Beyond enclosure: Military bases and the spatial dynamics of secrecy

In the social sciences, secrecy is seen as a power relation of inclusion-exclusion, between those 'in the know' and dispossessed 'outsiders'. This is translated spatially as enclosure – shaping outsiders by cordoning off certain social relations – and embodies a social theory of mystification, where social domination involves masking reality's oppressiveness for those exploited. Historical and more recent military fortifications, including modern U.S. military bases abroad, have been studied as creating this social effect. This article argues that today's counter-terrorism challenges this spatial model of secrecy and power. In order to project authority and disempower others, enclosure must first be represented as the appropriation and hiding of space. In post-colonial spaces of secretive U.S. counter-terrorism, this projection of meaning encounters social relations that shape space differently. Using theories of colonial archives, the article analyses a new U.S. drone base in Niger, tracing its representation in news coverage as an important hub of U.S. military activities. Repeated media attempts to demonstrate sublime secrecy and U.S. authority over the Nigerien desert were complicated by patterns of environmental vulnerability, local indifference and images of underwhelming emptiness. These incongruities undercut any representation of U.S. secrecy as effective and the base as an anchor of military power. This analysis suggests new ways of understanding secrecy’s spatial dynamics and the legitimisation of counter-terrorism.