Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-s2hrs Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-08T04:28:52.018Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Unmanned? Gender Recalibrations and the Rise of Drone Warfare

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  07 September 2015

Lorraine Bayard de Volo
Lorraine Bayard de Volo*
Affiliation:
University of Colorado
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Extract

Unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs)—drones—are increasingly prominent in U.S. military strategy (Shaw and Akhter 2012). The U.S. Air Force (USAF) trains more UAV pilots than fighter and bomber pilots combined (Parsons 2012). A 2011 Defense Department analysis predicted “a force made up almost entirely of [UAVs] by the middle of this century” (U.S. Department of Defense 2011). Some argue that drones and other robotics so alter the character and conduct of military operations as to constitute a revolution in military affairs (RMA) (Singer 2009).

Type
Research Article
Information
Politics & Gender , Volume 12 , Issue 1 , March 2016 , pp. 50 - 77
Copyright
Copyright © The Women and Politics Research Section of the American Political Science Association 2015 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

REFERENCES

Abé, Nicola, “Dreams in Infrared: The Woes of an American Drone Operator,” Speigel Online International, December 14, 2012, http://www.spiegel.de/international/world/pain-continues-after-war-for-american-drone-pilot-a-872726.html (accessed June 21, 2015).Google Scholar
Abu-Lughod, Lila. 2002. “Do Muslim Women Really Need Saving? Anthropological Reflections on Cultural Relativism and Its Others.” American Anthropologist 104 (3): 783–90.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Alexander, David, “Retired General Cautions against Overuse of ‘Hated’ Drones,” Reuters, January 7, 2103, http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/01/07/us-usa-afghanistan-mcchrystal-idUSBRE90608O20130107 (accessed June 21, 2015).Google Scholar
Amnesty International, “‘Will I be Next?’ US Drone Strikes in Pakistan,” October 22, 2013, http://www.amnestyusa.org/research/reports/will-i-be-next-us-drone-strikes-in-pakistan (accessed June 21, 2014).Google Scholar
Bayard de Volo, Lorraine. 2001. Mothers of Heroes and Martyrs: Gender Identity Politics in Nicaragua, 1979–1999. Baltimore, MD: Johns Hopkins University Press.Google Scholar
Bayard de Volo, Lorraine. 2012. “Revolution in the Binary?: Gender and the Oxymoron of Revolutionary War in Nicaragua and Cuba.” Signs: Journal of Women in Culture and Society 37 (2): 413–39.Google Scholar
Becker, Jo, and Shane, Scott, “Secret ‘Kill List’ Proves a Test of Obama's Principles and Will,” The New York Times, May 29, 2012.Google Scholar
Blair, Major David. 2012. “Ten Thousand Feet and Ten Thousand Miles: Reconciling Our Air Force Culture to Remotely Piloted Aircraft and the New Nature of Aerial Combat.” Air & Space Power Journal 26 (3): 61–69.Google Scholar
Boyle, Michael J. 2013. “The Costs and Consequences of Drone Warfare.” International Affairs 89 (1): 1–29.Google Scholar
Braudy, Leo. 2005. From Chivalry to Terrorism: War and the Changing Nature of Masculinity. New York: Vintage.Google Scholar
Butler, Judith. 1990. Gender Trouble: Feminism and the Subversion of Identity. New York: Routledge.Google Scholar
Butler, Judith. 1994. “Contingent Foundations: Feminism and the Question of ‘Postmodernism.’” In Feminist Contentions: A Philosophical Exchange, ed. Benhabib, Seyla, Butler, Judith, Cornell, Drucilla, and Fraser, Nancy. London: Routledge, 35–57.Google Scholar
Chakraborty, Barnini, “VFW Slams Pentagon's Drone Medal, Complains it Would Outrank Purple Heart” Fox News, February 14, 2013, http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2013/02/14/medal-misfire-pentagon-new-off-site-medal/ (accessed June 21, 2014).Google Scholar
Chappelle, Wayne, Salinas, Amber, and McDonald, Kent. 2011. “Psychological Health Screening of Remotely Piloted Aircraft (RPA) Operators and Supporting Units.” Presented at the RTO Human Factors and Medicine Panel (HFM) Symposium, Bergen, Norway.Google Scholar
Chow, Rey. 2006. The Age of the World Target: Self-Referentiality in War, Theory, and Comparative Work. Durham, NC: Duke University Press.Google Scholar
