“The ‘Metamorphosis’ of the drone: the governance challenges of drone technology in border surveillance”

This chapter presents the current trend of advocating the deployment of drone technology into non-military contexts. It explores the US experience of deploying drones for border surveillance. It presents current legal constraints on border surveillance and asks whether deploying drones for border surveillance might help to fulfil those legal obligations. The purpose of maritime surveillance is to cover illicit activity, to support joint counter narcotics operations and to tackle serious crimes, whereas scope of land border surveillance is to counter terrorism and illegal cross- border activity, and other serious crimes. According to official information of Customs and Border Protection, their Unmanned Aerial Systems program focuses operations on office's priority mission of anti-terrorism, by help to identify and intercept potential terrorists and illegal cross-border activity, among others, such as disaster relief. The chapter draws conclusions on importance of enacting appropriate regulations, in order to strengthen EU's capacity to set itself as leading regulatory player in global arena, vis-à-vis global partners.