War is back and seemingly forever. In recent years the pacific neoliberal Patrick Deer rhetoric of globalization has been replaced by the Hobbesian imaginary of endless war. The pervasive metaphorization of war blurs the boundaries between military and civilian, combatant … Continue reading “Introduction: THE ENDS OF WAR AND THE LIMITS OF WAR CULTURE”
Issue: Issue 091 The Ends of War
The Ends of War
War, by All Means
Randy MartinFive years on, and without a victory in sight, the war on terror has been renewed with the same evangelical vigor by which it had been launched. While priding itself on the selectivity of its targets, the claim made for … Continue reading “War, by All Means”
Rape: A WEAPON OF WAR
jean francoRape is “the least condemned war crime,” according to the U.N. Commission on Human Rights.1 The “historic breakthrough” made in 2001 when the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) charged three men with seven counts of violation of … Continue reading “Rape: A WEAPON OF WAR”
The Gift of Freedom
kennan fergusonOn 20 March 2003, the U.S. military, with minor assistance from England, Australia, and a smattering of other countries, invaded the state of Iraq with the avowed purpose of overthrowing the authoritarian and brutal government of Saddam Hussein and replacing … Continue reading “The Gift of Freedom”
Global Society Must Be Defended: BIOPOLITICS WITHOUT BOUNDARIES
leerom medovoiWhat do globalization and the war on terror share? The connection between these two frames for the present moment is easily obscured by the seemingly different levels of social reality they address: globalization names a broad and impersonal macroeconomic process, … Continue reading “Global Society Must Be Defended: BIOPOLITICS WITHOUT BOUNDARIES”
The Fragile Ends of War: FORGING THE UNITED STATES – MEXICO BORDER AND BORDERLANDS CONSCIOUSNESS
gilberto rosasAt three o’clock in the afternoon on this day in 1999, the odors of sizzling meat and hot tortillas waft through the hot air at a taco stand next to two fast-food establishments in Nogales, Arizona, about a half mile … Continue reading “The Fragile Ends of War: FORGING THE UNITED STATES – MEXICO BORDER AND BORDERLANDS CONSCIOUSNESS”
The War Drive: IMAGE FILES CORRUPTED
rosalind morrisThe scandal of torture in the war on terror has diminished noticeably since it first erupted in 2004, when photographs of a grinning young woman, poised and posed next to a nude Iraqi detainee, entered the contemporary mediascape. Already, the … Continue reading “The War Drive: IMAGE FILES CORRUPTED”
From Warfare State to "Shadow State": MILITARISM, ECONOMIC DEPLETION, AND RECONSTRUCTION
jonathan michael feldmanLying behind the seemingly endless cycle of military interventions, massively distorted budget priorities, and the erosion of peaceful diplomacy in the postwar era is the permanent war economy and a group of warmaking institutions. In the permanent war economy the … Continue reading “From Warfare State to "Shadow State": MILITARISM, ECONOMIC DEPLETION, AND RECONSTRUCTION”
Combat in Hell: CITIES AS THE ACHILLES' HEEL OF U.S. IMPERIAL HEGEMONY
Ashley DawsonA group of insurgents screeches out of a dusty alleyway in an old pickup truck on a typical sweltering day in Iraq and begins lobbing mortars toward one of Baghdad’s primary power stations. Coalition forces are quickly deployed to quell … Continue reading “Combat in Hell: CITIES AS THE ACHILLES' HEEL OF U.S. IMPERIAL HEGEMONY”