Cloud, David S, “Combat by Camera: Anatomy of an Afghan War Tragedy,” Los Angeles Times. April 10, 2011.Google Scholar
Cockburn, Cynthia. 1991. Brothers: Male Dominance and Technological Change. London: Pluto Press.Google Scholar
Cohn, Carol. 1987. “Sex and Death in the Rational World of Defense Intellectuals.” Signs: Journal of Women in Culture and Society 12 (4): 687–718.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Cole, David. “An Executive Power to Kill?” NYR Blog, New York Review of Books, March 6, 2012. http://www.nybooks.com/blogs/nyrblog/2012/mar/06/targeted-killings-holder-speech/ (accessed June 21, 2014).Google Scholar
Connell, R.W. 2001. The Men and the Boys. Berkeley: University of California Press.Google Scholar
Crawford, Neta C. 2013. Accountability for Killing: Moral Responsibility for Collateral Damage in America's Post-9/11 Wars. Oxford: Oxford University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Dao, James, “Drone Pilots Are Found to Get Stress Disorders Much as Those in Combat Do,” The New York Times, February 22, 2013.Google Scholar
Defense Science Board. 2004. Summer Study on Transition to and from Hostilities. Washington, DC: Department of Defense.Google Scholar
Elshtain, Jean Bethke. 1987. Women and War. New York: Basic.Google Scholar
Enloe, Cynthia. 1993. The Morning After: Sexual Politics and the End of the Cold War. Berkeley: University of California Press.Google Scholar
Enloe, Cynthia. 2000. Maneuvers: The International Politics of Militarizing Women's Lives. Berkeley: University of California Press.Google Scholar
Garamone, Jim, “Panetta Announces Distinguished Warfare Medal,” U.S. Department of Defense news release, February 13, 2013, http://www.defense.gov/news/newsarticle.aspx?id=119290 (accessed June 21, 2015).Google Scholar
Gates, Robert, “Remarks by Secretary Gates at the United States Air Force Academy,” Department of Defense news transcript, March 4, 2011, http://www.defense.gov/transcripts/transcript.aspx?transcriptid=4779 (accessed June 21, 2015).Google Scholar
Goldstein, Joshua S. 2001. War and Gender: How Gender Shapes the War System and Vice Versa. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Greenwald, Glenn, “Bravery and drone pilots,” Salon, July 10, 2012, http://www.salon.com/2012/07/10/bravery_and_drone_pilots/ (accessed June 21, 2015).Google Scholar
Gregory, Derek. 2011. “From a View to a Kill: Drones and Late Modern War.” Theory, Culture, Society 28 (7–8): 188–215.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hawkesworth, Mary. 2005. “Engendering Political Science: An Immodest Proposal.” Politics & Gender 1 (1): 141–56.Google Scholar
Johnsen, Gregory D., “The Wrong Man for the C.I.A,” The New York Times, November 19, 2012.Google Scholar
Kaag, John, and Kreps, Sarah, “The Moral Hazard of Drones,” The New York Times, July 22, 2012.Google Scholar
Kurbjuweit, Dirk, “Fear the Reaper: ‘Humane’ Drones Are the Most Brutal Weapons of All,” Der Spiegel, August 9, 2012.Google Scholar
Manjikian, Mary. 2014. “Becoming Unmanned: The Gendering Of Lethal Autonomous Warfare Technology.” International Feminist Journal of Politics 16 (1): 48–64.Google Scholar
Mayer, Jane, “The Predator War,” The New Yorker, October 26, 2009.Google Scholar
Maze, Rick, “Senate Bill would Reduce Rank of Drone Medal,” Air Force Times, March 7, 2013.Google Scholar
Milliken, Jennifer, and Sylvan, David. 1996. “Soft Bodies, Hard Targets, and Chic Theories: US Bombing Policy in Indochina.” Millennium: Journal of International Studies 25 (2): 321–59.Google Scholar
Monbiot, George, “With its Deadly Drones, the US is Fighting a Coward's War,” The Guardian, January 30, 2012, http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2012/jan/30/deadly-drones-us-cowards-war (accessed June 21, 2015).Google Scholar
Parkin, Simon, “Gamergate: A Scandal Erupts in the Video-Game Community,” New Yorker, October 17, 2014, http://www.newyorker.com/tech/elements/gamergate-scandal-erupts-video-game-community (accessed June 21, 2015).Google Scholar
Parsons, Dan, “Air Force F-35 s, Drones May Square Off in Budget Battle,” National Defense Magazine, February 2012.Google Scholar
