Starting in 2010, the Obama administration engaged in an effort to justify drone strikes relying on the concept of ‘imminence’. The aim of this article is to understand the reasons behind such insistence and to assess the administration’s efforts at conceptual change. Building on Skinner’s and Bentley’s work, the article argues that the administration has followed an ‘innovating ideologist’ strategy. The analysis shows how waves of criticisms exposed the administration to a key contradiction between its rhetoric of change that emphasised international law and the need for aggressive counterterrorism. Reacting to this criticism, the administration has relied on imminence due to its connection with legitimate uses of force, while working to change the criteria for the concept, causing a shift away from imminent as ‘immediate.’ Reassessing Skinner’s place in IR, the article identifies conceptual change as a lens to assess foreign policy rhetoric and practice. The analysis emphasises the connection between actors’ intentions, beliefs, and practices. It highlights the importance of criticism in engendering contradictions, exploring why only some criticisms are confronted. Finally, the article develops an original typology of the limits confronted by the innovating ideologist and methods to assess whether the actor has respected them.

中文翻译：

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奥巴马政府的观念转变：定点清除的紧迫性和合法性

从 2010 年开始，奥巴马政府致力于根据“迫在眉睫”的概念为无人机袭击辩护。本文的目的是了解这种坚持背后的原因，并评估政府在概念变革方面所做的努力。基于斯金纳和本特利的工作，文章认为政府遵循了“创新的意识形态”战略。分析表明，批评浪潮如何使政府面临其强调国际法的变革言论与积极反恐的必要性之间的关键矛盾。作为对这种批评的回应，政府依赖于紧迫性，因为它与合法使用武力有关，同时努力改变这一概念的标准，从而将迫在眉睫的转变为“立即”。' 重新评估斯金纳在国际关系中的地位，文章将概念变化确定为评估外交政策言论和实践的一个镜头。该分析强调行动者的意图、信仰和实践之间的联系。它突出了批评在产生矛盾中的重要性，探讨了为什么只有一些批评被面对。最后，本文发展了创新意识形态所面临的限制的原始类型学以及评估行为者是否尊重这些限制的方法。