The threat above our heads: does drone warfare undermine accountability and thereby encourage counterfactual interventions?

Abstract

The paper investigates the relation between drone warfare and democratic peace, how this technology weakens traditional governmental accountability mechanisms, which would ensure transparency, and thereby undermines the electoral incentive pillar of the DPT. The hypotheses - tested by a comparative case analysis - suggests that the probability of interventions (happening also in cases where otherwise it would not) and their intensity would rise due to the reduced costs of opting for war.