There are three readings this week. They are all short so make sure you do all of them.
Hoffman's Critique of Sageman
Sageman's Response to Hoffman
Sageman Strategy for Fighting Terrorism
Sunday, May 2, 2010
Tuesday, April 27, 2010
Week 12
Carolyn Nordstrom reading
IED Readings
PDF Version of IED reading
Investigate the effect political economy has on the structure of non-state assemblages and
the access to weapons and smuggling necessary for these assemblages to create
increasingly lethal forms of violence. We will also discuss the importance of surplus and
the dumping of seemingly outdated weapons and technology ranging from seemingly
outdated landmines to garage door openers and cell phones. The reliance of insurgents in
Iraq on Improvised Explosive Devices will organize this week’s discussion.
IED Readings
PDF Version of IED reading
Investigate the effect political economy has on the structure of non-state assemblages and
the access to weapons and smuggling necessary for these assemblages to create
increasingly lethal forms of violence. We will also discuss the importance of surplus and
the dumping of seemingly outdated weapons and technology ranging from seemingly
outdated landmines to garage door openers and cell phones. The reliance of insurgents in
Iraq on Improvised Explosive Devices will organize this week’s discussion.
Sunday, April 18, 2010
Week 11: How Control Exists After Decentralization
Alexander Galloway and Eugene Thacker, The Exploit, All Pages Posted.
This week will introduce students to Network Theory. In short how it is that
decentralized organizations and loosely connected networks can maintain hierarchies i.e.
order and control actions, as well as how you study and analyze entities that change
structure frequently, move constantly and yet maintain an identifiable consistency.
Examples will draw on problems of maintaining borders, internet piracy, as well as
global terrorism assemblages such as Al-Qaeda.
This week will introduce students to Network Theory. In short how it is that
decentralized organizations and loosely connected networks can maintain hierarchies i.e.
order and control actions, as well as how you study and analyze entities that change
structure frequently, move constantly and yet maintain an identifiable consistency.
Examples will draw on problems of maintaining borders, internet piracy, as well as
global terrorism assemblages such as Al-Qaeda.
Thursday, April 8, 2010
Tuesday, March 30, 2010
Week 9: Cities and Slums
Mike Davis, Planet of Slums
Stephen Graham, War and The City
Gilles Deleuzes, “Postscript on the Societies of Control”
Luic Waqant “The Militarization of Urban Marginality: Lessons from the Brazilian
Metropolis”, International Political Sociology, 2, 2008.
Suggested Film: Elite Squad, Weinstein Company, 2008. Available at Library or Video Americain
This section investigates recent trends in urbanization as containment and the resulting
militarization of police forces as well as the increasing urban training of military forces.
The goal of this section is to demonstrate how changes in the local and seemingly insular
urban environment have global security effects. We will also revisit the question of
structural versus subjective violence.
Stephen Graham, War and The City
Gilles Deleuzes, “Postscript on the Societies of Control”
Luic Waqant “The Militarization of Urban Marginality: Lessons from the Brazilian
Metropolis”, International Political Sociology, 2, 2008.
Suggested Film: Elite Squad, Weinstein Company, 2008. Available at Library or Video Americain
This section investigates recent trends in urbanization as containment and the resulting
militarization of police forces as well as the increasing urban training of military forces.
The goal of this section is to demonstrate how changes in the local and seemingly insular
urban environment have global security effects. We will also revisit the question of
structural versus subjective violence.
Monday, March 29, 2010
Week 8: The State Fights Back
David Galula, Counterinsurgency Warfare: Theory and Practice, Insurgency Praeger Security International 2006.(Kavanaugh)
David Kilcullen, Counter Insurgency REDUX
Nagl, Learning as we go
Compare the responses of Western powers to develop counter-insurgency tactics and the forces to carry them out. The focus will be on the French suppression of resistance in Algeria and the United States counter-insurgency methods. The texts themselves will represent very different ways to relate to this question. The first is a short, practical handbook written for military personnel by a participant in the French Army during the war for independence in Algeria. The other two articles are by advisors to the U.S. Military who helped developed our contemporary counter-insurgency doctrine.
