War Of Ideas Research Articles

Review of Training Minds for the War of Ideas: Ashridge College, the Conservative Party and the cultural politics of Britain, 1929-54

Comment contrer l’hegemonie intellectuelle et culturelle dont parait jouir le socialisme fabien? Quelles ripostes conservatrices opposer a la Fabian Society, a la LSE, mais aussi au Bloomsbury Group et a la Workers’ Educational Association – au moment meme ou le nouvel electorat ne des reformes de 1918 et 1928 pourrait couronner le parti travailliste ? Telles sont les questions qui hantent les conservateurs britanniques de l’entre-deux-guerres, en depit de leurs victoires electorales. Fonde e...

Training Minds for the War of Ideas: Ashridge College, the Conservative Party and the cultural politics of Britain, 1929-54. By Clarisse Berthezene.

<i>Training Minds for the War of Ideas: Ashridge College, the Conservative Party and the cultural politics of Britain, 1929-54</i>. By Clarisse Berthezene.

The Holy War in Syria: Cemal Pasha and the Ottoman Plan to conquer Egypt in the First World War

This article aims to analyse the importance of the Egyptian campaign to Ottoman policy in the First World War. It seeks to add to our knowledge of the Ottoman war experience by putting the focus on the empire’s preparations for conquering Egypt and by giving priority to understand the aims of the expedition. The expedition itself is placed within the context of the jihad policy adopted at the beginning of the war and which sought to put an end to the Entente’s colonial domination of Muslim countries. The Ottomans’ propaganda initiatives in support of the measures were meant to motivate support among the Syrian population through the idea of holy war.

Il patriottismo di guerra napoletano, 1861-1866

The war of ideas of Bourbon Legitimism was fought between 1861 and 1866, by Neapolitan writers and polemicists who worked out a mystical elaboration of duo-Sicilian resistance and, simultaneously, an innovative representation of lost Nation, during the final crisis of the reign. The authors have modified their patriotic identity to get a desperate revenge, completely failed from the political and military point of view, but able to offer to fighters, polemicists, exiles the awareness of the dramatic battle for the restoration of the Bourbon dynasty and the independence of the Reign. The war of ideas was closely connected to the experience of defeat, to the armed resistance and to his memory. Neapolitan resistance had produced a harsh and mobilizing rhetoric. Books, pamphlets, documents, posters, proclamations were marked by their categorical imperatives of a state of war. The study of the war of ideas offers this perspective, analysing the theoretical and intellectual tools that legitimists used to justify the resistance to the new State, producing an original culture of the vanquished and a new Bourbon patriotic identity: different from the old «historical and political personalities» that was among the founding reasons of the Kingdom of Naples.

The Theater of Operations: National Security Affect from the Cold War to the War on Terror by Joseph Masco (review)

