Glocal Pacification by Vertical Means: The Case of Droneland Policing

Abstract

ABSTRACT The article investigates drones’ attribution to securitise, surveil and pacify border regimes within a threefold, even though contradictory, development: Firstly, borders as demarcation lines or check-points are redefined into border spaces. Secondly, the failing of an out-bound targeted and state-led border security system turns into the claimed necessity for new inner security measures. Within a framework of a technologised migration management, thirdly, a militarisation of internal security occurs within which different capital fractions compete for market shares in policing migration and managing minorities. The drone—a peripheral device just a couple of years ago—turns into the centrepiece of pacification endeavours and the device to draw all battle lines. The (for some) faraway Afgh-Pak combat drone turns into the peripheral border drone finally approaching us as a homeland drone.