Abstract

In 2013 a 12-year-old Pakistani boy told the US congress “I no longer love blue skies. In fact, I now prefer gray skies. The drones do not fly when the skies are gray”. He and his younger sister were injured in a drone strike a few months before. Since then, drones have revolutionised warfare, in an unbridled process of technological progress, accelerated by ongoing conflicts. Cheap drone technology controlled by Al is taking decisions on the life and death of people in legally uncharted territory. Attempts to promote international regulation on this matter have failed up to now and campaigns to keep “humans in the loop” in the use of force have not yet reached a critical mass.