Are U.S. Drone Attacks in Pakistan a Violation of International Law?

This dissertation delves into the contentious issue of U.S. drone attacks within Pakistan's territory, examining whether these actions constitute a violation of international law. The research explores the historical context, beginning with the Bush administration's strategy to combat Al-Qaeda and the Taliban, particularly in Northwest Pakistan. It analyzes the legal arguments presented by both the U.S. and Pakistan, considering the perspectives of international bodies like the UN and ICJ. The study investigates the impact of drone strikes on civilians, the implications for Pakistan's sovereignty, and the justifications offered by the U.S., such as self-defense. The methodology includes a literature review, thematic analysis, and consideration of ethical aspects. Ultimately, the dissertation aims to evaluate the legality of these attacks, considering the complex interplay of international law, national sovereignty, and the consequences of drone warfare.

Running head: U.S. DRONE ATTACKS INSIDE PAKISTAN’S TERRITORY
U.S. Drone Attacks inside Pakistan’s territory: A Violation of International Law
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1U.S. DRONE ATTACKS INSIDE PAKISTAN’S TERRITORY
Abstract
Drone attacks are menace for the civilians in Pakistan for they have been subjected to
unnecessary violence over the years. It is a breach of the State’s sovereignty which Pakistan
has failed to deal with time and again. U.S. drone attack signifies a major violation of
international law for it challenges the international rule of law by defying the legal
categorization. U.S. drone attacks are infamous in the international legal scenario as a
straight-forward rule-breaking phenomenon which is ever-so growing with every passing
year. Since 2004, the U.S. government has set up numerous surgical drones strikes in the
Northwest Pakistan by way of Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAV) or drones under the control
of the United States Air Force and the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA). The drone attacks
in Pakistan are prevalent since the administration of the George Bush government in the U.S.
in 2004, which saw an increasing number in the administration of Barack Obama
government. Even though the Pakistani government has been condemning the drone attack
continuously over the years, yet till 2011 drone operation of a foreign state was legally
allowed by Pakistan until April 2011. The US has been defending itself under the blanket of
self-defense from the deadly terrorist who has been harbored by Pakistan. However, the
International bodies like UN, ICJ are of different view. In this study, the debate of the legality
will be discussed from the point of view of both the nations, along with the perspective of
certain important international bodies.

2U.S. DRONE ATTACKS INSIDE PAKISTAN’S TERRITORY
Table of Contents
Chapter 1: Introduction..................................................................................................5
1.0 Overview..............................................................................................................5
1.1 Introduction..........................................................................................................5
1.2 Rationale..............................................................................................................7
1.3 Research aim........................................................................................................7
1.4 Research objectives..............................................................................................7
1.5 Research Question................................................................................................8
1.6 Problem Statement...............................................................................................8
1.7 Structure of the research.......................................................................................8
1.8 Summary............................................................................................................10
Chapter 2: Literature Review.......................................................................................11
2.1 Overview............................................................................................................11
2.2 Background of U.S. Drone attacks in Pakistan..................................................11
2.2.1 Drone Technology.......................................................................................11
2.2.2 Historical background of Drone Attacks.....................................................13
2.2.3 Background of U.S. Drone attacks in Pakistan...........................................13
2.3 U.S. viewpoint about Drone attacks in Pakistan................................................16
2.4 Pakistan’s stand on U.S. Drone attacks..............................................................18
2.5 Impact of the U.S. Drone attacks on Pakistan....................................................20
2.6 Legality of the U.S. Drone attacks.....................................................................23
2.6.1 Concerns of the United Nations Human Rights Council............................25

3U.S. DRONE ATTACKS INSIDE PAKISTAN’S TERRITORY
2.7 Summary............................................................................................................27
Chapter 3: Research Methodology...............................................................................28
3.1 Overview............................................................................................................28
3.2 Research Outline................................................................................................28
3.3 Research Philosophy..........................................................................................28
3.4 Research Approach............................................................................................29
3.5 Research Design.................................................................................................29
3.6 Data Collection Process.....................................................................................30
3.7 Data Analysis.....................................................................................................31
3.8 Ethical Consideration.........................................................................................31
3.9 Limitations.........................................................................................................32
3.10 Summary..........................................................................................................33
Chapter 4: Thematic Analysis......................................................................................34
4.1 Overview............................................................................................................34
4.2 Theme 1: Effects of U.S. Drone Attacks............................................................34
4.3 Theme 2: Rationale behind the standpoint of U.S. and Pakistan......................39
4.4 Theme 3: The Question of Legality..................................................................41
4.5 Summary............................................................................................................45
Chapter 5: Conclusion..................................................................................................46
5.1 Overview............................................................................................................46
5.2 Conclusion..........................................................................................................46

4U.S. DRONE ATTACKS INSIDE PAKISTAN’S TERRITORY
5.3 Recommendations..............................................................................................48
Bibliography.................................................................................................................49

