Description
How does the military and other actors in the defence and security sector (e.g., arms manufacturers, law enforcement agencies) pursue legitimacy? Drawing mainly on observations conducted in four arms exhibitions (DSEI 2015 and 2017; LAAD 2019 and 2023) and secondary literature, this article argues that the military and others in the sector represent themselves as hybrids possessing extraordinariness and ordinariness as part of a quest for legitimate authority. They perform extraordinariness when emphasising their firepower and advanced technology, mission of protecting the nation and people, and ‘high’ moral standards. Yet, as extraordinariness can make them appear distant or too violent, they seek to make the sector ‘accessible’ by banalizing weapons, diffusing military values in society and the rest of the state, creating an illusion of proximity with society, and normalizing state-industry symbiosis. I call this process the banalization of extraordinariness. Arms fairs reveal such strategies and discourses, and are hubs for their diffusion, contributing to foster the sector’s cohesion, identity, and normative power.