Reviewed by: The Theater of Operations: National Security Affect from the Cold War to the War on Terror by Joseph Masco Jeehyun Lim THE THEATER OF OPERATIONS: National Security Affect from the Cold War to the War on Terror. By Joseph Masco. Durham, NC: Duke University Press. 2014. To what extent are citizens of the United States affected by and entangled in the issue of national security? In more ways than one could ever imagine is Joseph Masco’s answer to this question in his new book, which examines the creation and promotion of a national security state in the United States in the second half of the twentieth century. He uses a comparative lens to examine the War on Terror of the contemporary moment in relation to the Cold War. Instead of a list of similarities and differences, Masco’s robust and historically rigorous comparison yields a deep understanding of the evolution of U.S. hegemony in the long postwar era and into the twenty-first century. He not only traces the origins of the counterterrorist security apparatus to the nuclear revolution of the Cold War era, but also elucidates the character of the counterterrorist state as a repetition with variation from the countercommunist state. And in Masco’s study, the variations are just as significant as the repetitions, as he persistently and persuasively draws readers’ attention to the remarkable expansion of state influence in pushing the idea of preemptive war on its citizens and the changed temporality of war in the perennial military readiness of the War on Terror. While each chapter reveals fascinating information and analyses on various dimensions of national security—some more obvious, like the public campaigns on the nuclear threat or the state codification and guarding of sensitive information (in this case, “sensitive but unclassified” information) in chapters one and three, and some less obvious like climate change in chapter two—the most instructive element of the book is its consistent illustration of what Masco calls “national security affect” (9) and its various forms. His attention to how national security in the second half of the twentieth century turns on the state’s ability to educate its citizen-subjects on the appropriate feelings of terror, shock, and pain and to mobilize such feelings in accordance with the state objectives of security illuminates the cultural work of affect in a democratic society that is given to, as Masco [End Page 170] calls it, governance through terror (21). His formalist awareness results in coherent and perceptive discussions about a wide range of rhetorics of national security, including what he calls “biosecurity noir,” his term for the scripts of official efforts to predict and preempt biosecurity threats. In its emphasis on affect, Masco’s discussion of feelings as “a new national project” (17) in the post–1945 national security state calls to mind Adam Smith’s The Theory of Moral Sentiments. If the latter can be read as the affective interpellation of the bourgeois subject, Masco’s discussion of national security affect queries “the techniques of emotional management” (26) for a new kind of militarized liberal democratic subject in the continuum of the national security state from the Cold War to the War on Terror. His project is, as he claims, “ultimately a consideration of American self-fashioning through terror” (42) in this period. In the field of Cold War studies, Masco’s book can be read alongside works that compare contemporary U.S. military interventions in the Middle East to Cold War-era interventions in Asia, such as Lloyd Gardner and Marilyn Young’s edited volume, Iraq and the Lessons of Vietnam, or studies on the culture of contemporary U.S. militarism, such as Andrew Bacevich’s The New American Militarism. These works prompt readers to reexamine the very definition of “post-Cold War” and to view the Cold War era and the post-Cold War era not as discrete historical periods, but as intermeshed systems that continuously call for a critical scrutiny of U.S. military hegemony. Additionally, Masco’s study connects the discourse of policies with the experiences of the people these policies influence. Micro-effects of macro-level decisions can be seen throughout...

Iran in the Middle East: transnational encounters and social history

Iran s interaction with its neighbours is a topic of wide interest. But while many historical studies of the country concentrate purely on political events and high-profile actors, this book takes the opposite approach: writing history from below, it instead focuses on the role of everyday lives. Modern Iranian historiography has been dominated by ideas of nationalism, modernization, religion, autocracy, revolution and war. Iran in the Middle East adds new dimensions to the study of four crucial areas of Iranian history: the events and impact of the Constitutional Revolution, Iran s transnational connections, the social history of Iran and developments in historiography. Featuring eminent scholars such as Ali Ansari, Janet Afary and Erik-Jan Zurcher, this book makes a significant contribution to the understanding of Iran in a transnational context by exploring the key social actors in the constitutional revolution, trade and the role of women. The authors emphasize the role of societal transformations, social movements, class, gender and ethnic identities, analyzing both national and individual identity. What emerges is a concise and unique look at Iranian social history, from both within the country s internal relationships with its social groups, and from its external relations with neighbouring countries. It will prove essential reading to scholars and students of Iran and the wider Middle East region.

Intellectual radicals challenging the state: the case of Hizb ut-Tahrir in the west

Within the broad panorama of twenty-first-century protest movements, this paper focuses on the activity of the Islamist group Hizb ut-Tahrir (HT) in the West. Founded in Palestine in 1952, HT stands out today as one of the most controversial groups on the global scene and is active in more than 45 countries. HT’s ‘war of ideas’, based on a strong anti-integration agenda, an open rejection of democracy, personal freedom and Western foreign policy, has fostered a negative image of HT and it is seen as potentially dangerous. This paper explores how HT challenges Western states with its ‘Shock, Demolish, and Rebuild’ strategy, and places particular emphasis on the political and social fields. Through an attentive content analysis, interviews with current HT members and observation conducted during the author’s fieldwork in London and Sydney, this paper contributes to the debate on protest movements, exploring an innovative form of dissent against the state based on the exaltation of the Caliphate.

