Militarized interstate manhunts, “absent/presence” and the spectral logic of the U.S. war on terror
The Ballad of Pancho and Bin Laden
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 21790658 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Timothy J Ruback (0000-0002-4714-0786, University of Southern Maine), Timothy Ruback (University of Southern Maine), Jon Carlson (0000-0001-9362-4522, Madera BioSciences (United States), corresponding author) |
| Year | 2023 |
| Volume | 19 |
| Issue | 1 |
| Pages | 21-48 |
| Publication date | 2023-02-01 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Journal of International Political Theory (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 1755-0882 • E-ISSN: 1755-1722 |
| Publisher | SAGE Publications (PUBLISHER • US) |
| DOI | 10.1177/17550882221090993 |
| OpenAlex | W4225405249 |
| Language | EN |
| References cited | 29 |
The decade-long search for Osama bin Laden—in which a manhunt was conducted as part of a full-scale war—was a watershed moment for US foreign policy in the twenty-first Century. Bin Laden was not simply elusive, but ephemerally ghost-like. Similar Militarized Interstate Manhunts (MIMs) are also deeply ingrained in the security politics of the US at its Southwestern border. Specifically, the militarized cross-border pursuits of Pancho Villa in the 1910s and The Apache Kid in the 1890s, serve as analogs to the “War on Terror,” especially regarding the allegedly-novel chasing of “ghostly” targets. Building on Jacques Derrida, we explore the role of an “absent/presence” by analyzing the claims of the ghostliness of the target in the context of concurrent claims about the unprecedented nature of events. These cases highlight the importance of the “absent/presence” in making military manhunts thinkable, and explain how the pursuit of “spectral” bodies authorizes exceptional military acts that would otherwise be violations of state sovereignty
Archaeology · Foreign policy · Political economy · Political science · Politics · Sociology · Sovereignty · Terrorism · War on terror · History · International Relations and Foreign Policy · Law · Military History and Strategy · World Wars: History, Literature, and Impact
Wilsonianism
Analogies at War
Deconstruction and the Possibility of Justice
Pancho Villa and the Attack on Columbus, New Mexico
Bodies of Violence
The Politics of Haunting and Memory in International Relations
The Life and Times of Pancho Villa
Dissemination
Global powers of horror
Grim reapers
Remnants and Revenants
Embodying algorithmic war
An assemblage approach to liquid warfare
The Double-Writing of Statecraft
Dead or alive
The Gothic Scene of International Relations
Foreign Policy of Woodrow Wilson, 1913-1917
Manhunt Presidency
Forget September 11
Woodrow Wilson and a Revolutionary World, 1913-1921
The American Punitive Expedition into Mexico
Imag(in)ing the severed head
Murderers All
Intervention
Pancho Villa and American Security
The Necropolitics of Drones
| Citation velocity | historical |
|---|---|
| Highly cited | No |