A Study on the Conformity of the U.S. Drone Attacks to the International Law of War: A Case of Combat Drones in Pakistan, 2004 to 2013

Abstract

By 2013, more than a decade after the CIA drone campaign began, the most significant changes have involved increased transparency regarding the program. Over time, now the controversies over the morality and legality of the drone attacks have flooded in the studies of international affairs. In this regard, this paper seeks to answer reasons behind critical disparities surrounding the legality of drone strikes under the existing laws of war, based on the English School theory of international relations which defines 'international society' as a group of states which not merely form a combined system, in the sense that the conduct of each is a necessary factor in the evaluations and regulations of the others, but also have established by dialogue and consent common laws and institutions for the exercise of their relations. In that sense, this paper assumes that the lack of specific codified norms regarding the "drones" and the fact that drone strikes have so far been used outside the conventional warfare is what caused these scholarly disparities. In proving the hypotheses, it concludes that drone technology itself cannot be judged as illegal

rather the "irregular" warfare where the drones has been mainly used has made the drones seem to violate the established international law of war. The future of drone warfare waits ahead of us, and it is urged that international society promptly fill out the missing norms regarding the abnormalities of future warfare.