The Construction of Norms Regarding Air Warfare with Precision Guided Munitions.

This paper builds on and revises two models for the construction of norms. One is outlined by Ward Thomas in The Ethics of Destruction (New York: Cornell University Press, 2002, p. 3) where Thomas holds that norms are the product of political processes. Thomas describes in a general way a collection of circumstances that are often present when new norms are created. These circumstances include technological change, the presence of a hegemon and the alignment of the hegemon’s interests with the terms and import of the norm. The second model was offered by Ethan Nadelmann, Global Prohibition Regimes: The Evolution of Norms in International Society International Organization 44, no. 4 (Autumn 1990) pp. 479-526. Nadelmann emphasizes the importance of certain agents he calls moral entrepreneurs in the articulation and observation of norms. Drawing on these two models, the paper identifies in the development and deployment of precision guided munitions (bombs guided by lasers, global positioning system satellites and internal terrain mapping memories) an opportunity for the construction of more stringent norms for the avoidance of unintended killing in air warfare. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]