@article{2022:krebs:dronecine,
title = {Drone-Cinema, Data Practices, and the Narrative of IHL},
year = {2022},
note = {This article explores how advanced military technologies and data
practices reshape and reassert a particular, Western-centric,
narrative of International Humanitarian Law (IHL). Analysing the
dissemination of this narrative through popular culture, with a focus
on he 2015 British thriller Eye in the Sky, I explore how the
representation of IHL data practices reaffirms a humanitarian
narrative of IHL. As a popular culture product – and one that is
embraced by senior IHL experts and professionals – Eye in the Sky
reflects and participates in the ethical, legal, and political debates
about advanced military technologies, and presents mundane data
practices as a system of knowledge production through which IHL
exercises its jurisdiction over facts, people, time, and space. In
particular, the article analyses how Eye in the Sky’s
representations of IHL’s data practices strengthen and reinforce a
particular IHL narrative, which is consistent with Western
countries’ narrative about their existing bureaucracies of killing.
Based on Interdisciplinary analysis of socio-legal studies (SLS),
Science and Technology Studies (STS), and culture and media
literature, this article answers the following three questions: (i)
who is given the power to speak IHL (and who is not)? (ii) to whom is
IHL speaking? and (iii) how do data practices shape IHL’s
jurisdiction? The article concludes that Eye in the Sky speaks
international law through the voices of drone-owning nations, and is
directed to their mass publics, legitimising data-centred violence. At
the same time, it disguises normative choices as inevitable, and
erases African decision-makers, communities, and perspectives.},
journal = {Zeitschrift für ausländisches öffentliches Recht und Völkerrecht / Heidelberg Journal of International Law},
pages = {309--332},
author = {Krebs, Shiri},
volume = {82},
number = {2}
}