Enabling persistent presence? Performing the embodied geopolitics of the Unmanned Aerial Vehicle assemblage

Military Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) are being increasingly used to provide surveillance and attack capabilities within war zones. At the heart of much of the rhetoric about these aircraft is their supposed ability to enable persistent presence across the battlespace. They are also unique in that they actively distance the aircrew from the aircraft. This paper seeks to question whether this claim to persistent presence can be justified and considers the implications of the distancing of pilot from machine in this. In order to achieve this, the paper focuses upon conceptualising UAVs as assemblages, composed of both human and machine elements. It uses firsthand accounts from a Royal Air Force Reaper UAV aircrew as a basis to analyse the ways in which the deployment of these aircraft in Afghanistan is changing the ways that war is experienced by aerial combatants. It does this through the utilisation of a feminist, embodied geopolitics, refiguring it from a concern with victims of war to argue for its use to understand the micro-scale of how the humans within these UAV assemblages experience combat. This paper thus focuses upon the extent to which the Reaper UAV achieves a persistent presence through analysis of its supposed more-than-human loitering and vision abilities, and the limitations associated with the requirement for a human-in-the loop. The paper contends that although UAVs like the Reaper change the geopolitics of combat, the continuing requirement for the human element of the assemblage restricts their ability to provide persistent presence.     

Glasgow university library Sölch collection : A note

EUROPE

The Soils around Jedburgh and Morebattle. By John W. Muir. 9 ¾×6 ¾. Pp. 878. 2 maps. 20 tables. 11 diagrams. 32 plates. 8 colour plates. Edinburgh : H.M.S.O., 1956. 30s.

The British Moorlands : A problem in land utilisation. By John Fraser Hart. 8 ½×5 ½. Pp. viii+98. 25 figures. University of Georgia Monograph, No. 2. Athens (U.S.A.) : Georgia University Press, 1955. $2.00.

European Refugees : A Study in Forced Population Movement. By Malcolm J. Proudfoot. 5 ½×8 ½. Pp. vi+542. 49 tables. 2 maps. London: Faber &; Faber Ltd, 1957. 52s 6d.

East Norway and its Frontiers. By Frank Noel Stagg. 8 ¾×5 ¾. Pp.285. 15 plates. 6 maps. London : Allen and Unwin Ltd, 1956. 18s.

La Yougoslavie : Aperçu Géographique. By B. Z. Milojevic. Translated by Mila Dordlvic. 9 ¼×6 ½. Pp. xi+89. I folded end map and numerous figures and plates. Beograd : La Commission pour les relations culturelles avec l'étranger, 1956.

ASIA

The Pakistani Way of Life. By I. H. Qureshi. 8 ¾×5 ¾. Pp. xi+81. 23 plates. London : William Heinemann Ltd, 1955. 12s 6d.

Indian Climatology. By S. B. Chattergee. 9 ½×6 ¼. Pp. 417. 36 tables. 80 diagrams. Calcutta : Commercial Printers, 1955. 20s.

Asia : Sketch Map and Exercise Books for upper forms. Book VII. By Thomas Pickles. 7 ¼×9 ¾. Pp.48. London : John Murray Ltd, 1956. 3s.

AMERICA

The Industrial Structure of American Cities : A geographic study of urban economy in the United States. By Gunnar Alexandersson. 10×7 ½. Pp. 134. 40 figs. 13 maps. London : Allen and Unwin Ltd, 1956. 40s.

CARTOGRAPHY

Topographical Maps and Photographic Interpretation. By P. T. Silley. 9 ½×6 ½. Pp. vii+76. 8 maps with 8 plates. 3 plates. 53 figs. London: George Philip and Son Ltd, 1955. 10s 6d.

Map and Photo Reading. By T. W. Birch. 10×7 ½. Pp.64. 24 maps and photos. London: Edward Arnold and Co., 1956. 16s.

Mapping the World. By Erwin Raisz. 6 ½×9 ½. Pp. 112. 72 figs and 7 plates. London : Abelard‐Schuman, 1956. 12s 6d.

GEOLOGY AND GEOMORPHOLOGY

Introduction to Physical Geology. By Chester R. Longwell and R. Foster Flint. 9 ¼×6 ½. Pp.vii+432. Plates and figs. 2 end paper maps. London: Chapman and Hall Ltd, 1955. 40s.

Geology and Ourselves. By F. H. Edmunds. 9 ¼×6 ½. Pp. 256. 12 plates. 15 figs. London : Hutchison's Scientific and Technical Publications, 1955. 21s.

Der Bodenfrost als Morphologischer Faktor. By Josef Schmid. 9 ½×7 ½. Pp. viii+144. 27 figs. 5 plates. Heidelberg : Dr Alfred Huthig Verlag, 1955.

Vocabulaire Franco‐anglo‐allemande de Geomorphologie. By Henri Baulig. 9 ½×6 ¼. Pp. xxv+230. Publications de la Faculte des lettres de l'Université de Strasbourg. Fasc. 130. Paris: Société d'edition: Les Belles Lettres, 1956. 1,200 fr.

ECONOMIC GEOGRAPHY

World Economic Geography. By Earl B. Shaw. 8 ¾×6 ½. Pp. vii+582. Maps, diagrams and plates. New York : John Wiley and Sons Inc. London : Chapman and Hall Ltd, 1955. 52s.

Chisholm's Handbook of Commercial Geography. Re‐written by L. Dudley Stamp and S. Carter Gilmour. 15th Edition. 8 ¾×6. Pp. viii+915. 30 maps and diagrams. London : Longmans, Green and Co. Ltd, 1956. 70s.

La Pêche maritime el le Pêcheur en Mer. By Auguste Dupouy. 6 ½×4 ¼. Pp. 216. [Collection Armand Colin, No. 300.] Paris : Librairie Armand Colin, 1955. 250 fr.

GENERAL

A Concise Glossary of Geographical Terms. By J. C. Swayne. 6 ¼×4. Pp. 164. London : George Philip and Son Ltd, 1956. 6s 6d.

Worlds Beyond the Horizon. By Joachim G. Leithauser. Transl. by Hugh Merrick. 9 ½×6. Pp. 371. 46 plates+frontispiece. London : Allen and Unwin Ltd, 1956. 40s.

A Guide to Earth History. By Richard Carrington. 8 ½×5 ½. Pp. xvi+240. 44 figs. 16 plates, including coloured frontispiece, by Maurice Wilson. London : Chatto and Windus Ltd, 1956. 21s.

Puzzle of the Past. By Ronald Jessup. 12 ¾×9 ¾. Pp.68. Illustrations (colour/black and white). London : Rathbone Books, 1956. 15s.

ATLASES AND MAPS

The Oxford Home Atlas of the World. By Geoffrey Cumberlege. 10×7 ¾. Pp. viii+104+xxxi. London: Oxford University Press, 1955. 15s.

Map of Roman Britain : 16 miles to one inch. Third Edition. Text 11×8 ¼. Pp.43. 4 maps+Map of Roman Britain. Chessington : Ordnance Survey, 1956. 7s 6d.

Penguin Atlas. Edited by J. S. Keats. 8×5 ¾. Pp. xv+156. 80 colour maps. Harmondsworth : Penguin Books Ltd, 1956. 10s.

Oxford Regional Economic Atlas of the U.S.S.R. and Eastern Europe. Oxford : Clarendon Press. London : Cumberlege, 1956. 42.s.