The Geography of Drone Warfare : An explorative research on the changing spatial dynamics of warfare as a result of the increased use of armed drones
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2014-07
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en
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Abstract
This research aims at the step-by-step development of new theoretical insights by combining existing
theories, concepts and ideas. Therefore it builds upon Derek Gregory’s concept of the ‘everywhere
war’, and entangles it with the globalization of terrorism, counterinsurgency (COIN) and the
‘manhunt approach’. By linking this collection of theories to the deployment of armed drones, a
comprehensive conceptual framework regarding the ‘geography of drone warfare’ is formed.
What the concept of ‘everywhere war’ in short means, is that since the Global War on Terror has
commenced, the battlefield has become borderless. Acts of violence occur inside, as well as outside
‘hot battlefields’. Two major underlying processes can be identified. The most visible process is the
so-called deterritorialization of the enemy in the Global War on Terror. Al’Qaeda and its affiliates, the
enemy of the West in this conflict, are not bound to a specific country.
The second process is in fact the Western reaction to the first process. Counterinsurgency and
counterterrorism are changing as a result of the changing enemy. Contemporary military strategies
focus on the targeting of individual actors and nodes in networks. Modern counterinsurgency is
based on the destabilization of terrorist networks, which in part is done through the elimination of
individuals. This process has been called the manhunt approach. The war goes wherever Al’Qaeda
and its affiliates are believed to be hiding and this could theoretically as well as practically be
anywhere.
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Faculteit der Managementwetenschappen