David Kilcullen, Counter Insurgency REDUX
Nagl, Learning as we go
Compare the responses of Western powers to develop counter-insurgency tactics and the forces to carry them out. The focus will be on the French suppression of resistance in Algeria and the United States counter-insurgency methods. The texts themselves will represent very different ways to relate to this question. The first is a short, practical handbook written for military personnel by a participant in the French Army during the war for independence in Algeria. The other two articles are by advisors to the U.S. Military who helped developed our contemporary counter-insurgency doctrine.
Saturday, March 13, 2010
Week 7: Blood and Politics
Frantz Fanon, Wretched of the Earth, Grove Press "Concerning Violence" "Violence in the International Context" "Spontaneity: Its Strength and Weakness" pgs, 35-147 (Natalie)
Suggested Film: Battle of Algiers available on youtube.com (Danielle)
Focuses on Anti-Colonial uprisings and the philosophy of freedom and self-determination that animate those uprisings. Focusing primarily on the work of Frantz Fanon, the question of this week is why so many people would prefer violence and even death to the security of colonial administration. The response of those that believe that all individuals seek security would be that the colonial states were not adequately providing that security. While that may be true to a degree, desires for dignity and freedom often motivated those who benefited and lived well, materially, under colonialism to risk and even kill themselves in the pursuit of independence.
Suggested Film: Battle of Algiers available on youtube.com (Danielle)
Focuses on Anti-Colonial uprisings and the philosophy of freedom and self-determination that animate those uprisings. Focusing primarily on the work of Frantz Fanon, the question of this week is why so many people would prefer violence and even death to the security of colonial administration. The response of those that believe that all individuals seek security would be that the colonial states were not adequately providing that security. While that may be true to a degree, desires for dignity and freedom often motivated those who benefited and lived well, materially, under colonialism to risk and even kill themselves in the pursuit of independence.
Monday, March 1, 2010
Week 5: Marxism and Global Revolution
(Leora Brody and Ray)
Leon Trotsky, Terrorism and Communism, Verso 2007. ["The Balance of Power", "Democracy", "Terrorism", "The Paris Commune and Soviet Russia"]
Mao Zedong, On Practice and Contradiction, Verso, 2007. ["Introduction by Zizek", "A Single Spark Can Start A Prairie Fire", "On Practice", "Combat Liberalism", "The Chinese People Cannot Be Cowed by the Atom Bomb", and "US Imperialism is A Paper Tiger" (Min Kyu)
Ernesto “Che” Guevara, Guerrilla Warfare, Bison Books, 1998. "General Principles of Guerilla Warfare" pgs. 1-37]
International Solidarity, Weapons Surplus, and the Power of raw numbers (People with nothing to lose but their chains)
Week five will read and discuss Marxist revolution and counter-insurgency used to achieve revolutionary goals. This section will be draw on the earlier reading by Schmitt to determine how Marxism as a commitment to global rather than national equality and as a theory of human nature and freedom from economic alienation altered the strategies and tactics it pursued in these ends. For instance why notions of collective decision or freedom meant that much higher casualties were tolerated and why compromise and reform were not considered as alternatives to war and violence.
Leon Trotsky, Terrorism and Communism, Verso 2007. ["The Balance of Power", "Democracy", "Terrorism", "The Paris Commune and Soviet Russia"]
Mao Zedong, On Practice and Contradiction, Verso, 2007. ["Introduction by Zizek", "A Single Spark Can Start A Prairie Fire", "On Practice", "Combat Liberalism", "The Chinese People Cannot Be Cowed by the Atom Bomb", and "US Imperialism is A Paper Tiger" (Min Kyu)
Ernesto “Che” Guevara, Guerrilla Warfare, Bison Books, 1998. "General Principles of Guerilla Warfare" pgs. 1-37]
International Solidarity, Weapons Surplus, and the Power of raw numbers (People with nothing to lose but their chains)
Week five will read and discuss Marxist revolution and counter-insurgency used to achieve revolutionary goals. This section will be draw on the earlier reading by Schmitt to determine how Marxism as a commitment to global rather than national equality and as a theory of human nature and freedom from economic alienation altered the strategies and tactics it pursued in these ends. For instance why notions of collective decision or freedom meant that much higher casualties were tolerated and why compromise and reform were not considered as alternatives to war and violence.
