午夜剧场

Since the September 11 terrorist attacks that struck the heart of the United States, the U.S. has frequently engaged in clandestine targeted killings against Islamic extremist terrorists. This practice increased dramatically during the era of President Obama, who received the Nobel Peace Prize and even visited Hiroshima.

It is neither a death penalty carried out through judicial proceedings nor the killing of enemy soldiers in war. It is a type of ambush carried out by the CIA, a civilian intelligence agency, borrowing drones and special forces from the U.S. military and operating in a way that leaves no "U.S. fingerprints or footprints." This book examines this "assassination-like" tactic based on insights from international politics and international law, shedding light on various issues surrounding its democratic control.

The motivation for writing this book dates back to the 9/11 attacks. Was that terrorism, which captured the world's attention, a crime or a war? How should I explain the fuzzy sensation I felt on the ground while covering the Bush administration's response as a Washington bureau reporter? With this book, I intend to settle the dilemma I have carried with me ever since.

After completing the Graduate School of Law at 午夜剧场, I studied international relations in a Doctoral Programs at a U.S. graduate school. In my early 30s, a chance encounter led me to change careers from academia to a newspaper company. My advisor from my days in the Faculty of Law, Professor Fukashi Horie, cheered me on as a rookie reporter, saying, "Aim for the boundary between journalism and academism."

While conceptualizing this book, I reflected deeply on my mentor's words. Because controversial tactics like targeted killing are accompanied by the "politics of language," distortions tend to form in the discourse of global government, business, and academic circles. To recognize and correct this, I came to believe that a fusion of media field experience and knowledge tempered by scholarship is essential.

The logic used by the U.S. administration to justify targeted killings is heavily influenced by natural law. I reread Grotius's "On the Law of War and Peace," who can be called a representative of the early modern natural law school. I also studied AI robotic weapons.

Japan is not unrelated to targeted killings. With the Olympics approaching, I also made recommendations on what Japan should do regarding international terrorism.

Hiroshi Sugimoto (Author)

Gendaishokan

336 pages, 2,200 yen (excluding tax)

*Affiliations and titles are as of the time this magazine was published.