Liquid Spaces of Organized Violence

Abstract

In recent military interventions, the intervening actors – mostly, but not exclusively, western states – do no longer aim to establish direct territorial control with ground forces. They shy away from the burdens and the risks of controlling and administrating territory. Being bound to a fixed space has become a disadvantage in situations in which speed has replaced space as the essential dimension of warfare. With the help of military technologies such as armed drones and precision-guided munitions, the intervening states destroy the forces and infrastructure of actors on the ground. This practice furthers the dissolution of the boundaries between war and peace and promotes the emergence of liquid spaces of organized violence, that are characterized by a blurring of frontlines and the emergence of ad-hoc alliances and networks of organized violence, which are fluid and highly dynamic. This panel seeks to map out the concept of liquid spaces of organized violence by drawing on perspectives from the fields of geography and political sociology.

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