Collateral Damage: Warfare, Death, and Queer Theory in the Global South

Drone warfare is only the most prominent of a series of social and technological developments leading to remote and abstracted forms of injury and death. In response to Maya Mikdashi and Jasbir K. Puar’s connecting of queer theory with “permanent war” in “Queer Theory and Permanent War,” the present article examines the way in which queer scholarship can productively engage with non-Western bodies and sexualities. Considering sub-Saharan Africa and the Middle East, it draws on the work of Puar, Achille Mbembe, and others to argue that the post-9/11 wars represent a major context in which queer theory can help us reexamine conflict, trauma, and embodiment.