Combat Drones and International Order: An English School Approach

The purpose of this work is to examine the effect of the use of combat drones for the practice of targeted killing on international order. The understanding of these effects is critical for if the use of combat drones for targeted killing undermines critical institutions of international society, which serves as the basis for international order, then the international order itself would be undermined. It is a qualitative study of drones and their effect on select primary institutions found within the theoretical framework of the English School (ES) of International Relations. The institutions used in this work are sovereignty, territoriality, international law, great power management, and war. This work builds its case on open source primary and secondary documents from the UN and news outlets to gauge the effect and reaction of states to the use of drones over the last 15 years. It found that drones and targeted killing have indeed had a detrimental effect on the institutions of sovereignty, territoriality, and international law. However, drones have also met positive approval by great power management and have helped change the nature of the institution of war.