Ethical interventions: Non-lethal weapons and the governance of insecurity

Abstract

This article employs some of the theoretical and methodological tools devised by Michel Foucault to explore the political rationale suggested by the proliferation and use of a class of weapons collectively referred to as ‘non-lethal’. The invention and continued use of non-lethal weapons has been treated in existing literature as an ethical crisis. This article connects the emergence of non-lethal weaponry to the mobilization of a sense of ethical crisis concerning the humane treatment of civilians and combatants in conflicts in the United States and beyond. Policies related to non-lethal weaponry, along with the practices that they engender, are also explored in relation to the notion of ‘partial citizenship’. Offering a contribution to the genealogy of non-lethal weapons, this article traces their involvement in the policing by US military agents of a variety of sites, actors, and contexts outside of the theater of war.

The Suppression and Othering of Black Lives Matter Protests Through Tear Gas

“…As Ong (2006) argues, the nature of citizenship has become differential, ever shifting, and no longer guaranteed in its entirety. The utilization of “less-lethal” weapons such as tear gas has allowed state actors “to selectively protect human safety while managing and controlling certain populations” as well as generate “varieties of citizenship that are always and already partial” (Anaïs, 2011, p. 547). Teargassing not only violates the protection against cruel and unusual punishment, but also pollutes the air in the name of governance (Nieuwenhuis, 2016).…”

Death in the details: Finding dead bodies at the Canadian War Museum

“…A different approach inquires into the 'agency' of weaponry to shape both the physical exercise of violent force and the normative landscapes in which it operates (Bourne, 2012;De Larringa, 2016;Gregory, 2011;Salter, 2015Salter, , 2016. Drawing on new approaches to materiality (Bennett, 2010;Braun and Whatmore, 2010;Coole and Frost, 2010;Latour and Weibel, 2005;Marres and Lezaun, 2011), and longstanding work in science and technology studies (Latour, 1987(Latour, , 1999Law and Hansard, 1999), weaponry is cast in a new light (Anaïs, 2011;Bolton, 2015;Bousquet, 2009;Gregory, 2011;Salter, 2015Salter, , 2016. From this perspective, weapons are not seen as constraints on human action, 'brute' things that get in the way of ideas.…”

Drone strikes, dingpolitik and beyond: Furthering the debate on materiality and security

“…While its spread across issue areas and disciplines has been impressive, its heartland remains the techno-sociology of environmentalism, biotechnology and organizational life. Surprisingly few researchers employ actor-network theory, or science studies more generally, to examine questions of military violence, international security, armed conflict or weapons research (but see Anaïs, 2011;Bourne, 2012;De Goede, 2013;Galison, 2005;Leander, 2013;MacKenzie, 1990;Neyland, 2009). Yet it has to be noted that these security worlds pose certain conceptual, methodological and ethical problems for object-oriented research.…”

“…Material approaches to security draw upon a number of different emphases and themes. In some versions, often building on Latour, Callon, Law and the tools of actor-network theory (Latour, 2005a), materiality means that research attends to material objects – whether small arms, carbon dioxide emissions or the bureaucratic ephemera of reports and files (Voelkner, 2011) – to account for the ways in which these materials mediate relationships of power, agency and governance over time and space, and shape social and political processes by virtue of their irreducible presence (Anaïs, 2011; Bellanova and Duez, 2012; Bourne, 2012; Pouliot, 2010; Van Veeren, 2012; Voelkner, 2011; Walters, 2002). In other versions, incorporating theories of affect and concepts like ‘intra-action’ (Aradau, 2010) and ‘phantasy’ (Salter and Mutlu, 2012), it is the lively, energetic and sometimes unruly behaviour of materials and objects that is foregrounded.…”