Fuller spectrum operations: the emergence of larval warfare

This essay sets out to tackle a theoretical challenge: to offer a conceptual re-framing that addresses how digital technical and cultural transformations have influenced the nature of modern warfare resulting in the emergence of ‘larval warfare’ (larva being Latin for ‘mask’ and/or ‘spectre’). The aim is to explore the rationale and theory of larval warfare, as well as speculate about its significance and implications for future security challenges that will necessitate not only managing risks and threats, but also require the creation of new concepts and epistemological tools. Focusing on conceptual/philosophical arguments, I speculate about the emergence of a distinct construct of warfare that conceptually depends on blurring the strict boundaries between military and civilian domains. The latent, emergent, and masked nature of this mode of warfare exceeds, and thus disrupts, traditional domains of theorization. As a construct (rather than as a ‘model’ or ‘prototype’ that can be implemented), the notion of larval warfare allows philosophical rumination about the changing nature of warfare in the context of planetary-wide technical transformations. The first section introduces the theoretical context and empirical trends that have led to the emergence of larval warfare, focusing on outlining selected but relevant interdisciplinary scholarship in international relations, war studies, surveillance/media studies, and cultural studies. The next section offers a philosophical interpretation of the notion of ‘larval warfare’ and lays out its distinctions from the existing models of modern warfare (conventional and non-conventional). The final section concludes with some thoughts on the fundamentally predatory quality of larval warfare and its amenability with the contemporary phenomenon of ‘surveillance capitalism.’