How have US Drone Strikes Impacted Pakistani Civilians?

Book excerpt: Seminar paper from the year 2017 in the subject Politics - International Politics - Topic: Peace and Conflict Studies, Security, grade: 1.0, Rhine-Waal University of Applied Sciences, language: English, abstract: Since as early as 2004 the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) has been conducting drone strikes in Pakistan. The declared targets are terrorists and militants present in the Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA). When asked about these drone strikes in Pakistan, the United States Government claims, that “there hasn’t been a single collateral death because of the exceptional proficiency, precision of the capabilities we’ve been able to develop.” At the same time, according to widely cited databases, compiled by the Bureau of Investigative Journalism 424 to 969 civilians have been killed in U.S. drone strikes. It has to be noted that for years, the US Government did not publically admit to conducting drone strikes in Pakistan, Yemen or Somalia. This is due to the fact that strikes in these countries are not conducted by the US Military, but rather by the CIA. The majority of the information revolving around these strikes is classified and not accessible to the public. How targets are chosen, what the official policy on civilian casualties is, or how many strikes were actually conducted is unknown. Much of the information concerning government perspectives, policies and programs comes from anonymous sources, who have leaked data to major news outlets. The first chapter will focus on the main area where these drone strikes are conducted, the Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA) of Pakistan. The area will be introduced to the reader and a historic context for the present conflict and struggle will be given. The specifics of the US drone program will be outlined in the second chapter. Like already mentioned, much on the information regarding the program and conducted strikes is classified. Nevertheless, with the publically available information an overview will be given. The third chapter will provide essential information on the impact of drone strikes on Pakistani civilians, which is necessary to answer the research question “How have US Drone Strikes impacted Pakistani Civilians?” To deepen the understanding of the correlation between drone strikes and subsequent terrorist attacks, which cause additional hardship in the civilian population, strike data will be analyzed in the fourth chapter. The report will conclude in the fifth chapter, where a final overview on the topic will be given and the research question stated earlier will be answered with the gained information [...]