Disentangling the Drone Debate
Professor Robert Sparrow, Monash University
Militaries around the world are racing to develop and deploy ever more sophisticated and lethal tele-operated weapons. Remotely operated aircraft–drones–have emerged as one of the most controversial technologies of the new millennium. In this presentation, Professor Rob Sparrow distinguishes the good arguments from the bad, weighing up critics’ claims of a lowered threshold of conflict and risk-free war, against the defenders’ claims that drone operators are vividly aware of what they are doing, to the extent that they can suffer PTSD, that drones allow more precise use of air-power than ever before, and that drones are a vital tool in the war on terror. Ultimately, this presentation asks the audience to consider what the most ethical path is for the future of drone use.
Professor Robert Sparrow, Monash University
Professor Robert Sparrow is an expert in bioethics, political philosophy, and applied ethics at Monash University, with interest in philosophical arguments with real-world implications. He has published extensively on a wide range of real-world applications of ethical philosophy. He is a ‘Future Fellow’ of the Australian Research Council and is currently engaged in a major piece of research in to how current and future developments in military technology may affect the military’s core ethical commitments, the character of individual war fighters and traditional applications of just war theory.
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