Bayard De Volo Case Study

1323 Words3 Pages

Bayard de Volo’s article (2016) properly identifies and addresses an important question of the rising significance of drone warfare in the military and its effect on the dynamic of gender and politics. However, she fails to explicitly address a major assumption regarding drone warfare that arose out of her use of the United States as her case study.
Bayard de Volo clearly identifies the background of the article, both in terms of the topic of drone warfare as well as her methodological approach of the feminist international relations lens. In regards to drone warfare, Bayard de Volo (2016) explains the technique and experience of operating drones while also presenting its current state of affairs and its objective advantages as well as meaningful …show more content…

The consequences of this is twofold: firstly, American usage of drone warfare does not necessarily predict the only use of drone warfare; secondly, the United States has a global role that should be explicitly addressed when analyzing its military. Although the United States dominates the field of drone warfare in both manufacturing and use, there are other world powers using drones as well, including the United Kingdom. Furthermore, due to the logistical advantages of drone warfare in comparison to other forms, it is very well possible that drone warfare would be adopted by other countries as well. Thus, operations technique and goals of drone warfare may vary from state to state and it should not be assumed that the American usage of drones as an instrument of its protector-predator status would be replicated. In addition, Bayard de Volo failed to address that the United States already has the perception of a paternalistic predatory state given their role as the world leader or the “world police”. It is important to recognize this status before investigating the degree of effects of drone warfare in order to avoid confusing correlation with causation. However, Bayard de Volo fails to explicitly mention this, consequently giving the impression to readers that due to drone warfare, the United States takes on a protector-predatory state. For example, Bayard de Volo (2016) concludes in one her

Open Document