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The drone age: how drone technology will change war and peace: by Michael J. Boyle, Oxford, Oxford University Press, 2020, 336 pp., £22.99 (Hardback) (UK), ISBN 9780190635862
Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs), more commonly known as drones, have become a reality in contemporary war. They are also a symbol of industrial prestige for the countries that produce them. In this book, Michael Boyle, a political scientist at La Salle University, provides a comprehensive academic analysis of drones. Using qualitative methods including case studies and interviews with practitioners, Boyle offers us nine chapters of useful information, applying a framework of analysis that consists of technological evolution, formation, and development of drone technology. Interestingly, for readers of this journal, the book addresses the use of drones both by and against terrorists. The author traces the historical evolution of drones, from flying bombs, the rudimentary and inaccurate devices used during World Wars I and II (33), to the emergence of drone reconnaissance aircraft during the Cold War. While these devices did not have the technological sophistication to serve as combat platforms (63), during the Cold War and its immediate aftermath they did play a role in artillery and in target practice, as well as reconnaissance (78). The computer revolution, artificial intelligence, satellite navigation, and digital maps changed all that, to enable drones to wage combat and kill directly. The use of drones against terrorists began under George Bush Jr., and continued in all subsequent United States administrations. Drones came to the forefront after 9/11, when the Bush Jr. administration authorised their use against Al Qaeda. The Obama administration institutionalised an extra-judicial killing program that included an internal “kill list” (Mazetti 2013, 104–105), and Trump continued these policies, even escalating the drone assassination policy to include people who were not classified as terrorists by the United Nations, such as General Qasem Soleimani of Iran’s Revolutionary Guard Corps and Mr Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis, the Commander of Iraq’s Popular Mobilisation Units.