14 November 2024
IWM London
Adults
£15 | Students £10
Join us at IWM London for an expert panel discussion and Q&A, focusing on the psychology and ethics of drone warfare.
In recent decades, armed drones have become a pervasive and ever-present feature of modern warfare. By operating remotely, militaries are able to prevent the risk of troops being physically harmed, and drones are becoming increasingly precise tools to target and surveil.
But despite this, there are momentous ethical dilemmas involved in the use of armed drones in warfare - the damage radius of a missile strike often exceeds the use of ground troops, and the collateral loss of civilian life can be significant. Meanwhile, drones are used in shadowy undeclared warzones from Pakistan to Somalia, often under questionable legal pretences.
So what are the considerations involved in using drones in war? What are the physical consequences of drone warfare on local civilian populations? What are the psychological impacts of an ever-present threat from above in areas frequently targeted by drones? How does carrying out a deadly drone strike impact the mental health of drone operators themselves? And what does the future of drone warfare look like as AI is increasingly integrated into the battlefield?
I no longer love blue skies. In fact, I now prefer grey skies. The drones do not fly when the skies are grey...
- Zubair, 13 year old witness to a drone attack in Waziristan, Pakistan in 2013
This event marks the launch of Beware Blue Skies, an immersive film experience commissioned by Beryl Pong and the Centre for Drones and Culture, funded by UK Research and Innovation. The film runs from 7 November 2024 to 16 March 2025 at IWM London.
Part of the IWM Institute
Speakers
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© Peter LeePeter Lee
Peter Lee is a Professor of Applied Ethics and Associate Dean for Research (Interim) at the University of Portsmouth Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences.
His research has spanned the ethical, operational and other human aspects of UK Remotely Piloted Aircraft Systems (drone) operations, the ethics of AI and autonomous weapon systems, moral injury and mental harms in military and police personnel, and politics and ethics of war.
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© Michael ClarkeMichael Clarke
Michael Clarke is a former head of the Royal United Services Institute and a visiting professor at King's College London. One of the UK's foremost defence experts, he has referred to 2023 as 'the year of the drone'.
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Shona Illingworth
A Professor of Art, Film and Media at the University of Kent, Shona Illingworth's work examines the impact of accelerating military, industrial and environmental transformations of airspace and outer space and the implications for human rights.
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Beryl Pong
Beryl Pong is a UKRI Future Leaders Fellow at the Centre for the Future of Intelligence and the Institute for Technology and Humanity at the University of Cambridge. She directs the Centre for Drones and Culture and holds affiliated positions with the Faculty of English and Trinity College at Cambridge, and with the National University of Singapore. Her background is in literary and cultural studies, and her research interests span the interwar period of the twentieth century through to contemporary remote warfare. She is the author of British Literature and Culture in Second World Wartime and the co-editor of Drone Aesthetics: War, Culture, Ecology.
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Mark Urban
Journalist and historian who was most recently Diplomatic Editor and occasional presenter of the BBC’s Newsnight programme. His work as a military historian has involved writing about conflicts involving the British Army from the 18th Century to the present day. He served on the board of the Royal Armouries 2012-2018. Mark held a short service limited commission (1979) and territorial commission in the Royal Tank Regiment (1980-1983). He is a Trustee of Imperial War Museums.
About War and the Mind
This IWM Institute Live event is part of IWM London's War and the Mind exhibition.
Human thought, emotion, and behaviour is critical to war.
War and the Mind is a free exhibition at IWM London exploring war’s many psychological dimensions, from the First World War to the present day.
What motivates people to start and support wars? How do humans think, feel and act during conflict? How do we make sense of the devastating conflicts that have shaped our world?
