Revisiting the remoteness of remote warfare: US military intervention in Libya during Obama’s presidency

ABSTRACT

This paper aims to develop the study of remote warfare’s constitutive “remoteness.” It proposes a novel definition of remoteness as the degree of the American public’s socio-psychological detachment from the realities of political violence fought at a physical distance from the continental United States, as mediated through spectatorship of the use of military force. The remoteness of remote warfare has physical, psychological, and social properties. We argue that it exists on a continuum subject to change over time and should not be approached as a fixed condition measured solely by the physical distance separating combatants involved in armed fighting or as the use of various weapons technologies. The numerous dynamics associated with the remoteness of remote warfare are illustrated through an examination of American military intervention in Libya during Obama’s presidency. From the height of the 2011 NATO intervention in the country onwards, US military operations in Libya became more “remote” for the American public. Whilst other contextual factors contributed toward this outcome, we argue that the diminished spectacle surrounding the 2016 Operation Odyssey Lightning helps explain the American public’s increasing remoteness from military intervention in Libya.

KEYWORDS:

• Remote warfare
• Obama
• Libya
• Remoteness

Acknowledgments

The authors would like to thank the two anonymous reviewers in addition to Vladimir Rauta and Luca Trenta for their detailed and constructive feedback on this paper. An earlier version of this paper was also presented at the Royal Holloway Centre for International Security. Any remaining mistakes remain our own.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Funding

The authors have no funding to report.

Notes on contributors

Tom F.A. Watts

Tom F.A. Watts is a Teaching Fellow in International Relations at Royal Holloway, University of London, and a researcher on the AUTONORMS project based at the University of Southern Denmark. His research focuses on American foreign and security policy, remote warfare, and lethal autonomous weapons systems.

Rubrick Biegon

Rubrick Biegon is a Lecturer in International Relations at the University of Kent. His research interests include US foreign policy, international security, and remote warfare.