Peterson, V. Spike. 2010. “Gendered Identities, Ideologies, and Practices in the Context of War and Militarism.” In Gender, War, and Militarism: Feminist Perspectives, ed. Sjoberg, Laura and Via, Sandra. Santa Barbara, CA: Praeger Security International, 17–29.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Peterson, V. Spike, and Runyan, Anne Sisson. 1999. Global Gender Issues. Boulder, CO: Westview.Google Scholar
Prugl, Elisabeth. 2003. “Gender and War: Causes, Constructions, and Critique.” Perspectives on Politics 1 (2): 335–342.Google Scholar
Pugliese, Joseph. 2013. State Violence and the Execution of Law: Biopolitical Caesurae of Torture, Black Sites, Drones. New York: Routledge.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Robinson, Linda. 2012. “The Future Special Operations: Beyond Kill and Capture.” Foreign Affairs 91 (6): 110–22.Google Scholar
Ruddick, Sara. 1998. “Notes toward a Feminist Peace Politics.” In The Women and War Reader, ed. Lorentzen, Lois and Turpin, Jennifer. New York: New York University Press, 196–214.Google Scholar
Scott, Joan Wallach. 1999. Gender and the Politics of History. New York: Columbia University Press.Google Scholar
Scott, Joan Wallach. 2002. “Feminist Reverberations.” differences 13 (3): 1–23.Google Scholar
Shane, Leo III, “Distinguished Warfare Medal Is Off to a Rocky Start,” Stars and Stripes, March 1, 2013, http://www.stripes.com/distinguished-warfare-medal-is-off-to-a-rocky-start-1.210188 (accessed June 21, 2015).Google Scholar
Shaw, Ian Graham Ronald, and Akhter, Majed. 2012. “The Unbearable Humanness of Drone Warfare in FATA, Pakistan.” Antipode 44 (4): 1490–509.Google Scholar
Shepherd, Laura J. 2006. “Veiled References: Constructions of gender in the Bush administration discourse on the attacks on Afghanistan post-9/11.” International Feminist Journal of Politics 8 (1): 19–41.Google Scholar
Singer, P.W. 2009. Wired for War: The Robotics Revolution and Conflict in the 21st Century. New York: Penguin Books.Google Scholar
Sjoberg, Laura. 2013. Gendering Global Conflict: Towards a Feminist Theory of War. New York: Columbia University Press.Google Scholar
Spivak, Gayatri Chakravorty. 1988. “Can the Subaltern Speak?” In Marxism and the Interpretation of Culture, ed. Nelson, Cary and Grossberg, Lawrence. Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 271–313.Google Scholar
Steyn, Mark, “The Panopticon State,” The National Review, March 8, 2013, http://www.nationalreview.com/article/342564/panopticon-state-mark-steyn (accessed June 29, 2015).Google Scholar
Stiehm, Judith. 1982. “The Protected, the Protector, the Defender.” Women's Studies International Forum 5 (3/4): 367–76.Google Scholar
Sylvester, Christine. 2013. War as Experience: Contributions from International Relations and Feminist Analysis. London and New York: Routledge.Google Scholar
Thobani, Sunera. 2002. “War Frenzy.” Meridians 2 (2): 289–97.Google Scholar
Tickner, J. Ann. 1992. Gender in International Relations. New York: Columbia University Press.Google Scholar
U.S. Air Force, “‘Reaper’ moniker given to MQ-9 unmanned aerial vehicle,” September 14, 2006, http://www.af.mil/news/story.asp?id=123027012 (accessed January 1, 2012).Google Scholar
U.S. Department of Defense. 2011. Unmanned Systems Integrated Roadmap, FY2011–2036. Washington, DC: Department of Defense, Office of the Secretary of Defense. http://fas.org/irp/program/collect/usroadmap2011.pdf (accessed June 29, 2015).Google Scholar
Department of Justice. n.d. “Lawfulness of a Lethal Operation Directed Against a U.S. Citizen Who is a Senior Operational Leader of Al-Qa'ida or an Associated Force.” Released by NBC at http://msnbcmedia.msn.com/i/msnbc/sections/news/020413_DOJ_White_Paper.pdf (accessed June 21, 2015).Google Scholar
Volker, Kurt, “What the U.S. risks by relying on drones,” The Washington Post, October 26, 2012.Google Scholar
Worth, Robert F., Mazzetti, Mark, and Shane, Scott, “Drone Strikes’ Risks to Get Rare Moment in the Public Eye,” The New York Times, February 5, 2013. http://www.nytimes.com/2013/02/06/world/middleeast/with-brennan-pick-a-light-on-drone-strikes-hazards.html (accessed June 21, 2015).Google Scholar
Young, Iris Marion. 2003. “The Logic of Masculinist Protection: Reflections on the Current Security State.” Signs 29 (1): 1–25.Google Scholar