The intense debate over US targeted drone strikes outside war zones has been limited by the failure to review and assess a considerable body of quantitative research and qualitative material on the impacts of such strikes on terrorist groups and civilians. This book fills an important gap in the literature by conducting a careful and rigorous review of such evidence. It argues that decisions about the use of targeted strikes as a counterterrorism instrument, as well as legal and ethical evaluations of such use, must be informed by our best understanding of the insights that empirical evidence can provide on the effectiveness of strikes and the costs they impose on populations where they occur.
Author(s): Mitt Regan
Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan
Year: 2022
Language: English
Pages: 411
City: Cham
List of Tables
Acknowledgments
Contents
1 Introduction
Part I: Empirical Research on the Effectiveness of Targeted Killing
2 Cause and Effect in Targeted Killing
3 Israeli Targeted Strikes
4 Leadership Targeting Studies
Part II: Impacts of US Strikes on Terrorist Groups
5 Overview of US Targeted Strikes
6 Quantitative Research
7 Qualitative Evidence
8 Weighing the Evidence
Part III: Impacts of US Strikes on Civilians
9 Civilian Casualties from US Targeted Strikes
10 Civilian Casualties: Beyond the Numbers
11 Effects on Local Populations
Part IV: Conclusions
12 Analyzing the Impacts of Targeted Killing
References
Index