Predator empire: the geopolitics of U.S. drone warfare

Shaw, I. G. R. (2013) Predator empire: the geopolitics of U.S. drone warfare. Geopolitics, 18(3), pp. 536-559. (doi: 10.1080/14650045.2012.749241)

Abstract

This paper critically assesses the CIA’s drone program and proposes that the use of unmanned aerial vehicles is driving an increasingly paramilitarized U.S. national security strategy. The paper suggests that large-scale ground wars are being eclipsed by fleets of weaponized drones capable of targeted killings across the planet. Evidence for this shift is found in key security documents that mobilize an amorphous war against vaguely defined al-Qa’ida “affiliates”. This is further legitimized by the White House’s presentation of drone warfare as a bureaucratic task managed by a “disposition matrix”. Such abstract narratives are challenged through the voices of people living in the tribal areas of Pakistan. What I call the Predator Empire names the biopolitical power that catalogues and eliminates threatening “patterns of life”. This permanent war is enabled by a topological spatial power that folds the environments of the “affiliate” into the surveillance machinery of the Homeland.

• Item Type: Articles
• Additional Information: This is an Accepted Manuscript of an article published by Taylor & Francis Group in Geopolitics on 14/06/2013, available online: http://www.tandfonline.com/10.1080/14650045.2012.749241
• Status: Published
• Refereed: Yes
• Glasgow Author(s) Enlighten ID: Shaw, Dr Ian
• Authors: Shaw, I. G. R.
• Subjects: G Geography. Anthropology. Recreation > G Geography (General)
• College/School: College of Science and Engineering > School of Geographical and Earth Sciences > Geography
• Journal Name: Geopolitics
• Publisher: Taylor & Francis
• ISSN: 1465-0045
• ISSN (Online): 1557-3028
• Published Online: 14 June 2013
• Copyright Holders: Copyright © 2013 Taylor & Francis Group, LLC