White Paper, Shmite Paper: We Should be Worrying About Drone-Proof Cities
While the brouhaha over the White Paper rages, Sarah Goodyear writes in The Atlantic Cities about a novel concept from one Asher J. Kohn which might, in the near future, moot the whole discussion:
"Architecture against drones is not just a science-fiction scenario but a contemporary imperative," writes Asher J.
Published by The Lawfare Institute
in Cooperation With
While the brouhaha over the White Paper rages, Sarah Goodyear writes in The Atlantic Cities about a novel concept from one Asher J. Kohn which might, in the near future, moot the whole discussion:
"Architecture against drones is not just a science-fiction scenario but a contemporary imperative," writes Asher J. Kohn. Kohn, an American law student and editor of The Tuqay, a website covering "Central Asia and its hinterlands," has recently put forth a theoretical proposal for a city built to passively shield its residents against this ultramodern tool of warfare -- a drone-deflecting city. He created it for a class he was auditing in extreme architecture, and it has since been picked up for discussion by several websites. Kohn’s envisioned drone-proof community, which he calls “Shura City,” is a thought experiment, a provocation (shura, Arabic for consultation, is a word associated with group decision-making in the Islamic world). It’s a self-contained environment with elaborate architectural devices designed to thwart robotic predators overhead. Minarets, along with the wind-catching cooling towers called badgirs, would obstruct the flight path of the drones. A latticed roof, extending over the entire community, would create shade patterns to make visual target identification difficult. A fully climate-controlled environment would confuse heat-seeking detection systems. He has not included any anti-aircraft weapons in this scenario.(h/t Joshua Bleiberg)
Ritika Singh was a project coordinator at the Brookings Institution where she focused on national security law and policy. She graduated with majors in International Affairs and Government from Skidmore College in 2011, and wrote her thesis on Russia’s energy agenda in Europe and its strategic implications for America.
