Time of war and time in war

: unmanned aerial vehicles and the changes in the warfare: an approach to recent events

Abstract

In recent years, the use of UAV’s on the battlefield has gained great prominence, changing the guidelines of International Law and posing new challenges that cannot be ignored. Recent conflicts — Russia and Ukraine, Israel and Hamas, and the Houthi in the Red Sea against the United States and the United Kingdom — are practical examples of how the exacerbated use of drones is changing the world order in relation to modern military operations. New guidelines began to be considered: it is more advantageous to keep soldiers off the battlefield, while cheaper weapons become the main actors within the conflict. At the same time, in a negative way, the use of drones facilitates the escalation of a conflict into a humanitarian crisis — as the emotion and compassion of soldiers are also retracted from the scene. Furthermore, a single drone attack is not capable of authorizing the exercise of the right of self-defense, and an accumulation of events must be characterized for this purpose — which can make it difficult to defend against this type of attack, often done in isolation. The challenges are many, technological advances — such as artificial intelligence — are rapid, and it is up to International Law to find a way to deal with this new element that, apparently, is here to stay.

Date of Award	12 Jul 2024
Original language	English
Awarding Institution	Universidade Católica Portuguesa
Supervisor	José Azeredo Lopes (Supervisor)