5U.S. DRONE ATTACKS INSIDE PAKISTAN’S TERRITORY
Chapter 1: Introduction
1.0 Overview
The first chapter of this research paper strives to provide an overview of the study on
the U.S. Drone Attacks inside Pakistan’s territory: A violation of International Law by
discussing an introductory section, introducing the topic in which the research for the study
will be conducted. The researcher frames a research statement in order to point out the main
view point of the research towards which the study is directed. A Research Question have
been framed based on the research topic along with the Aims and Objectives of the research.
Lastly, a detailed Chapterisation has been provided to show the tentative chapters that can be
expected in the research paper.
1.1 Introduction
Drone attacks are menace for the civilians in Pakistan for they have been subjected to
unnecessary violence over the years. It is a breach of the State’s sovereignty which Pakistan
has failed to deal with time and again. U.S. drone attack signifies a major violation of
international law for it challenges the international rule of law by defying the legal
categorization. U.S. drone attacks are infamous in the international legal scenario as a
straight-forward rule-breaking phenomenon which is ever-so growing with every passing
year. Since 2004, the U.S. government has set up numerous surgical drone strikes in the
Northwest Pakistan by way of Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAV) or drones under the control
of the United States Air Force and the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA). The drone attacks
in Pakistan are prevalent since the administration of the George Bush government in the U.S.
in 2004, which saw an increasing number in the administration of Barack Obama
government. Even though the Pakistani government has been condemning the drone attack

6U.S. DRONE ATTACKS INSIDE PAKISTAN’S TERRITORY
continuously over the years, yet till 2011 drone operation of a foreign state was legally
allowed by Pakistan until April 2011.
U.S. drone strikes portrays significant challenge to the international law, for it only
violates international rule of law but also jeopardizes the sovereignty of Pakistan by
showcasing a blatant scenario of rule-breaking. Such instances of violation of international
law clearly defy the legal categorization even though U.S. claims to support their action post
9/11 incident1. The United States have backed their actions with legal theories behind such
drone strikes as a “self-defense, imminence, armed attack, necessity, armed conflict,
combatant, hostilities.”2 Such justifications have been denied by the international
adjudicating bodies as insufficient and baseless for it has been repeatedly established by the
international authorities that U.S. has no territorial jurisdiction over Pakistan’s land, air space
and nautical miles. In its defense, the U.S. has put forwarded the loose ends of the Pakistan’s
policies and approval for flying Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAV) in its air space still 20113.
The Pakistan government’s reluctant attitude towards the violation of its sovereignty and the
distress of the civilians have been heavily criticized by the citizens of Pakistan as well as by
international players branding it as an international political crisis4.
Legality of the drone strikes by U.S. in Pakistan has been a long-standing debate
among the two nations involving various international bodies as well. The United States have
tried its best to justify its actions of unwarranted drone attacks in Pakistan over the years even
though Pakistan have come up with the query about the legality of such drone attacks even
though United States lack jurisdiction over Pakistan’s territory. Even after stating ample
1 Groves, Steven. Drone Strikes: The legality of US Targeting terrorists abroad. Heritage Foundation, 2013.
2 Azhar, Wafa, and Khushboo Ejaz “Legality of US Drone Strikes in Pakistan.” Journal of Politics and
International Studies 1 (2015): 100-118.
3 Fair, C. Christine, Karl Kaltenthaler, and William J. Miller. "Pakistani opposition to American drone
strikes." Political Science Quarterly 129.1 (2014): 1-33.
4 Shah, Sikander Ahmed. International law and drone strike in Pakistan: the legal and socio-political aspects.
Routledge, 2014.

7U.S. DRONE ATTACKS INSIDE PAKISTAN’S TERRITORY
justification for their actions, U.S. has failed to convince the international bodies regarding
the necessity, reasonability and the legality of the drone attacks.
Therefore, through this study, the perspective of both the nations will be evaluated
and a conclusion will be drawn as to the violation of international law as well as the breach of
Pakistan’s sovereignty due to such unprecedented and unalarmed U.S. drone attacks5. In
addition, an evaluation of the legality of these attacks will be adjudged based on the fragile
and vague policies that Pakistan has in regard to these drone surgical strikes. Vagueness of
Pakistan’s policies and approach towards such unjustified and illegal conduct of the U.S. is
much spoken topic over the last decade, which would be discussed briefly as well.
1.2 Rationale
The rationale of conducting this research is to emphasize on the repeated violation of
international law and the state sovereignty of Pakistan due to the unprecedented drone attack
since 2004. The opinion of both the sovereign state is taken into consideration in this study in
order to point out the necessity of it as well as the evil impact it causes upon the innocent
victims. The justification put forwarded by the U.S. government in support of the repeated
drone strikes over the years needs to be critically analyzed in order to evaluate whether they
really violate the international rule of law along with the sovereignty of Pakistan.
1.3 Research aim
The aim of this research is to evaluate whether the continuous drone strikes by the
U.S. government violate the international law, the sovereignty of Pakistan along with
jeopardizing the safety of its civilians.
1.4 Research objectives
The objective of the projected research work is:
5 Allinson, Jamie. "The necropolitics of drones." International Political Sociology 9.2 (2015): 113-127.

