"War . . . is merely an idea, an institution, like dueling or slavery, that has been grafted onto human existence. It is not a trick of fate, a thunderbolt from hell, a natural calamity, or a ...desperate plot contrivance dreamed up by some sadistic puppeteer on high. And it seems to me that the institution is in pronounced decline, abandoned as attitudes toward it have changed, roughly following the pattern by which the ancient and formidable institution of slavery became discredited and then mostly obsolete."-from the Introduction
War is one of the great themes of human history and now, John Mueller believes, it is clearly declining. Developed nations have generally abandoned it as a way for conducting their relations with other countries, and most current warfare (though not all) is opportunistic predation waged by packs-often remarkably small ones-of criminals and bullies. Thus, argues Mueller, war has been substantially reduced to its remnants-or dregs-and thugs are the residual combatants.
Mueller is sensitive to the policy implications of this view. When developed states commit disciplined troops to peacekeeping, the result is usually a rapid cessation of murderous disorder.The Remnants of Warthus reinvigorates our sense of the moral responsibility bound up in peacekeeping. In Mueller's view, capable domestic policing and military forces can also be effective in reestablishing civic order, and the building of competent governments is key to eliminating most of what remains of warfare.
Since at least the Middle Ages, the laws of war have distinguished between combatants and civilians under an injunction now formally known as the principle of distinction. The principle of ...distinction is invoked in contemporary conflicts as if there were an unmistakable and sure distinction to be made between combatant and civilian. As is so brutally evident in armed conflicts, it is precisely the distinction between civilian and combatant, upon which the protection of civilians is founded, cannot be taken as self-evident or stable. Helen M. Kinsella documents that the history of international humanitarian law itself admits the difficulty of such a distinction.
InThe Image Before the Weapon, Kinsella explores the evolution of the concept of the civilian and how it has been applied in warfare. A series of discourses-including gender, innocence, and civilization- have shaped the legal, military, and historical understandings of the civilian and she documents how these discourses converge at particular junctures to demarcate the difference between civilian and combatant. Engaging with works on the law of war from the earliest thinkers in the Western tradition, including St. Thomas Aquinas and Christine de Pisan, to contemporary figures such as James Turner Johnson and Michael Walzer, Kinsella identifies the foundational ambiguities and inconsistencies in the principle of distinction, as well as the significant role played by Christian concepts of mercy and charity.
She then turns to the definition and treatment of civilians in specific armed conflicts: the American Civil War and the U.S.-Indian Wars of the nineteenth century, and the civil wars of Guatemala and El Salvador in the 1980s. Finally, she analyzes the two modern treaties most influential for the principle of distinction: the 1949 IV Geneva Convention Relative to the Protection of Civilian Persons in Times of War and the 1977 Protocols Additional to the 1949 Conventions, which for the first time formally defined the civilian within international law. She shows how the experiences of the two world wars, but particularly World War II, and the Algerian war of independence affected these subsequent codifications of the laws of war.
As recognition grows that compliance with the principle of distinction to limit violence against civilians depends on a firmer grasp of its legal, political, and historical evolution,The Image before the Weaponis a timely intervention in debates about how best to protect civilian populations.
Theodore McLauchlin's Desertion examines the personal
and political factors behind soldiers' choices to stay in their
unit or abandon their cause. He explores what might spur widespread
desertion in ...a given group, how some armed groups manage to keep
their soldiers fighting over long periods, and how committed
soldiers are to their causes and their comrades.
To answer these questions, McLauchlin focuses on combatants in
military units during the Spanish Civil War. He pushes against the
preconception that individual soldiers' motivations are either
personal or political, either selfish or ideological. Instead, he
draws together the personal and the political, showing how soldiers
come to trust each other-or not. Desertion demonstrates
how the armed groups that hold together and survive are those that
foster interpersonal connections, allowing soldiers the opportunity
to prove their commitment to the fight.
McLauchlin argues that trust keeps soldiers in the fray,
mistrust pushes them to leave, and political beliefs and military
practices shape both. Desertion brings the reader into the
world of soldiers and rigorously tests the factors underlying
desertion. It asks, honestly and without judgment, what would you
do in an army in a civil war? Would you stand and fight? Would you
try to run away? And what if you found yourself fighting for a
cause you no longer believe in or never did in the first place?
These essays are a significant contribution to understanding the failure of sustainable economic development and the armed conflict that it spawns in developing states.
