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4 - Case 1

Targeted Killing and Assassination

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  06 January 2022

Simon Frankel Pratt
Affiliation:
University of Melbourne
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Summary

In Chapter 4, I investigate the emergence and evolution of the USA’s targeted killing programme, focusing mainly on its origins within the CIA and its transformation from a limited, ad hoc method to a systematic and institutionalised form of militarised counterterrorism. I question whether it represents the erosion of international and domestic prohibitions on assassination and find that it does not; those prohibitions continue to exist and play a normative role in shaping how force is used, but they have changed in content – they refer to something different than before. Central to this process were legal arguments and bureaucratic politics designed to adjust the delegation of authorities across the agencies of the US security apparatus, facilitated by the development of armed unmanned aerial vehicles, which supplied an essential means, and by pressure from the Bush and Obama administrations.

Type
Chapter
Information
Normative Transformation and the War on Terrorism
The Evolution of Targeted Killing, Torture, and Private Military Contracting
, pp. 58 - 85
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2022

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  • Case 1
  • Simon Frankel Pratt, University of Melbourne
  • Book: Normative Transformation and the War on Terrorism
  • Online publication: 06 January 2022
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/9781009092326.005
Available formats
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  • Case 1
  • Simon Frankel Pratt, University of Melbourne
  • Book: Normative Transformation and the War on Terrorism
  • Online publication: 06 January 2022
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/9781009092326.005
Available formats
×

Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

  • Case 1
  • Simon Frankel Pratt, University of Melbourne
  • Book: Normative Transformation and the War on Terrorism
  • Online publication: 06 January 2022
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/9781009092326.005
Available formats
×