Weaponised Drones Essay

The option of being able to use weaponised drones to carry out terror attacks does not need much convincing to explain why it is such a powerful tool for terror. Weaponised drones are attractive because they equip terrorists with the ability to remotely destroy their targets of interest without the risk of collateral damage. Yet, at present, the terror attacks that we bear witness to largely still revolve around the conventional methods of suicide attacks, vehicle rampage attacks, spree shootings and stabbings.
Essentially, these are methods that require the attacker to be in-theatre together with his target to inflict damage on him. In order to answer why more terrorists are not using weaponised drones, we must understand firstly, what they

Due to its horrific consequences and far-reaching impact on individuals,
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families, societies and nations, an act of terror is a dirty way of immediately getting attention for those who feel that they, or their situation, or beliefs and ideologies, have been overlooked, abandoned or undermined. Depending on their desired eventual effect, terrorists will shape their operations accordingly, to ensure that the people that they wish for to listen to them, will indeed do so. Common variations of these desired outcomes will be presented in the subsequent paragraphs.
One outcome that terrorists might want to achieve is to kill as many people as possible. Generally, terrorist groups with such an intent are religiously oriented, and due to the apocalyptic, millenial or messianic mental models they have, they see the killing of non-believers as part of their moral duty to hasten the onset of a new world order. Another outcome is that terrorists have a specific target, usually a high-value person or a place, that when killed or destroyed buys them bargaining power, or enables them to convey a certain message to their intended