The political rationale that underlies this type of practice is that of social defense. Its classic instrument is the security measure, which is “not designed to punish but only to preserve society from the danger presented by the presence of dangerous beings in its midst.” In the logic of this security, based on the preventive elimination of dangerous individuals, “warfare” takes the form of vast campaigns of extrajudiciary executions. The names given to the drones—Predators (birds of prey) and Reapers (angels of death)—are certainly well chosen.

Grégoire Chamayou, A Theory of the Drone, loc. 174