Centre for Security Research

Description

Since 2012, the global proliferation of drones has increased by 88.3 percent. Inspired by the American pioneering of ‘pin-point’ precision strike and remote-control technologies during the early 2000s and 2010s, a total of 113 nation-states have now developed a military drone program (2023). These drones are transforming the character of war around the globe, from Ukraine to Yemen and most notably with the Houthis over the Red Sea. Yet, how did drones and precision technologies rise up to become the ‘go to’ weapons for nation-states and increasingly violent non-state actors? In this talk, James Patton Rogers (Executive Director of the Cornell Brooks Tech Policy Insitute, Cornell University), takes us back to 1917 and the origins of this quest for ‘precision’ in war within American strategic thought. Along the way, he will outline how precision developed throughout the 20th Century and highlight what the contemporary proliferation of precision weapons and drones means for the future of international security.

Speaker:

James Patton Rogers is the Executive Director of the Cornell Brooks Tech Policy Insitute at Cornell University and the Co-Convenor of BISA War Studies. An expert on precision warfare and drone technologies, James is currently the NATO Country Director of the Full Spectrum Drone Warfare project and he advises the United Nations Security Council, UK Parliament, UNOCT and UNCTC on the transnational threat of drones. James' new book ‘Precision: A History of American Warfare’, is out now.