Joel Isaac;, Duncan Bell (Editors). Uncertain Empire: American History and the Idea of the Cold War. 302 pp., bibl., index. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2012. $29.95 (paper).Joy Rohde. Armed with Expertise: The Militarization of American Social Research during the Cold War. (American Institutions and Society.) x + 213 pp., illus., table, bibl., index. Ithaca, N.Y./London: Cornell University Press, 2013. $29.95

Previous articleNext article No AccessBook ReviewsJoel Isaac;, Duncan Bell (Editors). Uncertain Empire: American History and the Idea of the Cold War. 302 pp., bibl., index. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2012. $29.95 (paper). Joy Rohde. Armed with Expertise: The Militarization of American Social Research during the Cold War. (American Institutions and Society.) x + 213 pp., illus., table, bibl., index. Ithaca, N.Y./London: Cornell University Press, 2013. $29.95 (cloth).Hunter HeyckHunter Heyck Search for more articles by this author PDFPDF PLUSFull Text Add to favoritesDownload CitationTrack CitationsPermissionsReprints Share onFacebookTwitterLinkedInRedditEmail SectionsMoreDetailsFiguresReferencesCited by Isis Volume 106, Number 3September 2015 Publication of the History of Science Society Article DOIhttps://doi.org/10.1086/683412 Views: 76Total views on this site Citations: 1Citations are reported from Crossref © 2015 by The History of Science Society. All rights reserved.PDF download Crossref reports the following articles citing this article: Current Bibliography of the History of Science and Its Cultural Influences, 2016, Isis 107, no.S1S1 (Jun 2017): i–240.https://doi.org/10.1086/692972

Terror and Performance by Rustom Bharucha (review)

Reviewed by: Terror and Performance by Rustom Bharucha Prateek TERROR AND PERFORMANCE. By Rustom Bharucha. New Delhi: Tulika Books, 2014. 250 pp. London: Routledge. Paper, $39.95; cloth, $125.00. The literature on terror has grown substantially since 9/11. Most of these books either reinterpret the concept of terror in the light of American war on terror or critically examine terror in the wake of discursive readings of critics such as Edward Said. Surprisingly, both readings underline the Muslim and Judeo-Christian divide. By rethinking terror in the wake of Hobbes’s idea of war of “every man against every man,” Rustom Bharucha’s book Terror and Performance offers a much awaited perspective beyond the Muslim and Judeo-Christian world to the existing scholarship on terror in the field of theatre and performance studies. Besides being a provocation for the emerging scholarship on terror and performance, the book offers a reengagement with real people who were lost in a rigid dichotomy between subject and object. Above all, in writing terror using the parlance of performance studies, the book, intelligibly, puts humans at the center and challenges state-centric approaches on terror in which humans are often presented as war machines. The book’s content defies partisan feeling that has been running high against the Muslim world after September 11, 2001, by questioning lopsided views of anti-terror political think tanks. In the process of revealing the “undiscovered” contours of terror in continents ranging from Asia to Africa, Bharucha constantly engages with and expands the discourse of his theoretical predecessors such as Tzvetan Todorov, Paul Virilio, Talal Asad, and Mahmood Mamdani. We are informed that the initial provocation of the book is located in an uncanny accident in the Manila bar, which was the actual site of the Genet [End Page 681] play directed by Bharucha. Three days after the last production of the play, the bar was consumed in a blaze and became a burning site for Bharucha to question the nexus of terror and performance. Although Bharucha has registered this connection before in an essay titled “Genet in Manila: Reclaiming the Chaos of Our Times” (2003), the book provides a larger canvas to “think through it [terror]” (p. 2). In this process of considering, Bharucha destabilizes all hegemonic definitions of terror and frees it from its most circulated definition as premeditated and politically motivated violence. The introduction makes it clear that the book does not address terror at a purely dramaturgical level of theatrical representation but that “it prioritizes those instances of terror which are unscripted, unplanned, undetermined” (p. 20). Following this argument, Bharucha reads performance not as a “rehearsed, time-and-space-bound event framed within the cultural norms of civic institutions like state theatres,” but as an event “linked to social interactions, behaviours, strategies, deceptions, manipulations and negotiations of terror in the public sphere” (p. 21). This reading of performance by Bharucha expands the spectrum of performance studies and makes it go beyond its conventional focus. Although the book is primarily a performance studies text, chapter 1 briefly engages with the critical methods of theatre studies. Using the vocabulary of theatre studies, Bharucha analyzes the writings of Genet and Artaud, and reads them in the context of brutality and torture. The chapter explores the politics of Genet by reading Genet’s writings against the backdrop of his love for the Palestinian struggle and his defense of the Baader-Meinhof terrorists. Explicating the writings of Artaud, Bharucha rewrites the dynamics of Artaud’s theatre of cruelty, by rereading him as “a victim of medical terror whose life was destroyed by the regulatory mechanisms of clinical psychiatry” (p. 53). Over the course of 250 pages, the book, divided into four chapters, explores terror in all its implications: personal, public, real, imaginary, voluntary, and involuntary. One of the best examples of this engagement is seen in chapter 1, in which Bharucha rewrites debates connected to 9/11 in the light of his own production of Genet’s The Maids in Manila. The chapter beautifully highlights the confluence of real/voluntary and imaginary/involuntary as the production of The Maids overlapped with the actual protests against the corrupt regime of...

