Week of February 11, 2013

In the News: Drone Strikes

Unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV), or drones, used in warfare to kill militants have recently come under intense public scrutiny as John Brennan, President Obama’s nominee for director of the C.I.A. and current counterterrorism advisor, met with the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence for his confirmation hearing. A 16-page White House paper obtained by NBC News outlines what the Administration deems to be the legal use of drone strikes against suspected Al Qaeda operatives, including those who are American citizens.

The Age of Airpower
By Martin van Creveld. Public Affairs, 2011
Features the following chapter: “Missiles, Satellites, and Drones”
Call Number: UG630 .V285 2011

Area 51: An Uncensored History of America’s Top Secret Military Base
By Annie Jacobsen. Little, Brown and Co., 2011
Features the following chapter: “Dull, Dirty, and Dangerous Requires Drones”
Call Number: UA26 .N4 J33 2011

The CIA at War: Inside the Secret Campaign against Terror
By Ronald Kessler. St. Martin’s Press, 2003
From the book’s summary: “The CIA at War tells the inside story of how Tenet, a son of Greek immigrants, turned around the CIA from a pathetic, risk-averse outfit to one that has rolled up three thousand terrorists since 9/11, that was critically important to winning in Afghanistan and Iraq, and that now kills terrorists with its Predator drone aircraft.”
Call Number: JK468 .I6 K42 2003

Confront and Conceal: Obama’s Secret Wars and Surprising Use of American Power
By David E. Sanger. Crown Publishers, 2012
Features the following chapter” “Drones and Cyber: The Remote-Control War”
Call Number: E907 .S26 2012

The Finish: The Killing of Osama Bin Laden
By Mark Bowden. Atlantic Monthly Press, 2012
From the book’s summary: “By Spring 2011, intelligence pointed to a compound in Abbottabad; it was estimated that there was a 50/50 chance that Osama was there. The author shows how three strategies were mooted: a drone strike, a precision bombing, or an assault by Navy SEALs. In the end, the President had to make the final decision. It was time for the finish.”
Call Number: HV6430 .B55 B69 2012

The Military Industrial Complex at 50
Edited by David Swanson. 2011
Features the following chapter: “CIA’s Push for Drone War Driven by Internal Needs”
Call Number: UA23 .M5558 2011

Modern Warfare, Intelligence and Deterrence: The Technologies That are Transforming Them
Edited by Benjamin Sutherland. John Wiley and Sons, Inc., 2011
Features the following chapter: “The Growing Drone Dimension”
Call Number: HD9743 .A2 M635

Talibanistan: Negotiating the Borders between Terror, Politics and Religion
Edited by Peter Bergen, with Katherine Tiedemann. Oxford University Press, 2013
Chapters include: “Drone Strikes in Pakistan” and “My Drone War”
Call Number: On Order

Under the Drones: Modern Lives in the Afghanistan-Pakistan Borderlands
Edited by Shahzad Bashir and Robert D. Crews. Harvard University Press, 2012
Call Number: DS357.6 .P18 U53 2012

Unmanned Aerial Vehicles: Embedded Control
Edited by Rogelio Lozano. John Wiley, 2010
Call Number: TL589.5 .U56 2010

War, Technology, Anthropology
Edited by Koen Stroeken. Berghahn Books, 2012
Features the following chapter: “Drones in the tribal Zone: Virtual War and Losing Hearts and Minds in the Af-Pak War”
Call Number: GN497 .W286 2012