Political Assassination, The Strategic Precision Weapon of Choice   [open pdf - 310KB]

In the dark environment of the new millennium where asymmetric forms of warfare will be the choice of attack by rogue states and non-state entities, political assassination offers the prospect of being the ultimate precision weapon to counter the agents that would wage such a war. This paper explores the history of assassination as a tool of US foreign policy, reviews the current US policy that limits the US government's use of assassination, and argues that the policy should be discarded for a more pragmatic approach given the age in which Americans live.