La Ilíada y Troya: la percepción moderna del relato homérico

The aim of this paper is to verify whether the archaic mentality of the Iliad remains in Troy . Our research, helped by Mircea Eliade studies, shows the way in which the suppression of divinity in favor of an historical review precludes the permanence of the old mentality in the film. The rewriting of the myth from the categories of modern thought (philosophically speaking) almost completely transformed not only the personality of heroes, whose passions are the true efficient cause of the facts, but also the idea of war as a context of the story.

Assessing Islamist Armed Groups’ De-Radicalization in Egypt

The de-legitimization of Islamist armed violence has been central to non-military approaches to Middle Eastern conflicts. This so-called “war of ideas” notably invokes the renunciation of violence ...

“A War of Ideas”: The Rise of Conservative Teachers in Wartime New York City, 1938–1946

On the evening of May 17, 1946, more than 1,200 festive supporters streamed into the Brooklyn Academy of Music to honor a New York City teacher who had survived, by the skin of her teeth, charges of “un-American” teaching. Since 1935, New York City's public school teachers faced the threat of investigation and dismissal for potentially subversive radical political beliefs or affiliations. Tonight, however, the audience breathed a collective sigh of relief that the Board of Education hearing had turned out well and that the teacher in question would retain her position.

Quest for the Holy Grail: Central American War, Catholic Internationalism, and United States Public Diplomacy in Reagan’s America

Among the polarizing ideological concerns of the 1980s was President Ronald Reagan’s foreign policy in Central America. The Reagan Administration prioritized its anticommunist agenda over other concerns by supporting military generals and their governments and by condemning left-leaning groups in Nicaragua, El Salvador, and Guatemala. The development and consequences of Reagan’s foreign policy in Central America, as well as the White House efforts to sell its Central American policy to the American people, have been well researched by historians and social scientists. Reagan’s hardline against communism in Central America excited his political base in advance of his 1984 reelection bid and shore up a coalition of Reagan voters, including Protestants in the so-called “religious right” and working class Catholics who had recently abandoned the Democratic Party. However, less is known about the ways in which the Reagan White House contended with Catholics in the United States and in Central America who were actively concerned about the potentially dangerous implications of Reagan’s policies for the Catholic Church and the poor in Central America. Transnational Catholic institutions and networks, including missionary associations, bishops’ conferences, colleges and universities, peace and justice organizations, and the Catholic press, challenged Reagan’s policies on the ground in Central America and in Washington, D.C. By the end of Reagan’s first term, this “Catholic internationalism” became an obstacle to Reagan’s Central American “public diplomacy.” The White House Office of Public Liaison (OPL) targeted American Catholics whose loyalty to Reagan may have been tested by reports from Central America that U.S. allies in the region were targeting the poor as well as Catholic priests and sisters. OPL officials, specifically Faith Ryan Whittlesey (director, 1983–1985) successfully situated the Central America policies within a popular anticommunist discourse, allowing Reagan’s political advisers to sidestep the transnational criticisms from Catholic missionary associations, including Maryknoll, and their allies in the Central America solidarity movement, including the National Conference of Catholic Bishops (NCCB) and the United States Catholic Conference (USCC). Although Reagan never won support for his Central America policy in the Democrat-controlled House of Representatives, his agenda in Central America generated popular enthusiasm for anticommunist ideology and methods even as it spurred on transnational Catholic activism, marking one of the defining moments of the 1980s “war of ideas.”

