Abstract
In this chapter, I analyze the power relations introduced by unmanned aerial vehicles, or drones, deployed by the US military during the “war on terror.” Drawing on Michel Foucault’s theory of power, I argue that, under the guise of the “war on terror,” drones serve as a means to implement a new version of disciplinary power relations in which entire populations inhabiting drone-surveilled areas are subjected to the US rule. In order to outline the characteristics of this new power regime, I proceed as follows. First, I focus on the drone-based contemporary version of what Foucault calls the “right of the sword,” the sovereign’s “right” to decide on the life and death of subjected individuals, which, in the case of drones, relies on three “means of correct training” in order to create the illusion of “surgically precise” strikes. Second, I examine a range of factors that make drone strikes inherently indiscriminate, and, consequently, I show how imprecise strikes undermine the drones’ power effects. And third, I focus on the drones’ contemporary articulation of the panoptic hierarchical gaze that produces effects of disciplinary power through a specific distribution of visibility and invisibility.
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Notes
- 1.
Although other states run similar drone programs (e.g., the UK army conducts drone strikes in Afghanistan, the Israeli army uses drones in the Gaza Strip), in this chapter I will focus exclusively on the US drone program. The US drone program is currently the most extensive one and, consequently, most of the available literature on drones is about US drones. However, many of the points made in this chapter about the US drone program can be generalized and applied to other drone programs.
- 2.
Due to the covert nature of the drone program and the incessant attempts by US authorities to prevent any kind of independent evaluation of the program, it is very difficult to critically examine its characteristics. However, by delving into a number of studies and newspaper articles that in recent years have disclosed specific aspects of the program, it is possible to provide a detailed, genuine picture of the program’s main flaws.
- 3.
In Pakistan’s tribal areas, it is difficult to evaluate how violence perpetrated by other belligerent sides—the insurgents and members of the repressive apparatus of the Pakistani state—affects the civilian population. It is true that to a certain extent violence perpetrated by these groups terrorizes the local population and forces them to change their behavior. However, based on interviews with locals from North Waziristan, it is clear that the drones’ constant presence plays a very significant role in producing changes in the way mundane activities are being carried out in targeted areas.
- 4.
To a certain extent, I argue, drone warfare also aims to discipline, through the display of untrammeled US power, other populations that do not live under drone surveillance. By displaying their capability to launch drone strikes in many declared and undeclared combat zones, the US projects its power not only on the drone-surveilled population, but on a global audience. Drone strikes serve as a reminder of US power directed at a wider, global audience, as a reminder of what can happen to those who oppose US power. Drones not only terrorize populations kept under their control, but also serve as a means to instill fear in the public at large.
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Badalič, V. (2016). The Predators’ Rule of Terror. In: Završnik, A. (eds) Drones and Unmanned Aerial Systems. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-23760-2_8
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