Unmanned: Drones, Data, and the Illusion of Perfect Warfare

by William M. Arkin Narrated by William M. Arkin

Overview

Unmanned is an in-depth examination of why seemingly successful wars never seem to end. The problem centers on drones, now accumulated in the thousands, the front end of a spying and killing machine that is disconnected from either security or safety.

Drones, however, are only part of the problem. William Arkin shows that security is actually undermined by an impulse to gather as much data as possible, the appetite and the theory both skewed towards the notion that no amount is too much. And yet the very endeavor of putting fewer human in potential danger places everyone in greater danger. Wars officially end, but the Data Machine lives on forever.

Throughout his career, Arkin has exposed powerful secrets of so-called national security and intelligence. Now he continues that tradition. The most alarming book about warfare in years, Unmanned is essential reading for anyone who cares about the future of mankind.

Editorial Reviews

SEPTEMBER 2015 - AudioFile

William Arkin narrates his audiobook in a weary voice that sounds as if his thoroughly researched work on drones and black boxes has exhausted him. That's understandable because the material IS exhausting in its detailed account of how the USA’s tiny armada of 200 unmanned surveillance devices morphed, in just a decade, into 12,000, many of which are armed "point-and-shoot" devices capable of "loitering" in the sky for 40 hours at a time. Arkin is not optimistic about the future of long-distance perpetual warfare, nor is he hopeful for its civilian uses either—the audiobook ends with a prophetic look at unmanned-gone-wrong in the year 2034. The weak aspect of this audiobook is Arkin's use of the Mesopotamian EPIC OF GILGAMESH as a metaphoric reference—a literary device that's initially confusing and eventually annoying. R.W.S. © AudioFile 2015, Portland, Maine

Publishers Weekly

05/11/2015
Intelligence expert Arkin (American Coup) argues that the digital revolution, combined with a reluctance to suffer casualties, is ushering in what military planners see as "perfect"—endless, casualty-free—warfare in this ingenious, if depressing, work. The U.S. military's use of drones is burgeoning, yet of America's more than 11,000 drones, only about 5% are of the large, armed "Predator-style" variety. An obsession with information technology has produced a zoo of "unarmed aerial vehicles" (UAVs) that includes everything from the 15-oz. Wasp Micro Air Vehicle to the seven-ton Global Hawk. Arkin also points out that "88 other nations operate drones," with over 90% of drones worldwide being "small, short-ranged, and unarmed." Meanwhile, the need for fighting personnel has shrunk as the need for civilian data analysts has grown. Thanks to "increasingly infinite stockpiles of data," high-value targets can be tracked almost anywhere, and since "the Data Machine doesn't care where it is fighting," Arkin insists that we must contemplates the "cost to society and humanity for even operating in this seemingly near-perfect way." Readers will have to navigate a minefield of technical details, acronyms, and political and military infighting, but Arkin makes worthwhile the effort of understanding both the extensive transformations modern militaries are experiencing and their far-from-perfect consequences. (Aug.)

From the Publisher

"Arkin has done exemplary research, mastering a vast technical and specialized literature. And the questions he grapples with are not only legitimate but urgent."—The Washington Post

"Intelligence expert Arkin argues that the digital revolution, combined with a reluctance to suffer casualties, is ushering in what military planners see as "perfect"—endless, casualty-free—warfare in this ingenious, if depressing, work... Arkin makes worthwhile the effort of understanding both the extensive transformations modern militaries are experiencing and their far-from-perfect consequences."—Publisher's Weekly (Starred Review)

Praise for AMERICAN COUP:

"Bill Arkin has a knack for stirring our national pot on uncomfortable issues that must be addressed. Today's world demands unconventional views on unconventional security challenges facing the United States. Bill asks tough questions of our security institutions, and the right answers demand a delicate balance between national-security preparedness and constitutional protections afforded to our citizens."—General Victor E. Renuart, Jr., USAF (Ret), commander of US Northern Command and North American Aerospace Defense Command. 2007-2010

"If anybody else had written this book, I would urge caution. But Bill Arkin has explored every nook and cranny of American national-security policy for decades, from nuclear-weapons targeting to war plans for the invasion of Iraq, and his reputation for sober accuracy is rock solid."—Thomas Powers, winner of the Pulitzer Prize and author of Intelligence Wars: American Secret History from Hitler to Al-Qaeda

"If Bill Arkin doesn't know it, it isn't worth knowing."—Thomas E. Ricks, author of The Generals

SEPTEMBER 2015 - AudioFile

William Arkin narrates his audiobook in a weary voice that sounds as if his thoroughly researched work on drones and black boxes has exhausted him. That's understandable because the material IS exhausting in its detailed account of how the USA’s tiny armada of 200 unmanned surveillance devices morphed, in just a decade, into 12,000, many of which are armed "point-and-shoot" devices capable of "loitering" in the sky for 40 hours at a time. Arkin is not optimistic about the future of long-distance perpetual warfare, nor is he hopeful for its civilian uses either—the audiobook ends with a prophetic look at unmanned-gone-wrong in the year 2034. The weak aspect of this audiobook is Arkin's use of the Mesopotamian EPIC OF GILGAMESH as a metaphoric reference—a literary device that's initially confusing and eventually annoying. R.W.S. © AudioFile 2015, Portland, Maine

Kirkus Reviews

2015-04-22
"I see drones and the Data Machine they serve…as the greatest threat to our national security, our safety, and our very way of life," writes journalist Arkin (American Coup: How a Terrified Government Is Destroying the Constitution, 2013, etc.) in this idiosyncratic survey of the American military's use of drones, from the war in Bosnia to the present day. The author has access to extensive information about his topic and has mined it to the full, providing a wealth of information. However, this is as much a personal meditation as a careful study, a cri de coeur about what the "illusion of perfect warfare" is doing to our military and nation, all viewed through the unlikely lens of the 4,000-year-old Sumerian Epic of Gilgamesh. This new approach to warfare, in Arkin's view, means never sending a person into danger if a machine can do the job and reducing civilian casualties and collateral damage to near zero by precision targeting and execution. It requires ever increasing cascades of data and increasingly autonomous surveillance and killing machines through which "every place is reduced to geographic coordinates....nations, armies, and even people are reduced to links and networks." This renders "the nature of the military…even the nature of our societies very different than they were in the past...[and ultimately] making us less human." The effectiveness of Arkin's argument is undercut by his unruly writing style. A uniformly jaunty tone sometimes lapses into Whitman-esque incantatory passages of obscure meaning; the author piles colorful technological terms into verbal heaps that dazzle or overwhelm rather than inform, and he obfuscates his message with invented words and liberal use of ill-defined personal metaphors. This well-informed but quirky analysis of the development of drone warfare and its ongoing effect on the nation's military strategy is the latest lament for the disappearance of personal honor and valor from warfare that began in 1914.

Product Details

BN ID:	2940170409211
Publisher:	Hachette Audio
Publication date:	07/28/2015
Edition description:	Unabridged

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