Three Wars of Ideas about the Idea of War

Strategic debates have long characterized the discourse on military affairs. Three lively disputes concern: 1) Whether set “principles of war” can be codified and mastered; 2) The relative strengths and limitations of maritime and continental power; and 3) The potential for waging successful “short wars.” Carl von Clausewitz provided the sharpest critique of the principles of war, arguing that “friction” can overwhelm even highly refined military art. A.T. Mahan's concept of sea power was challenged by Halford Mackinder's theory of “heartland power.” Short-war notions animated by Moltke the Elder's victories in the 19th Century German wars of unification, and expanded upon by his successors, were rebutted by Ivan Bloch. Each debate remains relevant: technological advances prompt reappraisal of principles of war; the rise of China and the resurgence of Russia as great continental powers challenge American naval mastery; and insurgents and terrorists continue to prove the value of “long wars.”

Rewriting the Just War Tradition: Just War in Classical Greek Political Thought and Practice

The just war tradition is the predominant western framework for thinking about the ethics of contemporary war. Political and military leaders frequently invoke its venerable lineage to lend ballast to their arguments for or against particular wars. How we understand the history of just war matters, then, for it subtends how that discourse is deployed today. Conventional accounts of the just war trace its origins to the writings of Saint Augustine in the 4th century CE. This discounts the possibility that just war ideas were in circulation prior to this, in the classical world. This article contests this omission. It contends that ideas homologous to a range of core jus ad bellum, jus in bello, and jus post bellum principles were evident in classical Greek political thought and practice. This finding challenges scholars to re-consider not only the common view that the just war is, at root, a Christian tradition, but also the relation between victory and just war, the nature of the ties binding just war and Islamic jihad, and an innovative approach to the comparative ethics of war.

Political Practice The Nexus Between Realisms and Just War Thinking

Abstract Some discussions of the efforts of the United States and its allies in Iraq and Afghanistan between 2001 and 2010 used a distinction between wars of choice and wars of necessity. Wise policymakers know the difference; further, they restrict commitment of military and related resources only to the latter, in which fundamental interests are at stake. As well, wise policymakers understand that those engaged in conflicts of necessity cannot avoid the problem of dirty hands, since the means necessary for the defeat of an enemy may involve violations of established norms. For those who make such arguments, the just war idea seems too restrictive to serve as a guide to statecraft. In this, the choice/necessity distinction echoes themes common to realism, whether in its classic or contemporary forms. And yet just war thinkers through the ages sought to provide guidance for political practice. In particular, the criteria of ius ad bellum and ius in bello aim to guide policymakers in answering the question, In the situation before us, is military force an apt means by which to attain our goals? In this article, my goal is to demonstrate that a concern for wisdom in political practice provides a connection between various types of realism and just war thinking, and thus to develop an account in which these approaches are complementary rather than opposed to one another.

Transatlantic revolutions and the war of ideas

The study of the history of political ideas has been greatly enhanced in recent decades by the work of scholars who emphasise the importance of ‘context’. This approach has promoted more sophisticated analysis from anyone who hopes to enter the field, as well as drawing attention to previously neglected texts which are worthy of serious attention. However, texts can be read in a multiplicity of contexts, and it can be argued that the complex relationship between ideas, individuals and political practice merits further investigation. The books under review are all welcome contributions to this endeavour, showing that important progress can be made as well as suggesting that further methodological refinements are possible. In particular, these books demonstrate that careful scholarship can be undermined if the results are presented without an obvious attempt to show a sympathetic understanding of rival theories (and of their proponents as individual human beings). This might be particularly challenging in respect of the controversies surrounding the American and French Revolutions, but that only makes it more important to present these debates without betraying an overt preference for one side over another.

