Debate on deadly micro drones needed

Almost all the recent attention at the intersection of international relations and new technology has been centered on the contentious and often heated issue of cyberspying. If any international norms are to be established in this area they will be negotiated after the fact and probably after serious harm is done. There are few opportunities to act prospectively to new game-changing technologies before damage is incurred. We now have such a rare opportunity in emerging technology, and I hope that it isn't squandered because the underlying consequences are grave.

In 1962, during the Cuban missile crisis, the United States and the Soviet Union came close to annihilating the world by mutually assured nuclear destruction. The following year in a still tense atmosphere, Alfred Hitchcock created quite a panic of his own in his horror movie The Birds, about a series of inexplicable violent bird attacks. Now courtesy of the US Air Force Air Vehicles Directorate in Ohio we have what we can call "Birds 2-The Sequel" about pigeon-sized drones using bird-like behavior to fly, hover and perch. Like their much larger drone cousins, they can provide surveillance and can kill, controlled from a base that can be half the world away.

These Micro Air Vehicles are not Hollywood make-believe but a real-world possibility. They lack only a more robust power supply to take flight, which may be only a few years away. These are not state secrets but described in the pages of National Geographic magazine and various newspapers and websites. The United States has no monopoly here, as China, Iran and Israel reportedly also have advanced drone technology.