It is Drone Diffusion, not Proliferation: A (Mostly) Positive Impact on Security in the Global South

The central argument is that the concept of drone proliferation is a misnomer. Drones are spreading quickly and globally, but it would be wrong to qualify a priori the exporting or development of drones and drone technology as illegal or even negative from the point of view of global security. Drones can be a way of addressing nationally the problem of vast remote ungoverned border areas used by insurgents and organized crime as safe-havens therefore limiting the arguments for a problematic use or abuse of drone strikes overseas by the US. In any event, given the nature of this double usage technology the risks of its misuse cannot be avoided. It would be much better to focus efforts not on limiting the diffusion of military drones, but rather on trying to develop in a multilateral setting, global parameters of usage of military drones by states, and counter-measures against its misuse by non- -states actors, as well as banning fully autonomous killing machines.