Rothenberg: What the drone debate is really about

The current debate in the US about the use of drones is not really about privacy or state power, argues Daniel Rothenberg, a professor of practice in the School of Politics and Global Studies and Lincoln fellow for Ethics and International Human Rights Law at ASU. Drones, rather, are complex symbols that bring together anxieties about intrusive state surveillance at home and increasingly murky US involvements in conflicts abroad.

“Drones captivate us. Their sleekly disturbing look, an odd combination of the fragile and the deadly, produces both fascination and fear,” writes Rothenberg in a Future Tense article in Slate magazine. Drones have captured the public imagination not only because of aesthetics, but also because they link questions about the “appropriateness, legitimacy, and potential illegality of U.S. action” with highly sophisticated technology.

Future Tense is a collaboration among ASU, the New America Foundation and Slate magazine that explores how emerging technologies affect policy and society.