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1. The cultural politics of the targeted killing assemblage : introduction -- 2. Beyond the exception : the legal problematisation of targeted killing -- 3. The politics of targeted killing : introduction -- 4. Science, capitalism, and the RPA : introduction -- 5. The aesthetic subjects of targeted killing : introduction -- 6. The quotidian geopolitics of targeted killing strikes : introduction -- 7. Concluding remarks on the cultural politics of targeted killing : introduction.

The deployment of remotely piloted air platforms (RPAs) - or drones - has become a defining feature of contemporary counter-insurgency operations. Scholarly analysis and public debate has primarily focused on two issues: the legality of targeted killing and whether the practice is effective at disrupting insurgency networks, and the intensive media and activist scrutiny of the policy processes through which targeted killing decisions have been made. While contributing to these ongoing discussions, this book aims to determine how targeted killing has become possible in contemporary counter-insurgency operations undertaken by liberal regimes. Each chapter is oriented around a problematisation that has shaped the cultural politics of the targeted killing assemblage. Grayson argues that in order to understand how specific forms of violence become prevalent, it is important to determine how problematisations that enable them are shaped by a politico-cultural system in which culture operates in conjunction with technological, economic, governmental, and geostrategic elements.

Chasing Dragons discusses avenues for resisting the insecurity produced by liberal states in the post-9/11 world. This critical approach reveals the pervasiveness of power in contemporary Canadian society, how this power is hidden, and the consequences for progressive social politics

This article explores Michael Bond's A Bear Called Paddington as a vernacular political text about bordering practices and foreignness. With the foreign subject in the UK positioned as both a cause of and a solution to politico-cultural problems, the Paddington stories illustrate how this ambivalence is deeply embedded within liberalism. It is argued that A Bear Called Paddington unpacks liberal conceptions of identity, migration and tolerance while drawing attention to specific negotiations of difference that render Paddington (and others like him) into precarious positions of insecurity. The article then illustrates how Paddington exemplifies the tensions caused by the presence of the foreigner in societies perceived to be liberal. Adapted from the source document.

This article explores Michael Bond's A Bear Called Paddington as a vernacular political text about bordering practices and foreignness. With the foreign subject in the UK positioned as both a cause of and a solution to politico-cultural problems, the Paddington stories illustrate how this ambivalence is deeply embedded within liberalism. It is argued that A Bear Called Paddington unpacks liberal conceptions of identity, migration and tolerance while drawing attention to specific negotiations of difference that render Paddington (and others like him) into precarious positions of insecurity. The article then illustrates how Paddington exemplifies the tensions caused by the presence of the foreigner in societies perceived to be liberal.

This article presents six theses on targeted killing as a form of political violence. These explore the power relations, lawfare, scopic regimes, forms of spatial management and symbolic communications which suggest that the practice of targeted killing arises from the failures of the Western global counter-insurgency campaign to achieve its aims. Therefore, rather than demonstrating omniscience and omnipotence, targeted killing is indicative of the Western position of weakness in the wars of 'the colonial present'.

This article begins by presenting a biopolitical account of assassination and targeted killing events carried out by liberal regimes. It argues that forms of political violence are understood and made meaningful beyond the administrative frameworks and technical rationalizations often privileged in biopolitical analyses. Deploying Alan Feldman's (1991) argument that political violence is an 'emplotted action' alongside William Connolly's (2005 ) notion of resonance, it provides a genealogical account of how forms of assassination have been positioned within Western cultural understandings of political violence. The focal point of examination is the biblical heroine Judith, whose story has resonated as a preferred narrative structure for understanding and (de)legitimating acts of assassination among Western publics. Through its reading of the book of Judith, the article highlights the importance of ambivalence for understanding assassination as a form of political violence. The legacy of the moral problematique enabled by Judith is then illustrated in relation to US President Barak Obama's May 2011 speech announcing the killing of Osama Bin Laden. The article concludes by suggesting that although the story of Judith may underpin contemporary assassination practices, it also offers a means of critically engaging with them.