Drones-tueurs et éliminations ciblées : Les Etats-Unis contre Al-Qaïda et ses affiliés

Armed drones - as they enable targeted killings - are henceforward playing a central role in American counterterrorism.
This method, first initiated under President George W. Bush, has been particularly developed under President Barack Obama. The increasingly common use of killer drones in the struggle against Al-Qaeda and its affiliates reflects to a certain extent an adaptation process to the different local constraints met in Yemen, Pakistan and Somalia. However, in order to understand the rise of this tactic, it is necessary to study the American bureaucratic games and to replace the boom of killer drones and targeted killing in its political, diplomatic and strategic context.
This paper is published in French only – Drones-tueurs et éliminations ciblées : Les Etats-Unis contre Al-Qaïda et ses affiliés
Related centers and programs
Discover our other research centers and programsFind out more
Discover all our analysesThe Evolving Role of Nuclear Rhetoric in Iran’s Strategic Calculus
How has the Iranian strategic discourse about nuclear weapons and deterrence evolved?
Design, Destroy, Dominate. The Mass Drone Warfare as a Potential Military Revolution
The widespread use of drones observed in Ukraine—both in terms of the scale of the fleets deployed and their omnipresence in the operations of both belligerents—appears to meet the conditions of a genuine military revolution.
The Hunt for Economic Security: The Role of Navies in Deterring Threats to the Maritime Economy
The maritime domain is currently faced with a wide variety of threats, such as climate change, economic warfare, shadow fleet operations, protection of critical infrastructures, and illicit activities ranging from illegal fishing to piracy. Navies suffer from inherent limitations when deterring threats to the global maritime economy: their global presence and permanence limits their credibility in terms of deterrence, their focus usually set on immediate deterrence, implementing deterrence by punishment in and from the naval domain is difficult and costly.
A Fragile Consensus? The Pressure on the Norm Against Nuclear Testing
Apart from North Korea, no state has conducted explosive nuclear tests in the 21st century, reflecting the emergence of a strong international norm against such testing.