New Security Challenges

The development and use of Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) in theatres of battle was consolidated with the technological advances of the 1990s and the shift in the paradigm of international conflicts from interstate industrial warfare to complex irregular warfare. By combining various complementary technologies on a single platform, UAVs offer innovative, offensively orientated capabilities that not only influence government calculations for engaging in conflicts, but also give rise to dynamics that are detrimental to international security. By reducing the strategic, economic and political costs of participating in wars, as well as systemically exacerbating the security dilemma, UAV technology increases the likelihood of international conflicts, generating negative consequences, especially for the least capable states in the international system.