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Abstract
This paper critically assesses the CIA's drone programme and proposes that the use of unmanned aerial vehicles is driving an increasingly “dronified” US national security strategy. The paper suggests that large-scale ground wars are being eclipsed by fleets of weaponised drones capable of targeted killings across the planet. Evidence for this shift is found in key security documents that mobilise an amorphous conflict against vaguely defined al-Qa'ida “affiliates”. This process is legitimised through the White House's presentation of drone warfare as a bureaucratic conflict managed by a “disposition matrix”. These official narratives are challenged by the voices of people living in the tribal areas of Pakistan. What I term the Predator Empire names the biopolitical power that digitises, catalogues, and eliminates threatening “patterns of life” across a widening battlespace. This permanent war is enabled by a topological spatial power that folds the distant environments of the affiliate into the surveillance machinery of the Homeland.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
I would like to thank Simon Dalby and the reviewers that commented on earlier drafts of this paper.
Notes
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3. Miller, ‘Plan for Hunting’ (note 1).
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8. Ibid.
9. U.S. Air Force, ‘MQ-1B Predator’ (2012), available at <http://www.af.mil/information/factsheets/factsheet.asp?id=122>, accessed 31 Oct. 2012.
10. N. Turse and T. Engelhardt, Terminator Planet: The First History of Drone Warfare, 2001–2050 (New York: Dispatch Books 2012).
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12. J. Sifton, ‘A Brief History of Drones’, The Nation, 2012, available at <http://www.thenation.com/article/166124/brief-history-drones>, accessed 31 Oct. 2012.
13. For more on the history of US drones, and the CIA's development of the Predator drone in particular, see I. G. R. Shaw, ‘The Rise of the Predator Drone’ (2012), available at <http://understandingempire.wordpress.com/2012/10/28/essay-the-historical-rise-of-the-predator-drone-2/>, accessed 31 Oct. 2012.
14. S. Coll, Ghost Wars: The Secret History of the CIA, Afghanistan and Bin Laden, from the Soviet Invasion to September 10, 2001 (London: Penguin Books 2004).
15. Death counts, even in declared wars, are impossible to verify accurately. In undeclared ones such as the CIA's drone campaign, accurate death counts are even more difficult. The most reliable website for tracking drone strikes and deaths is The Bureau of Investigative Journalism at <http://www.thebureauinvestigates.com/category/projects/drones/>.
16. The debate surrounding whether or not the CIA's programme of targeted killings is legal is enormous, and one that I do not pursue in great detail in this paper. See Stanford Law School and NYU School of Law (note 33), chapter 4.
17. G. Miller, ‘CIA Seeks to Expand Drone fleet, Officials Say’, The Washington Post, 2012, available at <http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/cia-seeks-to-expand-drone-fleet-officials-say/2012/10/18/01149a8c-1949-11e2-bd10-5ff056538b7c_story.html?tid=pm_pop>, accessed 31 Oct. 2012.
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19. See T. Paglen, ‘Goatsucker: Toward a Spatial Theory of State Secrecy’, Environment and Planning D: Society and Space 28/5 (2010) pp. 759–771.
20. There are many instances of this. For example the coordination between the CIA and the military's Joint Special Operations Command (JSOC) in Yemen. Symbolically, consider also the appointment of Gen. David Petreaus as head of the CIA.
21. Council on Foreign Relations, ‘Targeted Killings’ (2012), available at <http://www.cfr.org/intelligence/targeted-killings/p9627>, accessed 26 July 2011.
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40. National Strategy for Counterterrorism (note 29) p. 3.
41. Ibid., p. 3
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43. The White House, Sustaining U.S. Global Leadership (note 31).
44. Ibid., p. 6. Italics in original.
45. Ibid., foreword by President Barack Obama.
46. Quoted in E. Pilkington, ‘Barack Obama Sets Out Plans for Leaner Military in Historic Strategy Shift, The Guardian, 2012, available at <http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2012/jan/05/barack-obama-plans-leaner-military>, accessed 20 Jan. 2012.
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52. I am here referring to the Predator's frequent crashes. See N. Turse, ‘The Crash and Burn Future of Robot Warfare’, TomDispatch, 2012, available at <http://www.tomdispatch.com/post/175489/tomgram%3A_nick_turse%2C_drone_disasters_/#more>, accessed 9 Feb. 2012.
53. It is important to consider the US drone strikes along with the damage regional militant groups and even the Pakistani state has caused to civilians in FATA.
