Abstract
The book under review contains sixteen sections, covering the experiences of the Royal Air Force’s (RAF) Reaper operations in Afghanistan, Iraq and Syria. Lee’s contribution is not specifically dealing with ethics, morality or just war issues surrounding the UK’s RAF Reaper programme. This book includes unprecedented research access to the Reaper squadrons at RAF Waddington in Lincolnshire and Creech Air Force Base in Nevada, USA. In this review, I will focus on how the book’s argument, as exemplified in selected passages, posits a ‘controlled’ narrative of the UK’s RAF Reaper programme, attempting to ward off any legal or ethical conundrums with the use of drone strikes as a targeted killing tool for counter-terrorism purposes. While Lee’s book does not cover the legal issues surrounding drone strikes, he includes incidences where some of the RAF Reaper crew had to determine legality before targeting. In particular, Lee touches on ‘just war’ via the incidents which put forward for the first-time interesting material for assessment by legal and ethics academics—and practitioners.