Many millions of people are affected by the trauma of war. Psychologists have a good understanding of how experiences of war impact on memory, but the significance of external environmental ...influences is often disregarded. Memory, War and Trauma focuses on our understanding of the psychosocial impact of war in its broadest sense. Nigel C. Hunt argues that, in order to understand war trauma, it is critical to develop an understanding not only of the individual perspective but also of how societal and cultural factors impact on the outcome of an individual's experience. This is a compelling book which helps to demonstrate why some people suffer from post-traumatic stress while other people don't, and how narrative understanding is important to the healing process. Its multidisciplinary perspective will enable a deeper understanding of both individual traumatic stress and the structures of memory.
War has always been close to the centre of British culture, but never more so than in the period since 1850. Warrior Nation explores the way in which images of battle, both literary and visual, have ...been constructed in British fiction and popular culture since this time. The rise of war reporting has helped to shape a society fascinated by conflict, and the development of mass communications has aided in the creation of mass-produced martial heroes and the relation of epic adventures for political ends. To achieve national goals, the notion of war has been promoted as an activity of high adventure and chivalrous enterprise and as a rite of passage to manhood. Using a wide range of media, Michael Paris focuses on how war has been "sold" to boys and young men and examines the "warrior" as a masculine ideal.
The Treaties of Carlowitz (1699) presents studies on the Lega Sacra War of 1683-1699 against the Ottoman Empire, the Peace treaties of Carlowitz (1699), and the legacy of the conflict for Modern ...Europe, the Balkans and the Ottoman Empire.
War Games Hammond, Philip; Pötzsch, Holger
2019, 2019-12-12
eBook
Many of today's most commercially successful videogames, from Call of Duty to Company of Heroes, are war-themed titles that play out in what are framed as authentic real-world settings inspired by ...recent news headlines or drawn from history. While such games are marketed as authentic representations of war, they often provide a selective form of realism that eschews problematic, yet salient aspects of war. In addition, changes in the way Western states wage and frame actual wars makes contemporary conflicts increasingly resemble videogames when perceived from the vantage point of Western audiences.This interdisciplinary volume brings together scholars from games studies, media and cultural studies, politics and international relations, and related fields to examine the complex relationships between military-themed videogames and real-world conflict, and to consider how videogames might deal with history, memory, and conflict in alternative ways. It asks: What is the role of videogames in the formation and negotiation of cultural memory of past wars? How do game narratives and designs position the gaming subject in relation to history, war and militarism? And how far do critical, anti-war/peace games offer an alternative or challenge to mainstream commercial titles?
Romantic Wars Shaw, Philip
2000, 20170705, 2017-07-05
eBook
Romantic Wars is a collection of eight specially commissioned essays focusing on the relations between British Romantic culture (poetry, fiction, painting, and non-fictional prose) and the ...Revolutionary and Napoleonic wars. Whilst in recent years much attention has been paid to the influence of the French Revolution on British Romanticism, comparatively little has been written about the effects of war. This book takes, as its central thesis, the idea that Romanticism is facilitated and conditioned by a culture of hostility. Whether this is manifested in Blakean visions of 'mental warfare', or in socio-historical reflections on the links between conflict and nationhood, the essays in this volume seek to correct a prevailing assumption that the culture of this period is unaffected by discourses of violence. Through a combination of individual case studies - detailed readings of warfare in Coleridge, Byron, Charlotte Smith and Austen - and wider-ranging survey discussions, including essays on the representation of the British sailor and war poetry by women, the book provides a timely reflection on the texts and contexts of the first 'Great War'. The book is aimed at literary specialists and historians working in the areas of Romanticism and European history. It will also appeal to general readers with an interest in early nineteenth-century writing and British culture.
Contents; Introduction, Philip Shaw; ’A few harmless Numbers’: British women poets and the climate of war, 1793-1815, Stephen C. Behrendt; The exiled self: images of war in Charlotte Smith’s ’The emigrants’, Jacqueline M. Labbe; The harsh delights of political duty: Thelwall, Coleridge, Wordsworth, 1795-99, David Collings; Duty and mutiny: the aesthetics of loyalty and the representation of the British sailor c. 1798-1800, Geoff Quilley; Invasion! Coleridge, the defence of Britain and the cultivation of the public’s fear, Mark Rawlinson; War romances, historical analogies and Coleridge’s Letter’s on the Spaniards, Diego Saglia; ’Of war and taking towns’: Byron’s siege poems, Simon Bainbridge; Leigh Hunt and the aesthetics of post-war liberalism, Philip Shaw; Marriage at the end of war, Eric C. Walker; Index.
This book analyzes the Crimean War from the Ottoman perspective based mainly on Ottoman and Russian primary sources, and includes an assessment of the War’s impact on the Ottoman state and Ottoman ...society. Readership: All those interested in the Crimean War, military history, Ottoman history, European history and Russian history.
