From High-Footprint to Low-Footprint Intervention in U.S. Counterterrorism Strategy: What Changed?

Sarah Cheikhali

Annals of the American Association of Geographers, 2025, vol. 115, issue 6, 1367-1384

Abstract: This article examines the cartographic discourses underpinning the shift in U.S. counterterrorism strategy from high-footprint military interventions to low-footprint drone strikes. It argues that both approaches are shaped by neoliberal rationalities, despite their differences in scale and geography. High-footprint interventions were driven by discourses linking urban centers to processes of globalization, envisioning cities as critical nodes for integrating disconnected regions into the global neoliberal order. By contrast, low-footprint drone interventions focus on peripheral, remote spaces deemed lawless and disconnected, enabling surgical, cost-effective actions. Through a comparative analysis of political speeches, military publications, corporate advertisements, and cartographic materials, the article identifies continuities in the neoliberal logics that frame these military strategies. The findings reveal that drones operate within experimental, exceptional spaces, transforming these areas into testing and proving grounds for governance and innovation technologies. The article concludes with a discussion of the boomerang effect, showing how neoliberal interventions in peripheral spaces are increasingly reflected back in normal political space, reinforcing the idea that these experimental zones serve not only as sites of intervention but also as spaces for testing governance models that later influence core geopolitical strategies. By highlighting the neoliberal underpinnings of both intervention styles, this study challenges claims that the turn to drone warfare signals a retreat from globalization dynamics.

Date: 2025
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DOI: 10.1080/24694452.2025.2476088

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