Includes index.

Drone strikes in Pakistan: assessing civilian casualties -- Introduction -- Drone strike casualty estimates -- Discrepancies in civilian casualty estimates -- Platform precision or comprehensive process? -- The drone campaign and civilian harm -- Conclusions and recommendations -- The future of drone strikes: a framework for analyzing policy options -- Introduction -- Framework and policy options -- Military effectiveness -- Legitimacy -- Anticipating net effectiveness -- Conclusions and recommendations -- Improving lethal action: learning and adapting in U.S. counterterrorism operations -- Introduction -- An analytical approach to improve lethal action operations -- Illustrating the approach -- Implementing the approach -- Benefits of the process -- Conclusions and recommendations -- Security and legitimacy: learning from the past decade of operations -- Introduction -- Lesson one: promoting legitimacy -- Lesson two: practicing legitimacy -- Conclusions and recommendations -- Appendix A: Title 10, title 50, and oversight -- Appendix B: Covert actions.

"This volume is a collection of four reports that collectively address these issues by exploring the themes of legitimacy, civilian protection, and national security interests. They address questions in the modern counterterrorism context.This volume provides concrete recommendations for policy makers as well as military commanders, a number of which have, since the time of its writing, been incorporated into the recent U.S. policy guidelines related to civilian casualties. Although this volume focuses specifically on current counterterrorism practices, its analysis, frameworks, and conclusions can be applied in varying degrees to emerging technologies as well. These considerations can help a government ensure that its use of force is not only effective, but also responsible and consonant with larger interests."--Provided by publisher.