Drone Strike-Analyzing Public Perceptions of Legitimacy

• Author: Paul Lushenko
• Position: PhD, is a Lieutenant Colonel in the U.S. Army and Deputy Director of the Cornell Brooks Public Policy School's Tech Policy Institute
• Pages: 291-303

Drone Strike—Analyzing Public Perceptions of

Legitimacy

Paul Lushenko*

ABSTRACT

Mitt Regan evaluates the scholarship on the effectiveness of the U.S. drone

program since the terrorist attacks of 9/11. In doing so, he raises an important

question about the implications of public opinion for the sustainability of U.S.

counterterrorism strikes and similar operations conducted by other countries.

Whereas most researchers understand public attitudes in terms of support and

approval, Regan’s analysis suggests that perceptions of legitimacy are equally,

if not more important for countries’ drone policies. The purpose of this article

is to address how Regan’s book informs our understanding of the public’s per-

ceptions of legitimate drone strikes. While scholars, policy-makers, and practi-

tioners often reference legitimacy, they rarely, if ever, empirically evaluate this

outcome. After outlining the literature for public opinion and drone warfare, I

relate Regan’s analysis to our understanding of the public’s perceptions of

legitimate strikes. I then incorporate Regan’s insights into an emerging

research agenda that defines drone warfare based on countries’ use and

constraint of strikes to prevent unintended consequences, namely civilian casu-

alties. Unlike qualitative studies that are difficult to falsify, replicate, and gen-

eralize, this approach allows researchers to analyze empirically derived data

using statistical methods to determine the public’s subjective beliefs on appro-

priate strikes.

INTRODUCTION

In his recent book, Drone Strike—Analyzing the Impacts of Targeted Killing,

Mitt Regan evaluates the body of scholarship on the effectiveness of the U.S.

drone program, which emerged in modern form following the terrorist attacks of

9/11.

1

In 2002, U.S. President George W. Bush authorized the first-known use of

an armed and networked drone, the General Atomics MQ-1 Predator, to kill Ali

al-Harthi in Yemen given his role in al Qaeda’s bombing of the USS Cole several

years earlier. Despite varying degrees of transparency, the U.S. drone program

has enjoyed bipartisan support across successive—Republican and Democrat—

presidential administrations for over two decades.

* Paul Lushenko, PhD, is a Lieutenant Colonel in the U.S. Army and Deputy Director of the Cornell

Brooks Public Policy School’s Tech Policy Institute. © 2023, Paul Lushenko.

1. MITT REGAN, DRONE STRIKE: ANALYZING THE IMPACTS OF TARGETED KILLING (2022).

291