Why War?: The Cultural Logic of Iraq, the Gulf War, and SuezUniversity of Chicago Press, 15 мар. 2010 г. - Всего страниц: 264 Why did America invade Iraq? Why do nations choose to fight certain wars and not others? How do we bring ourselves to believe that the sacrifice of our troops is acceptable? For most, the answers to these questions are tied to struggles for power or resources and the machinations of particular interest groups. Philip Smith argues that this realist answer to the age-old "why war?" question is insufficient. Instead, Smith suggests that every war has its roots in the ways we tell and interpret stories. Comprised of case studies of the War in Iraq, the Gulf War, and the Suez Crisis, Why War? decodes the cultural logic of the narratives that justify military action. Each nation, Smith argues, makes use of binary codes—good and evil, sacred and profane, rational and irrational, to name a few. These codes, in the hands of political leaders, activists, and the media, are deployed within four different types of narratives—mundane, tragic, romantic, or apocalyptic. With this cultural system, Smith is able to radically recast our "war stories" and show how nations can have vastly different understandings of crises as each identifies the relevant protagonists and antagonists, objects of struggle, and threats and dangers. The large-scale sacrifice of human lives necessary in modern war, according to Smith, requires an apocalyptic vision of world events. In the case of the War in Iraq, for example, he argues that the United States and Britain replicated a narrative of impending global doom from the Gulf War. But in their apocalyptic account they mistakenly made the now seemingly toothless Saddam Hussein once again a symbol of evil by writing him into the story alongside al Qaeda, resulting in the war's contestation in the United States, Britain, and abroad. Offering an innovative approach to understanding how major wars are packaged, sold, and understood, Why War? will be applauded by anyone with an interest in military history, political science, cultural studies, and communication. |
Содержание
| 3 | |
MethodologyCausality Case Studies and Data | 35 |
The Suez Crisis of 1956 | 56 |
The Gulf War of 1991 | 99 |
The War in Iraq of 2003 | 154 |
War and Narrative | 205 |
Postscript | 229 |
Notes | 231 |
References | 237 |
Index | 247 |
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Why War?: The Cultural Logic of Iraq, the Gulf War, and Suez [Standard Large ... Philip Smith Недоступно для просмотра - 2011 |
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action activity actors Afghanistan al-Qaeda allies American apocalyptic apocalypticism Arab argued attacks August Baghdad binary Blair bombing Britain British Bush’s Cambio 16 Canal civil discourse civil society claims collective effervescence conflict contrast crisis culture structures Daily Telegraph debate decision diplomatic Discourse of Liberty Discourse of Repression dominant Eden’s editorial efforts Egypt El País evil February fight force France French genre guess genre politics Gulf Gulf War hermeneutics Hitler ideology interests interpretation invasion Iraq Iraq’s Iraqi January January 12 Kuwait leader legitimacy look low mimesis low mimetic Middle East military mimesis Monde moral motivations narration Nasser nuclear outcomes Party peace percent poll position President prime minister public sphere reading regime Saddam Hussein scenario sense September social Soviet Spain story Suez Suez crisis suggested terrorism terrorist themes threat tion Tony Blair tragic troops understanding United vision War in Iraq weapons
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Стр. 164 - Fall on us and hide us from the face of him who is seated on the throne, and from the wrath of the Lamb ; " for the great day of their wrath has come, and who can stand before it?
Стр. 45 - Not ideas, but material and ideal interests, directly govern men's conduct. Yet very frequently the ‘world images' that have been created by ‘ideas' have, like switchmen, determined the tracks along which action has been pushed by the dynamic of interest.
Стр. 164 - Then the kings of the earth and the magnates and the generals and the rich and the powerful, and everyone, slave and free, hid in the caves and among the rocks of the mountains, calling to the mountains and rocks, "Fall on us and hide us from the face of the one seated on the throne and from the wrath of the Lamb; for the great day of their wrath has come, and who is able to stand?
Стр. 69 - I can assure you that we are conscious of the burdens and perils attending military intervention. But if our assessment is correct, and if the only alternative is to allow Nasser's plans quietly to develop until this country and all Western Europe are held to ransom by Egypt acting at Russia's behest it seems to us that our duty is plain. We have many times led Europe in the fight for freedom. It would be an ignoble end to our long history if we accepted to perish by degrees.
Стр. 69 - Similarly the seizure of the Suez Canal is, we are convinced, the opening gambit in a planned campaign designed by Nasser to expel all Western influence and interests from Arab countries.
Стр. 80 - The pattern is familiar to many of us, my friends. We all know this is how fascist governments behave and we all remember only too well, what the cost can be in giving in to fascism.
Стр. 6 - They were reduced at least relatively, that is, in relation to the range of power claimed for the polity. Only the bureaucratic army structure allowed for the development of .the professional standing armies which are necessary for the constant pacification of large states of the plains, as well as for warfare against fardistant enemies, especially enemies overseas.
Стр. 79 - When the Commons take up Suez tomorrow there is one thing they can be sure of. It must be their guiding thought. If Nasser is allowed to get away with his coup all the British and other western interests in the Middle East will crumble. The modern world has suffered many acts, like Hitler's march into the Rhineland or the Stalinist overthrow of freedom in Czechoslovakia, which were claimed to be assertions of domestic sovereignty. They were, in fact, hinges of history. Nasser's seizure of the canal...
Стр. 22 - These are, first, the descent from a higher world; second, the descent to a lower world; third, the ascent from a lower world; and, fourth, the ascent to a higher world. All stories in literature are complications of, or metaphorical derivations from, these four narrative radicals.
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