ASP Fellow Joshua Foust was part of group of experts interviewed by PBS’ Need to Know on the subject of US drone programs operating overseas.  The group discussed issues of cost effectiveness, legal precedence, and a lack of empirical data on program efficacy.

“Both the U.S. and Pakistan benefit greatly from remaining quiet on drone strikes. The U.S. wants to keep its freedom of action and Pakistan wants to avoid taking responsibility for the strikes due to some anger among the urban elites. In this sense, more transparency would make strikes more difficult, politically, for all parties… but in the long run that might be an acceptable price to pay if we get more data and more access to affected areas in return.”

Read “Ask the experts: Drones” here.