Droning on 100514

International laws are supposed to define international behavior.  There are treaties between States that establish rules of conduct between those signatories, Under the U.S. Constitution (Art.VI, pp2) treaties rank with the Constitution as supreme law of the land.  There are international conventions that set out such things the maritime law, human rights, rules of war, etc. binding on and even greater number of signatories.  Then, like common law, there is precedent, which over time has become accepted as reasonable interstate conduct.

Over hundreds of years of international precedents, conventions and treaties dictate how states should behave in and interactive world.  After WWII (the American century) the United States has written and instigated more international law than was generated by all the nations in all the previous centuries.  Despite creating the laws and signing on to the provisions however the United States has consistently refused to be bound by these laws.

The international community floated a new convention directed at the U.S. practices of remote assignation by use of Drones.  Initially the world objected to "murder" of suspects without evidence as violations of international law. There were also objections to the collateral damage from drone attacks.  America's response to the high non-combatant casualties was that villagers were guilty by association therefore legitimate targets.

As America began to add local dissenters to target list it began to pick up endorsements from local power brokers.  International law has not been changed but international outrage is diminishing.  There are several reasons for this, the shear volume and dispersion of Drone strikes blurs focus.  America continues to loudly proclaim the legitimacy of its unilateral targeting and actively lobbies foreign policy support from dependent states to accept its new norm of warfare.  If this acceptance survives long enough it becomes precedent.

There is an unforeseen consequence of the new norm, technology knows no borders. Turkey, China, Iran, Russia, France and Italy allegedly are buying or building killer Drones.  Much of the technology that make Drones fly is from Singapore, Korea, Taiwan, China, India and available on the open market. Even terrorist groups have people that can build a weapon-carrying Drone.  It may not be as pretty as those produced by the military industrial complex but it only has to make one flight.

A great many of the worlds teenagers already play the video games and fly sophisticated drones, they would love to step up to the bigger game.  The kids would probably fly better than the current crop of old pilots.  It is worth noting that in the developing world 30 to 50 percent of the population is less than 20 year of age, lots of capable future pilots. 

Even if the international community eventually attempts to control remote targeted assassinations, it must be remembered that international law only applies to State actors not independent interests or terrorist.  There may soon be a wave of bailing wire Drones coming over America's horizon armed with everything including Ebola.