54. Rogers (note 32).
55. Stanford Law School and NYU School of Law (note 33).
56. C. Woods and C. Lamb, ‘Obama Terror Drones: CIA Tactics in Pakistan Include Targeting Rescuers and Funerals’ (2012), available at <http://www.thebureauinvestigates.com/2012/02/04/obama-terror-drones-cia-tactics-in-pakistan-include-targeting-rescuers-and-funerals/>, accessed 1 Nov. 2012.
57. Stanford Law School and NYU School of Law (note 33) pp. 75–76.
58. Ibid., p. vii.
59. Rogers (note 32) p. 60.
60. Ibid., p. 61.
61. Ibid., p. 61.
62. Stanford Law School and NYU School of Law (note 33) p. 98.
63. ‘Washington Post-ABC News Poll’ (2012), available at <http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/politics/polls/postabcpoll_020412.html>, accessed 16 Feb. 2012.
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66. DeYoung (note 47).
67. ‘Title 10’ of the United States Code establishes the role of the armed forces in the United States Code.
68. Congressional Research Service, Special Operations Forces (SOF) and CIA Paramilitary Operations: Issues for Congress (2006).
69. Kinetic operations refer to physical activity that engages belligerents in a battlespace (as opposed to, in this case, passive forms of intelligence gathering). G. Miller and J. Tate, ‘CIA Shifts Focus to Killing Targets’, The Washington Post, 2011, available at <http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/cia-shifts-focus-to-killing-targets/2011/08/30/gIQA7MZGvJ_print.html>, accessed 21 Jan. 2012.
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75. Stanford Law School and NYU School of Law (note 33) pp. 57–58.
76. Entous et al. (note 72).
77. Becker and Shane, ‘Secret “Kill List”’ (note 50).
78. Gregory, ‘War and Peace’ (note 51) p. 173.
79. K. Schlosser, ‘Bio-Political Geographies’, Geography Compass 2/5 (2008) pp. 1621–1634.
80. Foucault, ‘Society’ (note 35).
81. C. Philo. ‘A ‘New Foucault’ with Lively Implications – or ‘The Crawfish Advances Sideways’’, Transactions of the Institute of British Geographers 37/4 (2012) p. 505.
82. Foucault, ‘Society’ (note 35) p. 240.
83. Ibid., p. 240.
84. Ibid., p. 241.
85. Ibid., p. 249.
86. Ibid., p. 249.
87. Ibid., p. 240.
88. Dillon and Reid (note 70).
89. M. Dillon and L. Lobo-Guerrero, ‘Biopolitics of Security in the 21st Century: An Introduction’, Review of International Studies 34 (2008) p. 267.
90. Ibid., p. 267.
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95. Ibid., p. 24.
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104. Whitlock (note 102).
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107. Foucault, ‘Society’ (note 35) p. 24.
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113. Foucault (note 35) p. 249.
114. Ibid., p. 254. My emphasis.
115. Ibid., p. 256.
116. R. Mohammad and J. D. Sidaway, ‘Stalingrad in the Hindu Kush? AFPAK, Crucibles and Chains of Terror’, Antipode 43/2 (2010) pp. 199–204.
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118. J. Sidaway, ‘‘One Island, One Team, One Mission’: Geopolitics, Sovereignty, ‘Race’ and Rendition’, Geopolitics 15/4 (2010) pp. 667–683.
119. Gregory, ‘Everywhere War’ (note 6).
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124. P. Singer, Wired for War (New York: Penguin Press 2009).
125. P. Singer, ‘Do Drones Undermine Democracy?’, New York Times, 2012, available at <http://www.nytimes.com/2012/01/22/opinion/sunday/do-drones-undermine-democracy.html?pagewanted=1&_r=2&nl=todaysheadlines&emc=thab1>, accessed 9 Feb. 2012. (Emphasis added).
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127. A recent Pew poll found 97% of Pakistani respondents viewed drone strikes negatively. In D. Walsh, ‘Pakistan Orders US out of Drone Base’, The Guardian, 2011, <http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/jun/30/pakistan-orders-us-out-drone-base>, accessed 22 Jan. 2012.
128. See N. Turse, ‘The Crash and Burn Future of Robot Warfare’, TomDispatch, 2012, available at <http://www.tomdispatch.com/post/175489/tomgram%3A_nick_turse%2C_drone_disasters_/#more>, accessed 22 Jan. 2012.
129. Miller, ‘Plan for Hunting’ (note 1).
130. See S. Elden, Terror and Territory: The Spatial Extent of Sovereignty (Minneapolis: Minnesota University Press 2009).
131. Stanford Law School and NYU School of Law (note 33) pp. 103–124.
132. Gregory, ‘War and Peace’ (note 51).
133. Sustaining U.S. Global Leadership (note 31).