Francis Fukuyama, policy wonk icon and prestigious political scientist, has distanced himself from his neoconservative pals and support for the Iraq War. Once known for his advocacy of a muscular foreign policy and the Bush version of the War on Terror, he’s reconsidered his philosophy in recent years and is proving it by building a remote controlled helicopter complete with video recording capability “before the government makes them illegal.” Writing in The American Interest, here’s Fukuyama:

The next stage in this project is to equip the drone with telemetry. I’ve bought the package that includes a real time video transmitter and receiver, camera, and telemetry system that will send back GPS data on the drone’s location, heading, airspeed, etc. This requires, among other things, a ham radio license.

The conservative scholar appears to be quite the enthusiast of airborne gadgets that walk the line between hobby and hardcore, going on about the AeroVironment RQ-11 Raven, the Syma S107, and the T-Rex 450 (pictured above) among others.Fukuyama can be seen playing with his toys/tinkering with his inventions near his office at Stanford University, his, er, home base.