Funding Source: American Council of Learned Societies – “Precision” has become a mainstay of global military doctrine. The need to adopt technologically-precise weaponry, technology capable of hitting targets with extraordinary accuracy, is extolled as both a military and humanitarian necessity of contemporary war. How is it that certain weapons have come to be defined as “precise”? This question may seem obvious on the face of it. But in reality, weapons with massive collateral damage, including strategic bombers and nuclear weapons, have been touted as precise. And why has “precise” warfare become equated with “legitimate warfare”?