with an interest in the topic, the author explains the many military applications of robotics as well as current limitations and disadvantages. The book also provides a general history of robotic warfare; examines key individuals, agencies, documents, and models; discusses controversies within the field of robotic and drone warfare, such as ethical considerations; and explains how increased reliance on robotics has affected the structure and strategy of the military.

Contrary to its contemporary image, deniable covert operations are not something new. Such activities have been ordered by every president and every administration since the Second World War. In many instances covert operations have relied on surrogates, with American personnel involved only at a distance, insulated by layers of deniability. Shadow Warfare traces the evolution of these covert operations, detailing the tactics and tools used from the Truman era through those of the contemporary Obama Administrations. It also explores the personalities and careers of many of the most noted shadow warriors of the past sixty years, tracing the decade–long relationship between the CIA and the military. Shadow Warfare presents a balanced, non–polemic exploration of American secret warfare, detailing its patterns, consequences and collateral damage and presenting its successes as well as failures. Shadow Wars explores why every president from Franklin Roosevelt on, felt compelled to turn to secret, deniable military action. It also delves into the political dynamic of the president's relationship with Congress and the fact that despite decades of combat, the U.S. Congress has chosen not to exercise its responsibility to declare a single state of war – even for extended and highly visible combat.

A human rights lawyer travels to hot zones around the globe, before and after the September 11 attacks, to document abuses committed by warlords, terrorist groups, and government counterterrorism forces. Whether reporting on al Qaeda safe houses, the mechanics of the Pentagon’s smartest bombs, his interviews with politicians and ordinary civilians, or his own brush with death outside Kabul, John Sifton wants to help us understand violence—what it is, and how we think and speak about it. For the human rights community, the global war on terror brought unprecedented challenges. Of special concern were the secret detention centers operated by the CIA as it expanded into a paramilitary force, and the harsh treatment of prisoners throughout Iraq and Afghanistan. In drafting legal memoranda that made domestic prosecution for these crimes impossible, Sifton argues, the United States possessed not only the detainees but the law itself. Sifton recounts his efforts to locate secret prisons and reflects on the historical development of sanctioned military or police violence—from hand-to-hand combat to the use of drones—and the likelihood that technology will soon enable completely automated killing. Sifton is equally concerned to examine what people have meant by nonviolent social change, and he asks whether pure nonviolence is ever possible. To invoke rights is to invoke the force to uphold them, he reminds us. Ultimately, advocates for human rights can only shame the world into better behavior, and their work may involve advocating the very violence they deplore.

Wars may officially end and treaties may be signed, but their lethal legacy lives on in the form of unexploded ordinance and minefields that continue to harm civilian populations. Aerial reconnaissance reduces the need for risky, costly and time-consuming ground operations, and the rapid development of unmanned aerial vehicles offers crucial innovations for addressing the aftermath of conflicts worldwide. Aleksandar Smiljanic, an international recognized subject matter expert in next generation defence technologies, examines current developments in technology, electronics, and unmanned autonomous systems that are increasingly allowing military experts to address the challenges of mine clearance and left-over munitions, thereby helping to neutralize the dangers posed by former battlefields. Focusing on the role that unmanned vehicle reconnaissance can play in future identification and clearance operations, the author's timely and critical account - richly illustrated and with a host of supporting scientific and mathematical evidence throughout - offers a fertile and thought-provoking array of solutions to a scourge that has affected civilian populations and civic infrastructure throughout the world for decades. This is a must-read for political and military policymakers and a vital contribution to global efforts at humanitarian relief when it comes to rebuilding the social, political, economic, and cultural landscape of affected populations, with effects not just on their own countries but consequences for us all.