The drone resolved a centuries-old contradiction in the theory of state sovereignty over war

Evidence

The invention of the armed drone has revealed not only a redoubtable weapon but also, simultaneously, something else, but without our noticing it and almost by mistake: namely, a technical solution to a fundamental tension that has put a strain on the theory and practice of political sovereignty ever since the seventeenth century. — Grégoire Chamayou, A Theory of the Drone, 556 (#corroborates, via linked claim)

But the opposite may well be true, for if a liberal security state found a way of doing without the sacrifices of warfare, it might, pace Hegel, claim to have finally and without apparent contradictions realized its announced program. And it is precisely this that tends to justify the dronization of the armed forces. One can thus grasp what is politically at stake here: reconciling the neoliberal restriction of the aims of state power to security matters with the maintenance of its prerogative to wage war. Waging war, but without sacrifices. Freely exercising war-waging sovereignty, but within the internal political conditions of sovereign security and protection. Abolishing the contradiction. — Grégoire Chamayou, A Theory of the Drone, 565 (#corroborates, via linked claim)

Categorization

• XREF: connects to: Drone warfare creates a new configuration that is neither war nor peace — Grégoire Chamayou, A Theory of the Drone, 1; Armed drones reshape sovereignty over a state’s own subjects, not just enemies; Drone warfare establishes a norm neither war nor peace via imperial immunity (+4 more)

Related

• Armed drones reshape sovereignty over a state’s own subjects, not just enemies (similarity 0.96)
• The armed drone resolves a centuries-old tension in political sovereignty. (similarity 0.94)
• The drone reconciles liberal security statehood with unrestricted waging of war. (similarity 0.94)
• Armed drone projects were framed as solving Vietnam’s political contradictions (similarity 0.86)
• Drone warfare creates a new configuration that is neither war nor peace (similarity 0.85)
• Drone assassination reframes war as social defense through preventive security measures (similarity 0.85)
• Drone use lowers the threshold so violence becomes the default foreign policy option. (similarity 0.83)
• Low cost of drone warfare removes congressional restraint on military action (similarity 0.83)
• Drone warfare leaves the mutual right to kill formally intact but substantively empty. (similarity 0.83)
• The drone state aims to replace mobilized citizen bodies with mechanical agents. (similarity 0.82)
• Drones resolve the guerrilla problem by depriving insurgents of any target to attack. (similarity 0.82)
• Drone warfare creates a new ethical-political norm neither war nor peace (similarity 0.82)
• Drone war turns strategic evaluation into disconnected body counts. (similarity 0.82)
• Drone dominance of warfare is not an inexorable historical fate (similarity 0.82)
• Eliminating reciprocal exposure to violence makes drones look like cowardly weapons. (similarity 0.82)

Broader Connections

• The armed drone resolves a centuries-old tension in political sovereignty. #corroborates (0.85) — Grégoire Chamayou, A Theory of the Drone, 556
• The drone reconciles liberal security statehood with unrestricted waging of war. #corroborates (0.70) — Grégoire Chamayou, A Theory of the Drone, 565