Killer Bureaucracy: A Case Study of the U.s. Government's Targeted Killing Program
Open Access
- Author:
- Mcneal, Gregory S
- Graduate Program:
- Public Administration
- Degree:
- Doctor of Philosophy
- Document Type:
- Dissertation
- Date of Defense:
- July 30, 2013
- Committee Members:
- Jeremy Plant, Dissertation Advisor/Co-Advisor
Jeremy Plant, Committee Chair/Co-Chair
Steven Ames Peterson, Committee Member
Bing Ran, Committee Member
Amy Clothier Gaudion, Committee Member - Keywords:
- public administration
accountability
targeted killing
law of armed conflict
commander in chief
bureaucracy
national security - Abstract:
- This dissertation is a comprehensive examination of the U.S. practice of targeted killings. The dissertation makes two major contributions: 1) it provides the first qualitative empirical accounting of the targeted killing process, beginning with the creation of kill-lists extending through the execution of targeted strikes; 2) it provides a robust analytical framework for assessing the accountability mechanisms associated with those processes. The dissertation begins by reporting the results of a case study that began with a review of hundreds of pages of military policy memoranda, disclosures of government policies through Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests by NGOs, filings in court documents, public statements by military and intelligence officials, and descriptive accounts reported by the press and depicted in non-fiction books. These findings were supplemented by observing and reviewing aspects of the official training for individuals involved in targeted killings. These research techniques resulted in a richly detailed depiction of the targeted killing process, the first of its kind to appear in any single publication. After explaining how targeted killings are conducted, the dissertation shifts from the descriptive to the normative, setting out an analytical framework drawn from the governance literature that assesses accountability along two dimensions, creating four accountability mechanisms. After setting forth the analytical framework, it is applied to the targeted killing program. The dissertation concludes with accountability reforms that could be implemented based on the specified framework.