Part III Important Themes in Armed Conflicts in 2013, 1 The ‘new’ US policy on drone strikes: domestic and international legal considerations

Analyses of use of armed drones by the United States of America (USA) as part of its counterterrorism strategy normally begin by decrying the lack of transparency regarding the targeted killing programme—a programme carried out on behalf of US citizens, who are not encouraged to question their government’s methodology or motives.1 This reaction is, if nothing else, eminently rational: at present, the world’s most powerful military has a near monopoly on the use of a relatively new lethal technology. Public curiosity as to rules of engagement is entirely...