Beyond Life and Limb: Exploring Incidental Mental Harm Under International Humanitarian Law

The U.S.-led drone program has severe and wide-ranging psychosocial and political effects on people in targeted areas. This article draws upon the author's interviews with people living under drones in Afghanistan to argue that drone surveillance and bombardment causes social isolation and self-objectification. Interviewees reported that social gatherings, and any activities that involve nighttime travel, are shortened or avoided out of fear that drone surveillance will spot so-called "nefarious activity" and bombardment will follow. Drawing upon feminist and postcolonial scholarship, the article contends that drone surveillance constitutes a form of psychological colonization. Civilians are frequently made to think of how they look to drone operators and change their behaviors accordingly-therein "self-objectifying." Narratives of "precision" warfare allow citizens of Western liberal democracies leading/supporting the drone program to avoid psychologically confronting these effects, while people living under drones face relentless psychological insecurities.

show abstract

War of Lies: Protecting Civilians from Disinformation during Armed Conflict

Katz

2021

SSRN Journal

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.

Contact Info

hi@scite.ai

10624 S. Eastern Ave., Ste. A-614

Henderson, NV 89052, USA

Blog Terms and Conditions API Terms Privacy Policy Contact Cookie Preferences Do Not Sell or Share My Personal Information

Made with 💙 for researchers

Part of the Research Solutions Family.

Beyond Life and Limb: Exploring Incidental Mental Harm Under International Humanitarian Law

Cited by 3 publications

References 40 publications

Sonic lawfare: on the jurisprudence of weaponised sound

Sonic lawfare: on the jurisprudence of weaponised sound

The Psychosocial Effects of Drone Violence: Social Isolation, Self‐Objectification, and Depoliticization

War of Lies: Protecting Civilians from Disinformation during Armed Conflict

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About