Thread by @RikeFranke, The Rosa Luxemburg Foundation has put out a good report on German [...]

The Rosa Luxemburg Foundation has put out a good report on German #drones.

Whaat, Rike siding with the LINKE?!
Well no, but I can appreciate good research and (overall) coherent arguments.
(Short thread)

https://www.rosalux.de/fileadmin/rls_uploads/pdfs/Studien/Studien_4-21_Drohnenmacht_web.pdf">https://www.rosalux.de/fileadmin...

The report is written by @matthimon who has been working on this for many years (I spoke with him for my PhD research ages ago).
He clearly knows his stuff and the report is a good overview of German #drone capabilities.

A sidenote here: there is little love lost between me and the LINKE but they have been playing a great role in German drone politics through their inquiries (questions to the government). I used these questions and answers extensively in my research. That& #39;s just good politics.

Beyond the facts about which drones Germany flew when, of course there aren& #39;t that many points the author and I agree on. But there is at least this one: he agrees that there really now has been quite a discussion about drones in Germany!

But of course, there are lost of points I disagree with, so let& #39;s look at those.

Twice we find the argument that if Germany takes a decision against the procurement of armed drones, it would "take a stance", and "send a signal" to others, especially partners.
I understand that this *sounds* right, but nothing I have heard or seen supports this. ...

... Our partners don& #39;t care. Or rather, they care about the capabilities we actually *have*, but not the ones we don& #39;t. Given how Europeans either already have or are procuring armed #drones, I just don& #39;t think Germany has that role.

BTW, this isn& #39;t just my view, but my favourite @Sicherheitspod colleagues made a similar point when we discussed this in our #DrohnenDebatte2020 episode (from min 00:32:37) https://soundcloud.com/sicherheitshalber/28-die-alteneue-debatte-um-bewaffnete-drohnen-fur-die-bundeswehr-drohnendebatte2020">https://soundcloud.com/sicherhei...

This one I don& #39;t quite get:
"What is certain is that the inhibition threshold for their use will decrease. The Bundeswehr confirmed this in the & #39;drone debate& #39; by complaining that it was often & #39;condemned to watch& #39; with its unarmed drones".

That the Bundeswehr complains that they couldn& #39;t act when they wanted to (because they had no armed drones), doesn& #39;t mean that drones *lower the inhibition* to use force. There was no inhibition - rather there was no capability. So that argument doesn& #39;t work for me.

The paper also has a preface by Norbert Schepers und Ingar Solty, and, that is actually a pretty well argumented case against armed #drones.

Again, I don& #39;t agree with their take, but in the German drone debate we& #39;ve had such bad arguments for so long that I genuinely appreciate this. (SPD, I& #39;m sorry but the LINKE actually does this better than you here...)

A few points from that essay:
"As credible as [the statement that drones won& #39;t be used for extralegal killings] may be for the moment, it is certain that the technology, once acquired, can be used at any time in the future as instruments in a policy of extrajudicial killings."

THAT is the point. That is the crux of the matter. It& #39;s about trust. Trust in the political decisions of future governments, trust in the Bundeswehr. And many opponents of armed #drones just don& #39;t have that.

So the argument isn& #39;t so much (or shouldn& #39;t be) "armed drones are evil", but it& #39;s "we don& #39;t want to give future governments/our military means that can be misused".
Now that argument shouldn& #39;t just apply to drones. But it is much more coherent than "evil drones!".

This is where armed drone opponents and proponents diverge in the end. * I * believe the German government when they tell me they won& #39;t start US-style targeted killings outside of official battlespaces. And I don& #39;t think future govs are likely either. The authors disagree.

Alright, this thread wasn& #39;t short in the end, but I will end here.
The report is useful. That& #39;s how you participate in the Drohnendebatte.
https://www.rosalux.de/fileadmin/rls_uploads/pdfs/Studien/Studien_4-21_Drohnenmacht_web.pdf">https://www.rosalux.de/fileadmin...

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