Fighting Terrorism: Surveillance and Targeted Killing in Post-9/11 World

The war on terror, launched by the 9/11 terrorist attacks, has been waged inside as well as outside the U.S. borders. Perception of threat and efforts to ensure national security have led the United States to major reforms in its national security policy, involving new military, security and legislative concepts. On the level of waging war outside the U.S. borders, the United States has introduced the system of Unmanned Aerial vehicles (UAVs), autonomous aircrafts without human pilot aboard, opening the possibility of highly effective computer game-like targeted killing. On the domestic level, new pieces of legislation and other antiterrorism measures have been raising privacy awareness and concerns whether the U.S. government keeps observing the Constitution. Nowadays, as advanced technology offers wide range of possibilities how to intrude one´s privacy and effectively kill people, legal and ethical considerations have to catch up the reality. This work therefore seeks to elaborate on the statutory and constitutional framework of the current U.S surveillance measures as well as the limits of utilization of UAVs.