The 2016 US election highlighted the potential for foreign governments to employ social media for strategic advantages, but the particular mechanisms through which social media affect international politics are underdeveloped. This Element shows that the populace often seeks to navigate complex issues of foreign policy through social media, which can amplify information and tilt the balance of support on these issues. In this context, the open media environment of a democracy is particularly susceptible to foreign influence whereas the comparatively closed media environment of a non-democracy provides efficient ways for these governments to promote regime survival.

Shortly after speaking with a bullhorn amidst the still-smoking wreckage at the World Trade Center site, President George W. Bush urged Americans to 'get down to Disney World in Florida...take your families and enjoy life, the way we want it to be enjoyed.' Americans, he implied, should not merely offer sacrifices but return to normalcy. Consistent with this anecdote, his administration cut taxes, and held of efforts by a renegade group of anti-war Congress members to introduce a 'share the sacrifice' war tax for Iraq in 2007. According to the tax's opponents, Americans were already being 'taxed to death.' The ultimate result of all of this is that the government has financed the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan entirely through borrowing. As Sarah Kreps shows in Taxing Wars, the type of debt financing for war that we have seen since 9/11 could not have been more different from earlier experiences when wars meant taxation. For instance, in 1914-three years before America's direct involvement in World War I-President Wilson urged war taxes as a way to fund defense preparations. Indeed, the Wilson Administration levied a series of war taxes before, during, and after the war, amounting to about one-third of the war's costs. Why, when Wilson was aiming to recruit rather than repel support for the war, did he introduce measures such as a hefty war tax that recent leaders have considered politically toxic? Why was the public so magnanimous in its willingness to contribute its own resources? By contrast, why did leaders not use the crisis of war, often used as entrees for introducing war taxes in the past, in the aftermath of 9/11 to extract resources from the populace in a way that been customary in the past? More generally, what explains shifting attitudes towards bearing the financial burden of war and the move away from war taxes, and the consequences of that shift? Kreps argues that the starkly different approaches are the result of public attitudes towards wartime fiscal sacrifice that vary depending on the underlying type of war and state-society relations. The public accepted the sacrifices that the state demanded during the two world wars, an effect of both the nature of those wars and the public's more favorable views toward government in that era. However, when these factors combine to make the public cost sensitive, leaders have pursued forms of war finance that anticipate opposition and minimize constraints on the way they use force. In post-1945 wars, the public has become almost uniformly unforgiving of fiscal sacrifice, which explains leaders' increased tendency to rely on less visible forms of finance such as borrowing. The lack of visibility has had an important knock-on effect too: Leaders have been able to increasingly operate without the type of decision-making constraints that were present in earlier war efforts which depended upon broader levels of public support. Her ultimate conclusion is both sobering and extremely important: the deterioration of decision-making accountability with regard to war in the second half of the twentieth century has allowed leaders to wage increasingly costly and protracted wars. And because the health of a democracy can be measured by how responsive leaders are to an informed and attentive public in times of war, our current practices suggest that we are edging ever closer to how non-democracies conduct war.

Choice Outstanding Academic Title for 2015 One of the most significant and controversial developments in contemporary warfare is the use of unmanned aerial vehicles, commonly referred to as drones. In the last decade, US drone strikes have more than doubled and their deployment is transforming the way wars are fought across the globe. But how did drones claim such an important role in modern military planning? And how are they changing military strategy and the ethics of war and peace? What standards might effectively limit their use? Should there even be a limit? Drone warfare is the first book to engage fully with the political, legal, and ethical dimensions of UAVs. In it, political scientist Sarah Kreps and philosopher John Kaag discuss the extraordinary expansion of drone programs from the Cold War to the present day and their so-called 'effectiveness' in conflict zones. Analysing the political implications of drone technology for foreign and domestic policy as well as public opinion, the authors go on to examine the strategic position of the United States - by far the world's most prolific employer of drones - to argue that US military supremacy could be used to enshrine a new set of international agreements and treaties aimed at controlling the use of UAVs in the future.

Choice Outstanding Academic Title for 2015 One of the most significant and controversial developments in contemporary warfare is the use of unmanned aerial vehicles, commonly referred to as drones. In the last decade, US drone strikes have more than doubled and their deployment is transforming the way wars are fought across the globe. But how did drones claim such an important role in modern military planning? And how are they changing military strategy and the ethics of war and peace? What standards might effectively limit their use? Should there even be a limit? Drone warfare is the first book to engage fully with the political, legal, and ethical dimensions of UAVs. In it, political scientist Sarah Kreps and philosopher John Kaag discuss the extraordinary expansion of drone programs from the Cold War to the present day and their so-called 'effectiveness' in conflict zones. Analysing the political implications of drone technology for foreign and domestic policy as well as public opinion, the authors go on to examine the strategic position of the United States - by far the world's most prolific employer of drones - to argue that US military supremacy could be used to enshrine a new set of international agreements and treaties aimed at controlling the use of UAVs in the future.

Drones quite possibly represent the most transformative military innovation since jet engines and atomic weaponry. No longer do humans have to engage in close military action or be in the same geographical vicinity as the target. Now, through satellite imaging and remote technology, countries such as the United States can destroy small targets halfway around the world with pinpoint accuracy. In the last several years, many of the military advancements have been rivaled by those in the commercial realm. Civilian industries have clamored to acquire drones for everything from monitoring crops to filming Hollywood movies to delivering packages. Not surprisingly, the use of drones has generated a lively debate, but no book thus far has engaged the range of themes surrounding drones. How do drones work? To what extent has the technology proliferated to other nations outside the US? How can they be used on the ground and in maritime environments? How are they being integrated into both military and civilian life? In Drones: What Everyone Needs to Know, the international relations scholar (and former air force officer) Sarah Kreps provides a concise synthesis of the topic. The book explains how they and the systems associated with them work, how they are being used today, and what will become of the technology in the future. What readers need now is a more practical guide to how this technology is reshaping both military and civilian life; this book is that guide. The drone revolution has already changed warfare, and will soon become a commonplace tool in a civilian context too. It is clear that drone technology is here to stay. Drones: What Everyone Needs to Know explains how the revolution happened, what its current contours are, and where we might be headed next.

Drones quite possibly represent the most transformative military innovation since jet engines and atomic weaponry. No longer do humans have to engage in close military action or be in the same geographical vicinity as the target. Now, through satellite imaging and remote technology, countries such as the United States can destroy small targets halfway around the world with pinpoint accuracy. In the last several years, many of the military advancements have been rivaled by those in the commercial realm. Civilian industries have clamored to acquire drones for everything from monitoring crops to filming Hollywood movies to delivering packages. Not surprisingly, the use of drones has generated a lively debate, but no book thus far has engaged the range of themes surrounding drones. How do drones work? To what extent has the technology proliferated to other nations outside the US? How can they be used on the ground and in maritime environments? How are they being integrated into both military and civilian life? In Drones: What Everyone Needs to Know, the international relations scholar (and former air force officer) Sarah Kreps provides a concise synthesis of the topic. The book explains how they and the systems associated with them work, how they are being used today, and what will become of the technology in the future. What readers need now is a more practical guide to how this technology is reshaping both military and civilian life; this book is that guide. The drone revolution has already changed warfare, and will soon become a commonplace tool in a civilian context too. It is clear that drone technology is here to stay. Drones: What Everyone Needs to Know explains how the revolution happened, what its current contours are, and where we might be headed next.