Silent war: Remote warfare and the politics of silence

Silent war reveals how silence functions as a crucial but often overlooked force in enabling and sustaining military violence. While war propaganda and discursive justifications have received significant attention, this book argues that military operations also depend on a hidden infrastructure of silence – through omission, secrecy, and tacit consent. Focusing on drone warfare and colonial counterinsurgency, it explores how regimes of (not) listening shape what can and cannot be heard. Drawing on a multidisciplinary framework and extensive empirical research – including analysis of Western parliamentary debates, UN documents, media coverage, and archival records – Silent wartraces the enduring role of silence in legitimising imperial violence. It reframes silence not as absence but as a constitutive force in global power relations, offering critical tools for interrogating dominant frameworks of military violence and opening space for listening otherwise.