Humanitarian violence: how Western airmen kill and let die in order to make live - HAL-SHS - Sciences de l'Homme et de la Société Accéder directement au contenu
Article Dans Une Revue Critical Military Studies Année : 2019

Humanitarian violence: how Western airmen kill and let die in order to make live

Mathias Delori

Résumé

A number of Western countries such as the United States, Britain and France have been waging war continuously since the ‘terrorist’ attacks of 11 September 2001. Although these wars have resulted in a massive loss of life, only a few scholars have tried to understand the determinants and motives behind this violence. This article aims to shed some light on this blind spot by studying the interpretive ‘frames’ (Judith Butler) that mediate the Western military’s relation to violence. It does so by relying on a qualitative inquiry with the French airmen who bombed Afghanistan (2001–2011), Libya (2011) and Mali (2013). The article argues that the classical explanation in terms of ‘de-humanization’ is only partially heuristic. Indeed, airmen sometimes see the human ‘face’ – in Levinas’ term – of the people they kill, and these moments of ‘recognition’ do not alter their will to wage war and drop bombs. I explain this apparent paradox by relying on Eyal Weizman’s notion of ‘humanitarian violence’.
Fichier non déposé

Dates et versions

halshs-01720360 , version 1 (01-03-2018)

Identifiants

Citer

Mathias Delori. Humanitarian violence: how Western airmen kill and let die in order to make live. Critical Military Studies, 2019, 5 (4), pp.322-340. ⟨10.1080/23337486.2017.1401827⟩. ⟨halshs-01720360⟩
44 Consultations
0 Téléchargements

Altmetric

Partager

Gmail Facebook X LinkedIn More