While it does not surprise me that the war in Ukraine is marked by technological advances, as are most wars, it is interesting that the rapidity with which drone technology is advancing is engendering a technological battle between nations off of the physical battlefield. The “First World Drone War” is not limited to the material reality of drones hitting targets in Ukraine and the struggle to gain advantage over the skies, but has spread to how allied nations share the secrets of this technology with one another, such as Ukraine using it as a bargaining tool for U.S. aid. In a way, even if the war in Ukraine does not truly encompass the whole world (aside from the obvious direct and indirect global consequences), it is serving as a long, grueling lesson in modern warfare. Other countries are studying this new technology, preparing themselves, trying to learn from the warring nations. This raises questions which I wish the news pieces had been able to address more in depth: What kind of new technological regulation will accompany the new technology? And will AI powered drones be better or worse at civilian discrimination? Another layer I hadn’t thought about before reading the “First World Drone War” piece was that people now can get individual alerts for drone strikes, which may even include drone location in some cases. Is war and defense becoming more individualized as tech advance?
The piece on civilian volunteers led me down a similar train of thought, especially in terms of the individual choice to stay at home rather than flee to bomb shelters, which is a very individual choice despite the very collective circumstance of the war. I was also intrigued by the paying of volunteer civilian drone killers and how that has innovated the defense system. Essentially, Ukraine is integrating a makeshift volunteer civilian defense group with a wage-based economic system, essentially transforming the work into a government job. In that case, what differentiates these civilians from members of the army, besides having other jobs that they continue on the side?
And, speaking of volunteers, the Faith Under Siege documentary gave me pause as to the benefit of foreign volunteers in war. It felt ironic to me that a film so vehemently against Russian Christian nationalism was so tinged with American Christian nationalism throughout. The film’s sole focus was on Russian forces shutting down Ukrainian churches and persecution against Christians in Ukraine, when we know that Ukrainians of all religious affiliations are persecuted by Russian forces. Labeling the war Russia’s “Holy War” against the West felt like an erasure, or at least an omission, of the other religious and non-religious communities that Russia has targeted during this war. To the film’s credit, it got some incredible access and the drone footage taken from the Wall Street Journal was particularly impressive, but I was left feeling like the film was by American Christian nationalists for American Christian nationalists, to encourage more to volunteer in Ukraine. And while that is an understandable goal, it also made me wary of trusting the film as a whole.
On a disconnected note, the piece on the Unity Hub from the Kyiv Independent piqued my curiosity about how the war has affected local news in Ukraine and whether global journalists have been able to work with Ukrainian journalists and Ukraine’s pre-existing press to report on this war. This piece from a year ago helped answer some of those questions for me.