The war of ideas on the Internet: An asymmetric conflict in which the strong become weak

Advertising and public relations – the war of ideas – is increasingly being conducted on the Internet, rather than in “old media” of print, radio, and television. An important aspect of the war of ideas is the battle to control the perceptions of others' attitudes and opinions. These perceptions are important because opinions about opinions (meta-opinions) act as social norms: they encourage the expression of positions seen as popular and discourage the expression of positions seen as unpopular. Using this interpretation, this article describes recent examples of opinion management to illustrate how the Internet differs from older media both quantitatively (acceleration of dissemination) and qualitatively (lack of centralized editorial authority). As a result of these differences, smaller and less-centralized groups often have the advantage over states and corporations on the Internet. Thus, in the war of ideas between the US and jihadist groups such as ISIS, the conflict is indeed asymmetric but the US is arguably the weaker side and must understand the unique constraints of the new battlefield in order to succeed.

Poland, Holy War, and the Piast Monarchy, 1100–1230 by Darius von Güttner-Sporzyński (review)

Reviewed by: Poland, Holy War, and the Piast Monarchy, 1100–1230 by Darius von Güttner-Sporzyński Mariusz Bęcławski von Güttner-Sporzyński, Darius, Poland, Holy War, and the Piast Monarchy, 1100–1230 (Europa Sacra, 14), Turnhout, Brepols, 2014; hardback; pp. xiv, 294; 7 b/w illustrations, 9 b/w line art; R.R.P. €80.00; ISBN 9782503547947. In his recent monograph, Darius von Güttner-Sporzyński traces the evolution of the concept of holy war and its change into crusading, within the context of the reign of the Piast dynasty in Poland, from 1100, to the settlement of the Teutonic Order within the borders of Poland and Prussia, in 1226. In the Middle Ages, the demarcation line between holy war and crusading rested on the difference between pacifist Christian theology and the rather more violent nature (and reality) of human existence. The idea of holy war incorporated the understanding that the use of force was not always automatically unacceptable, and what is more, in some cases it was ordained by God. Still, as von Güttner-Sporzyński observes, ‘Before the thirteenth century, the difference between holy war and crusade is often blurred; it is certain, however, that whilst all crusades were holy wars, not all holy wars were crusades’ (p. 1). For von Güttner-Sporzyński, the Christianisation of Pomerania by the Piasts during this period was an important factor in the change of concept. The book is divided into seven chapters. The first two present the early history of Poland from 996, and the baptism of Mieszko I, to 1102, and the death of Władysław I Herman, in order to set the scene for an examination of the evolution of the concept of holy war in a Polish perspective. These two chapters also describe the introduction of Christianity into Poland, and that religion’s substantial influence on the Piast realm and its culture. Chapter 3 discusses the dissemination of the idea of holy war among Polish elites of the early twelfth century, and examines ‘“the right and just” wars waged by Bolesław III against the Pomeranians’ as examples of holy wars and proto-crusades taking place at the same time. Chapter 4 lists the events of the civil war between Władysław II and his younger half-brothers before the Wendish Crusade and the circumstances of Polish involvement. Chapter 5 investigates the evidence of the involvement of the Poles in the Second Crusade and [End Page 400] their contribution to it of at least one powerful army. Chapter 6 explores Polish participation in Christian holy wars, and describes the autumn 1147 expedition led by Bolesław IV into Prussia, which has not previously been discussed in English-language historiography. Chapter 7 describes the missionary attempts of the Cistercian Order to convert Prussia in view of the fragmentation of the Piast patrimony. This volume is a valuable study of the Piast dynasty and their holy wars. Mariusz Bęcławski Kozminski University Copyright © 2015 Mariusz Bęcławski

A Crusade Gone Wrong

President George W. Bush regarded the war on terror he unleashed in Afghanistan and Iraq as a war of ideas just as it was a war of arms. With evangelical zeal and through his policy of regime change, he wanted to introduce Western-type liberal democracy in both countries but failed in the attempt. Though “democratically”-elected governments took office in Kabul and Baghdad, the American occupation was strongly resisted in both places, leading to the emergence of new insurgencies (Iraq) and the gradual regrouping of militants dislodged from power (Afghanistan). Not only did the United States under Bush fail to prevent Pakistan from aiding Afghan militants, it helped Shi’ite Iran in gaining an unprecedented foothold in the affairs of the new Shia-led dispensation in Iraq. George W. Bush’s surge for democracy through military intervention in Afghanistan and Iraq resulted in a new wave of anti-Americanism in those regions and provided a fresh lease of life to Islamic fundamentalism. His crusade had indeed gone wrong.