Over the past year, public and media interest in the use of drones has risen as dramatically as the use of the technology itself. Drone Wars UK has been one of the key voices publicly expressing serious concerns about the expansion of this new way to wage war. Our expertise and knowledge of the issues has allowed us to challenge the military’s and the industry’s public position that unmanned systems are in effect no different from piloted aircraft. It has also allowed us to speak publicly about the need for the UK to invest in long-term sustainable human security rather than in short-term military solutions which do not provide real and genuine security for all.
The growing use of armed unmanned drones and concept of remote warfare is a perilous military escalation. Drones are lowering the threshold for launching lethal military force, are eroding human rights and undermining the laws of war. While currently only three countries have used armed drones – the US, the UK and Israel, and only about a dozen countries have been the victim of drone strikes, this may well be just the tip of the iceberg if we do not prevent growing drone proliferation.
In the long-term, Drone Wars UK aims to end the use of armed drones and challenge the concept of risk-free, remote warfare. Our strategy for achieving this is to expose the danger through our research and education work. We believe that political change comes about through a combination of rigorously researched and credible policy work, supported by popular grassroots campaigning.
If you can make a donation to support our work at this time we would be extremely grateful. Just click the button below or send a cheque (payable to ‘Drone Wars UK’) to the address at the bottom of the page. Thank you.
PS. We have a number of specific projects that we need support for – if you would like to donate towards a particular project please email donations@dronewars.net
I’ll send this out to BEPJ members and hopefully they will contribute
Cheers,
Jeremy