ABSTRACT
It is contended in this chapter that it is difficult to encounter a clear-cut battlefield in the war on terror because of the diffused nature of the terrorists’ operational strategy, which causes operational nightmare for any country in counter-insurgency operations against terrorists. Adopting Marcus Wagner’s characterization of a “battlespace” as an arena of warfare that is contaminated by the presence of civilians, this chapter analogizes the “battlespace” to the battlefield in the war on terror and, thus, explores the shifty nature of this theater of war and the inability to pinpoint the battlefield even in the epicenter or major frontlines in places like Afghanistan and Pakistan. This is without prejudice to the fact that the ISIS drew some explicit battle lines in places like Iraq (Mosul) and Syria (Raqqa). In Nigeria’s battle against the Boko Haram, the civilian contamination of the arenas of the war on terror was such that the Nigerian Air Force pilots have had to return to base with their bombs because they sighted women and children. It is this contamination that compels drone strikes amongst the civilian population and heightens the controversies associated with armed drones.
