Rubrick Biegon is a Lecturer in International Relations in the School of Politics and International Relations at the University of Kent. His current research interests include US foreign policy, international security, and remote warfare. His recent articles have appeared in Global Affairs, The Chinese Journal of International Politics, and International Relations, among other outlets.

Tom Watts is a Teaching Fellow in War and Security at Royal Holloway, University of London with research specialisations in American foreign policy, military assistance programs, and lethal autonomous weapons systems. His PhD thesis asked what the Obama administration’s military response against al-Qaeda’s regional affiliates in the Arabian Peninsula, the Horn of Africa and the Sahel tells us about the means and goals of contemporary US military intervention in the Global South. Working within the historical materialist tradition, it advances a more critical reading of these processes which places military assistance programs and the reproduction of ‘closed frontiers and open-doors’ at the centre of its analysis.