Virtuous War
Mapping the Military-Industrial-Media-Entertainment-Network
Price: $24.95
Add to Cart- ISBN: 978-0-415-77239-6
- Binding: Paperback (also available in Hardback)
- Published by: Routledge
- Publication Date: 15th February 2009 (Available for Pre-order)
- Pages: 320
About the Book
Virtuous War is the first book to map the emergence and judge the consequences of a new military-industrial-media-entertainment network. James Der Derian takes the reader from a family history of war and genocide to new virtual battlespaces in the Mojave Desert, Silicon Valley, Hollywood and American universities. He tracks the convergence of cyborg technologies, video games, media spectacles, war movies, and do-good ideologies that produced a chimera of high-tech, low-risk ‘virtuous wars’.
In this newly updated edition, he reveals how a misguided faith in virtuous war to right the wrongs of the world instead paved the way for a flawed response to 9/11 and a disastrous war in Iraq. Blinded by virtue, emboldened by technological superiority, seized by a mimetic terror, the US blundered from one foreign fiasco to the next.
Taking the long view as well as getting up close to the war machine, Virtuous War provides a compelling alternative to the partisan politics, instant analysis and technical fixes that currently bedevil US national security policy.
Reviews
Reviews of 1st edition:
"This eye-opening, entertaining and sobering study of the increasing 'virtualization' of American politics - and of war in particular - via media manipulation makes an important contribution to political, media and social studies...this fascinating and important material will make a splash in academic circles."
Publishers Weekly
"The virtual wars that are being fought and planned are far from "virtuous," and the author is to be congratulated for bringing this simple reality to our attention."
Political Affairs
"Der Derian is successful is mapping out this newly digitized world."
New Political Science
"The first book to offer a "virtual theory" for the military strategies, philosophical questions, ethical issues, and political controversies surrounding the future of war and peace."
TechDirections
"[Virtuous War] is an important book, and a relevant one, especially given the current administration's struggle to transform and finance a military suited to the 21st century."
Proceedings
Table of Contents
1. The Tank and the Tortoise 2. Between Wars 3. Global Swarming and the Bosnia Question 4. The Simulation Triangle 5. The Virtual Enemy 6. Virtuous War Comes Home 7. Virtuous War Goes to Hollywood 8. Kosovo and the Virtuous Thereafter 9. A Virtual Theory for the Global Accident 10. After 9/11 11. The Age of Info-Terror 12. Virtuous War and the Desert of the Real
About the Author(s)
James Der Derian is Research Professor of International Studies at Brown University, where he currently directs the Global Security Program and Global Media Project at the Watson Institute for International Studies. His articles on war, media, and technology have appeared in Wired, The Nation, Global Agenda, and the New York Times.