Drones and war: Neglected environmental impacts and the potentiality of drone conservation

The use of drones in war is a well-researched topic within International Relations and Security Studies. A notable gap within the literature relates to the environmental aspects of drones in conflict contexts, which have received little attention. In contrast, there is extensive scholarship examining how the use of drones in ecological research affects various taxonomic groups of animals – and in particular different species of birds. Putting these different fields of drone research into a novel conversation with each other, and drawing on original empirical data, this interdisciplinary article examines some of the environmental risks of extensive drone use in the ongoing Russia-Ukraine war. Drones, however, are a double-edged sword; they present both risks and opportunities. An illustration of the latter is the potential of drone conservation in conflict and especially post-conflict settings. That this potential remains under-explored represents a missed opportunity to consider how drones might be creatively used to help monitor and address the environmental impacts of war. In discussing this, the article links the possibilities of drone conservation to a larger relational turn in IR.