(Non)-lethality and war: tear gas as a weapon of governmental intervention

ABSTRACT

This article attempts to think through the relationship between lethality and war through the object of tear gas from its invention to contemporary uses. First, I examine the way in which tear gas migrates from a zone of lethal/non-lethal conceptual indistinction, to one where the same rationalities operate but the intent of their use is opposed in relation to life and death. Second, from this biopolitical distinction, I trace its use in the governing of colonial populations and populations under occupation, and its recent weaponisation in “domestic” spaces. These contemporary uses of tear gas, I argue, can be seen as what Sloterdijk would call “atmosterror” which contribute to blurring the lines between war and peace.

KEYWORDS:

• Governmentality
• biopolitics
• non-lethal weapons
• volumetrics
• war

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

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Miguel de Larrinaga

Miguel de Larrinaga teaches at the University of Ottawa. His research focuses on the deployment of discourses and practices of security broadly understood. Presently, he is working on projects related to securitisation and the political, non-lethal weapons as weapons of intervention and the politics of air.