Understanding the Right to Maim Refined Framework

Puar's concept creates a more nuanced spectrum of state power over bodies than the traditional binaries:

Power Concept	Puar's Description	Primary Goal	State Action
Biopolitics (Foucault)	Make live and Let die	Optimize life/productivity of the population.	Invest in health; abandon non-productive lives.
Necropolitics (Mbembe)	Let live and Make die	Expose populations to death.	Actively create "death worlds."
Right to Maim (Puar)	Will not let die / Will not make die	Incapacitate, debilitate, and contain.	Inflict non-lethal, chronic injury; preserve life as injured.

The Political and Economic Utility of Maiming

The effectiveness of the "right to maim" is rooted in its ability to serve specific political and economic goals:

1. Incapacitation Without Martyrdom: By refusing to kill outright, the state avoids creating martyrs, which can fuel further resistance and international condemnation. The injured body, instead, becomes a symbol of state restraint (e.g., "we could have killed, but we showed mercy").

2. Creation of Exploitable Dependence: The chronically injured are often transformed into a dependent population, requiring continuous aid, resources, and often becoming subjects of humanitarian relief and medical intervention.³ This dependence can be a form of soft control, and it sustains a massive global humanitarian economy.

3. Proving "Good Will": The act of providing non-lethal weaponry or medical care to the injured, even if the injury was state-inflicted, allows the state (or its allies) to project an image of ethical conduct or humanitarian concern, effectively laundering the violence through subsequent aid.