8U.S. DRONE ATTACKS INSIDE PAKISTAN’S TERRITORY
 To analyze the effects of U.S. drone strikes in Pakistan by the help of different
of the views of different researches;
 To understand the view point of Pakistan in claiming the evil effects of the
drone strikes; and
 To evaluate the view point of the U.S. defending their drone surgical strikes in
Pakistan.
1.5 Research Question
 Are the U.S. drone attacks in Pakistan violating the international law?
 How does U.S. justify their stand on the repeated drone attacks in Pakistan’s
territory over the years?
1.6 Problem Statement
The U.S. Drone attacks in Pakistan are a clear violation of international law as well as
the sovereignty of Pakistan, yet the State is unable to restrict it from occurring time and
again, over the years, thereby letting the civilians open to unwarranted violence.
1.7 Structure of the research
The dissertation will be divided into five major chapters comprising of Introduction,
Literature Review, Research methodology, Thematic Data Analysis and Conclusion.
Introduction
The foremost chapter provides a concise discussion on the drone attacks by the U.S.
in Pakistan that violates international law as well as the sovereignty of the state along with
putting the safety of the civilians in jeopardy. The importance of conducting the research
work is briefly stated as the ‘Rationale’ that talks about the significance of the research work
along with giving an overview of the variables that could be expected from the paper. A
research Aim and certain Objectives have been put forwarded that guides and keeps the

9U.S. DRONE ATTACKS INSIDE PAKISTAN’S TERRITORY
research on track. The Problem Statement strives to justify the perspective of the researchers
that has been aimed to establish through the study.
Literature Review
The second chapter gives a detailed review of the available literatures on U.S. drone
attacks in Pakistan that violates international law, human rights and Pakistan’s sovereignty of
being a state free from external control. The historical background of drone attacks and
studies on drone technology will be discussed to understand its significance and necessity in
the international political scenario6. Researches on the background of U.S. drone attacks in
Pakistan will be incorporated in this section to give an overview of the situation of Pakistan
as a victim of unwarranted violence. The perspective of U.S. and their justification of such
repeated attacks over the years are discussed along with the view of Pakistan and their plea of
defense pertaining to it.
Research Methodology
A Qualitative research shall be conducted in the paper for evaluating the necessity for
the drone attacks as justified by the U.S. along with the evil impacts of it that Pakistan suffers
due to it. Interpretivism research philosophy has been chosen to back the research with
different opinions of researches, thereby critically analyzing the findings of this research with
the collected data. Secondary sources like journals, books, government websites, newspaper
articles and other internet sources shall be consulted for collecting the relevant data for the
research work. Ethical considerations will be followed while conducting the research along
with pointing out the research drawbacks that the researchers might face in the course of the
study.
Data Analysis
6 Brooks, Rosa. "Drones and the international rule of law." Ethics & International Affairs 28.1 (2014): 83-103.

10U.S. DRONE ATTACKS INSIDE PAKISTAN’S TERRITORY
The collected data shall be analyzed by way of a thematic analysis method where
certain themes will be selected based on the projected research objectives, thereby analysing
the findings of the study in order to reach a conclusion.
Conclusion
The entire study will be summarized along with justifying the research statement that
the researcher had proposed at the beginning of the research.
1.8 Summary
The introduction chapter, therefore, gives a complete overview of the agenda of this
research paper on the U.S. drone attacks in Pakistan: A Violation of International law. A clear
aim and a few objectives pertaining to the research topic shall be the goal of the researcher to
achieve in the upcoming chapters which will carry forward the study. The research work shall
strictly abide by projected research structure in order to establish the proposed problem
statement for reaching the desired outcome.

11U.S. DRONE ATTACKS INSIDE PAKISTAN’S TERRITORY
Chapter 2: Literature Review
2.1 Overview
This chapter shall strive to lay down a detailed review of the literature that shall be
resorted to, for collecting the relevant data and information, which will be necessary for
analyzing the information in the next chapter. The chapter would comprise of the background
of drone attacks in Pakistan, operated by the United States in the name of surveillance and
retaliation. The viewpoint of both the countries has been discussed in detail along with a
thorough critical analysis of the two views by citing relevant books and journals. The impact
of such attacks has also been critically discussed along with the reaction of the Pakistani
people. The debate on the legality of the U.S. drones attacks have been incorporated in the
literature review in order to draw a critical analysis of it. The literature review, therefore,
strives to gather data and information from different body of work and researches that have
already been carried out on the same topic.
2.2 Background of U.S. Drone attacks in Pakistan
2.2.1 Drone Technology
Drone are unmanned aerial vehicles which does not have a pilot sitting in it that could
control its course. It is remote control driven. Drones are often terms as UAV or UAVS
which stands for Unmanned Aerial Vehicles or Unmanned Aerial Vehicles System. It is also
regarded as RPVs which stands for Remotely Piloted Vehicles, as a pilot controls it from the
ground by the help of advanced technology7. Drones are of different shapes and sizes,
exhibiting different functions from one another. UAVs are commonly used as missiles by the
military of all modern states around the world, especially the United States which has been in
the news for drone attacks over the last decade. UAVs are different from other missiles as
7 Zenko, Micah. Reforming US drone strike policies. No. 65. Council on Foreign Relations, 2013.