Peacekeeping or Expeditionism: Identity and Ethics Among Canadian Army Drone Operators

Small and middle states such as Canada have been integrating drones into their militaries for over 20 years, but their drone use has been understudied. Delving into the data from interviews with 33 army drone operators, this paper proposes two arguments about how drone operators negotiate their identity‐based reflections on their roles. First, the paper argues that drone operators in the Canadian army center their identity on the idea that they are part of the combat arms and construct their role as drone operators through this lens. Second, this paper argues that drone operators connect this combat arms identity to broader ideals of what the Canadian Armed Forces (CAF) should do and be: a peacekeeping or an expeditionary force. In turn, ideals of what the CAF should do and be affect how drone operators think about drone use. On the one hand, those who viewed the CAF as a helping, peacekeeping military argued for limited and unarmed drone use, whereas those who encouraged the expeditionary elements of the CAF wanted weaponized and further integrated use of drones. These complex reflections from drone operators themselves are important for understanding how emerging technologies are thought of by their users in military contexts.