My title is of course a riff on Howard Blake’s song for the film version of Raymond Briggs‘s The Snowman.  Briggs himself despairs of the saccharine treatment of his original story, which was intended to teach kids about mortality… so at this time of year it’s a starkly appropriate way into Drone Week at Open Canada (a project of the Canadian International Council).

One you navigate to the site, click through on Kill, Watch and then Aid.

Kill: The series opens with a feature essay from Micah Zenko on Lethal Drones, and commentary from Amitai Etzioni (‘Why drones win’), Denis Stairs (‘Drone proliferation’)  and Jennifer Welsh (‘The slow death of the noncombatant’).

Watch: The series continues with a feature essay from Peter Singer on the Robotics Revolution, and commentary from Matthew Schroyer (‘Drones for good’), Ryan Calo (‘Letting drones reach their potential’), Joshua Foust (‘Drone knows and unknowns) and Fraser Holman (‘Are drones right for Canada?’).

Aid: The final section has a feature essay from Jack Chow on The case for humanitarian drones with a response from Nathaniel A. Raymond, Brittany Card and Ziad Al Achkar (‘The case against humanitarian drones’).

And there’s more to come…

UPDATE: My own invited contribution – Where drones fit in fields of violence – is here.  In case you’re wondering, I didn’t provide the title – or the subtitle…

(Open Canada also has similar portfolios on Surviving violence: Civilian Protection in Armed Conflict and Twitter and Diplomacy – both worth checking out).