Drones and Global Order: Reflections on Ukraine

Following the terrorist attacks of 9/11, the U.S. inaugurated the use of armed Unmanned Aerial Vehicles or drones to combat terrorists. Since then, drones have proliferated broadly. Over 102 countries and nearly 65 stateless groups now possess drones. This suggests that “drone warfare” is no longer merely a U.S. phenomenon focusing on counterterrorism. Rather, countries and other non-state actors are acquiring drones and using them differently. Ukraine, for instance, has capitalized on drones to help block Russia’s seizure of Kyiv to install a puppet regime. Given this development, how do we understand emerging patterns of drone warfare globally? What are the implications of the evolving proliferation of drones for international security and global order? How do these consequences, in turn, shape policies to manage the emergence of automated and autonomous remote-warfare technologies?

This panel discussion draws on the insights of three experts to answer these and related questions, including Emeritus Professor William Maley, Associate Professor Cecilia Jacob, and U.S. Army Lieutenant Colonel Paul Lushenko.

Moderator

John Blaxland is Professor of International Security and Intelligence Studies and former Head of the Strategic and Defence Studies Centre at The Australian National University. He is a Senior Fellow of the Higher Education Academy, a Fellow of the Royal Society of New South Wales, a member of the Australian Army Journal editorial board, and the first Australian recipient of a US Department of Defense Minerva Research Initiative grant.

Panelists

Cecilia Jacob is Associate Professor in the Department of International Relations at the Australian National University. She is an Australian Research Council DECRA fellow and visiting fellow at the Institute for Ethics, Law and Armed Conflict at the University of Oxford. Her work focuses on civilian protection, mass atrocity prevention, and international human protection norms. Cecilia is co-editor of the journal Global Responsibility to Protect, and co-chair of the Asia-Pacific Working Group of Global Action Against Mass Atrocities (GAAMAC). Her books include Child Security in Asia: The Impact of Armed Conflict in Cambodia and Myanmar (Routledge, 2014), Civilian Protection in the Twenty-First Century: Governance and Responsibility in a Fragmented World (co-edited, Oxford University Press, 2016) and Implementing the Responsibility to Protect: A Future Agenda (co-edited, Routledge, 2019).

William Maley is Emeritus Professor at The Australian National University, where he was Professor of Diplomacy from 2003-2021. He is a Member of the Order of Australia, a Fellow of the Academy of the Social Sciences in Australia and a Fellow of the Australian Institute of International Affairs. He was admitted as a Barrister of the High Court of Australia in 1982. In November 2003, he received the AUSTCARE Paul Cullen Humanitarian Award for services to refugees. He is author of Rescuing Afghanistan (2006), What is a Refugee? (2016), Transition in Afghanistan: Hope, Despair and the Limits of Statebuilding (2018), The Afghanistan Wars (2021), and Diplomacy, Communication, and Peace: Selected Essays (2021).

Paul Lushenko is a U.S. Army Lieutenant Colonel and General Andrew Jackson Goodpaster Scholar at Cornell University, where he is pursuing a PhD in International Relations. After commissioning as a Military Intelligence Officer in 2005 from the United States Military Academy, he studied at The Australian National University as a Rotary Ambassadorial Scholar and the U.S. Naval War College. Paul is also a Council on Foreign Relations Term Member, Adjunct Research Lecturer for the Australian Graduate School of Policing and Security at Charles Sturt University, and a Senior Fellow for the Tech Policy Lab at Cornell University. He is the co-editor of Drones and Global Order: Implications of Remote Warfare for International Society (Routledge 2022) and has written and lectured widely on drone warfare, irregular warfare, and regional security order-building. His current research focuses on the public’s perceptions of legitimate drone strikes.