Imperial power shifted from occupying territory to dominating it from the air.

Evidence

By becoming stratospheric, an imperial power alters its relationship to space. It now becomes a matter not so much of occupying a territory as of controlling it from above by ensuring its mastery of the skies. Eyal Weizman has explained a whole sector of contemporary Israeli strategy in those terms, describing it as a politics of verticality. In this “technology versus occupation model,” the point is to “maintain domination of the evacuated areas by means other than territorial control.” This verticalization of power implies a form of above-the-ground authority, in which everything—every individual, every house, every street, even the smallest event—“can thus be monitored, policed or destroyed from the air.” — Grégoire Chamayou, A Theory of the Drone, 234

Categorization

• XREF: Weizman’s verticality ties to the reader’s interest in drone-transformed space and time. — connects to: Foreign military bases have underpinned imperial control since antiquity. — David Vine, Base Nation_ How U.S. Military Bases…, 55; US overseas bases extend an ancient imperial strategy of encircling domination; Remote-controlled warfare was predicted to radicalize the asymmetry between imperial powers and colonized peoples — Grégoire Chamayou, A Theory of the Drone, 141 (+2 more)

Broader Connections

• Superpowers wage wars abroad through proxies rather than their own troops #expands (0.78) — Anthony Giddens, The Consequences of Modernity, 187
• US overseas bases extend an ancient imperial strategy of encircling domination #expands (0.70)
• Instant communication technology transformed colonial rule into imperial control. #expands (0.60) — James W. Carey, Communication as Culture- Essays on…, 808
• Remote-controlled warfare was predicted to radicalize the asymmetry between imperial powers and colonized peoples #expands (0.55) — Grégoire Chamayou, A Theory of the Drone, 141