Drone Warfare and Political Dynamics
Summary
Since the early 21st century, the deployment of unmanned aerial vehicles has revolutionised modern conflict by enabling remote engagement and precision strikes that minimise direct risk to personnel. This transformation has reshaped strategic calculations, shifting the balance of power between state and non-state actors and provoking debates over legality, ethics and accountability. The integration of autonomy and artificial intelligence into military platforms intensifies geopolitical competition, as states and alliances vie for technological superiority and control of contested airspaces. At the same time, critical scholarship has revealed how the embodied labour of drone operators and the infrastructures supporting their missions influence policy formation and public opinion. The atmospheric “enclosure” of sovereign skies by drone fleets redefines surveillance, resistance and territorial sovereignty, challenging traditional warfighting norms. This overview situates drone warfare within broader processes of digitalisation, automation and global power realignment, highlighting its practical applications, normative dilemmas and the interplay between technological innovation and political authority.
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Drone Warfare and Political Dynamics publication trend
The graph below shows the total number of articles in drone warfare and political dynamics across all publications each year (not limited to Nature Index journals).
Technical terms
Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV): A remotely piloted or autonomous aircraft used for surveillance or strike missions.
Autonomous Weapon System: A platform capable of selecting and engaging targets without direct human control.
Drone Swarm: A coordinated group of UAVs operating collectively under algorithmic control to achieve strategic objectives.
Situational Awareness: The real-time understanding of the operational environment enabled by sensor data and intelligence systems.
Embodied Geopolitics: The study of how the physical experiences of drone operators and associated infrastructure shape geopolitical outcomes.
References
- ‘Manning’ the ‘unmanned’: Reapproaching the military drone through learning the/to drone. Political Geography (2023).
- The Great War of Enclosure: Securing the Skies. Antipode (2017).
- Robot Wars: US Empire and geopolitics in the robotic age. Security Dialogue (2017).
- Imaginaries of omniscience: Automating intelligence in the US Department of Defense. Social Studies of Science (2022).
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