Effectiveness of the Policy of Targeted Killing
Effectiveness of the Policy of Targeted Killing

Author(s): Lenka Kovačovská
Subject(s): Security and defense, Studies in violence and power, Peace and Conflict Studies, Secret Service / Secret Police
Published by: AMO – Asociace pro mezinárodní otázky
Keywords: fighting terrorism; torture; terrorism; targeted killing; counter-terrorism; international humanitarian law; proportionality; distinction principle; legitimacy; moral considerations; just war; effectiveness;
Summary/Abstract: The terrorist attacks on New York and Washington, D.C. from 11 September 2001, on Madrid on 11 March 2004 and the London bombings in 2005 have once and for ever changed the general perception of threats and risks in the world. Western democracies do not view an attack from another sovereign state as a credible threat any more. The new security environment is marked out by an open battlefield, normative asymmetry and a decentralized adversary, that will try to collapse us from within. In the paper I will discuss one particular way of fighting terrorism – targeted killing. Steven R. David defines it as "the international slaying of a specific individual or group of individuals undertaken with explicit governmental approval". The policy of targeted killing is, together with torture, by far the most controversial form of counter-terrorism nowadays. Even though it is not a new method, the increased usage of it by Israeli security forces during the Second Intifada and its recognition as a legitimate counter-terrorism measure by Russian Federation and the United States has drown public attention to this topic.

• Details
• Contents