Laurie Calhoun, a philosopher and cultural critic, is the author of We Kill Because We Can: From Soldiering to Assassination in the Drone Age (Zed Books, September 2015; paperback issued in 2016) and War and Delusion: A Critical Examination (Palgrave Macmillan 2013; paperback issued in 2016). She has also published a book on metaphilosophy (Philosophy Unmasked: A Skeptic’s Critique) and dozens of essays, including book chapters. She published one of the first moral essays critical of targeted killing, “The Strange Case of Summary Execution by Predator Drone,” only months after the execution by the CIA of six people in Yemen on November 3, 2002, and she authored the chapter “Targeted Killing and Drone Warfare” for the Routledge Handbook of Critical Terrorism Studies (2016). Calhoun was invited to serve as the guest editor of a special issue of the journal Philosophical Forum dedicated to the topic of drone warfare.
From 2001 through 2004, Calhoun participated in an international project group, sponsored by the Japan Foundation, to develop new approaches to Human Security and Peace Building. The group convened annually at meetings of the International Studies Association (ISA), with the final colloquium held in Hiroshima, Japan, and culminating in the publication of a book in both English and Japanese: Conflict and Human Security: A Search for New Approaches of Peace-building.
Calhoun has been invited to speak about her work in the United States, Canada, Japan, Ghana, and New Zealand. She holds degrees in chemistry and philosophy from the University of Colorado and Princeton University, respectively. She is fluent in French and competent in Spanish, German, and Italian.
We Kill Because We Can 
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