Utterly Predictable

Not the election. My response to the election will be coming shortly, but it’s taking a while because it’s long. Unlike that future post, I am not going to attempt to be politic or diplomatic here, because I have been watching this issue for 15 years, and I am sick and tired of being right […]

Wasted Potential

I’ve been watching drones for several years now, and since the very beginning I’ve claimed that drones have magnificent potential. It’s such a simple idea – so simple it can be applied to practically everything. Drones are a new kind of infrastructure, and infrastructure does to society what new detectors do to science – which […]

Tactical Depth

There is an interesting consequence of military drones and other (semi)autonomous war machines that I have not yet seen described anywhere else.

An urgent question for military planners throughout history has been: should we attack first (thereby gaining initiative and the element of surprise) or wait for the enemy to attack (thereby claiming moral superiority […]

Yemen: The Five(ish) Way War

There is a relatively straightforward story about Yemen. It goes like this:

Saleh, dictator in all but name, resigned in 2012 under considerable political pressure after surviving decades as the leader of the poor and terror-wracked nation. His vice-president, Hadi, took the helm and (encouraged by Western support) promised elections – before being overthrown by […]

Old Drones & New Fears

Drones are in the news a lot these days. Whether it’s an NGIS proximately drinking and remotely driving his way onto the White House lawn, or reporters unwisely demonstrating the phenomenon that has had French security forces on high alert, drones are here to stay.

If only it were clear what a drone really was.

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