Wednesday, February 17, 2010
Anarchism and Violence
Ema Goldman, Anarchism and Other Essays, "Anarchism: What it Really Stands For", Dodo Press, 2008. All of it.
Mikhail Bakunin, God and The State, Dover Publications, 1970. (pgs. 21-98)
George Sorel, Reflections on Violence, "Ethics of Violence", Dover Publications, 2004. [pgs. 175-214]
Discuss the Anarchist movements of the late 19th and early 20th century. The goal is for the students to be able to successfully articulate why groups with classically liberal goals (freedom and equality) would attack the state form as well as use violence as a means to achieve those goals. Examples of the Haymarket riots and the assassination of Franz Ferdinand will be explored to consider the global effects of local events. In addition to which we will develop a provisional definition of violence as a point of reference for the following weeks.
Mikhail Bakunin, God and The State, Dover Publications, 1970. (pgs. 21-98)
George Sorel, Reflections on Violence, "Ethics of Violence", Dover Publications, 2004. [pgs. 175-214]
Discuss the Anarchist movements of the late 19th and early 20th century. The goal is for the students to be able to successfully articulate why groups with classically liberal goals (freedom and equality) would attack the state form as well as use violence as a means to achieve those goals. Examples of the Haymarket riots and the assassination of Franz Ferdinand will be explored to consider the global effects of local events. In addition to which we will develop a provisional definition of violence as a point of reference for the following weeks.
Friday, February 5, 2010
Week 3
Week 3: The Congress of Vienna and the Norms of War
“The Theory of the Partisan: A Commentary/Remark on the Concept of the Political”, Michigan State University, 2004. [Pages 1-78] (Amanda)
Ronald Frazer, Unknown social identities: Spanish guerrillas in the Peninsular War, 1808–14 [20 pages]
We will review last weeks Foucault reading to make sure useful concepts are clear.
Then we will discuss the Peninsular War in Spain in which popular uprisings reached previously unseen levels of violence, inspiring Goya’s “Disasters of War” and the attempt at the Congress of Vienna to codify rules and conduct of war.
“The Theory of the Partisan: A Commentary/Remark on the Concept of the Political”, Michigan State University, 2004. [Pages 1-78] (Amanda)
Ronald Frazer, Unknown social identities: Spanish guerrillas in the Peninsular War, 1808–14 [20 pages]
We will review last weeks Foucault reading to make sure useful concepts are clear.
Then we will discuss the Peninsular War in Spain in which popular uprisings reached previously unseen levels of violence, inspiring Goya’s “Disasters of War” and the attempt at the Congress of Vienna to codify rules and conduct of war.
Thursday, January 28, 2010
Week 2 February 4th
Week 2: War vs. Politics
Pages refer to book pages not pdf pages so use the table of contents.
Otto von Clausewitz, On War, Oxford University Press, 2008. 6-13, 14-31, 65-67
Michel Foucault, “Society Must Be Defended”: Lectures at the College de France, 1975-1976. Picador, 2003. 1-64, 87-114
Carl Schmitt, The Concept of the Political, University of Chicago, 2007. 19-37
Week two we will read Michel Foucault’s lectures on Nicolo Machiavelli, Thomas Hobbes, and Otto von Clausewitz as well as selections from Carl Schmitt’s Concept of the Political so that as a class we can develop provisional, working definitions of politics and war to use and revise as the class proceeds. In particular these two weeks are a kind of crash course in why people organize states and what purpose war is thought to serve so that as a class we have a common vocabulary to discuss the subsequent texts and problems presented to complicate the distinctions drawn between politics, war, and the state.
Pages refer to book pages not pdf pages so use the table of contents.
Otto von Clausewitz, On War, Oxford University Press, 2008. 6-13, 14-31, 65-67
Michel Foucault, “Society Must Be Defended”: Lectures at the College de France, 1975-1976. Picador, 2003. 1-64, 87-114
Carl Schmitt, The Concept of the Political, University of Chicago, 2007. 19-37
Week two we will read Michel Foucault’s lectures on Nicolo Machiavelli, Thomas Hobbes, and Otto von Clausewitz as well as selections from Carl Schmitt’s Concept of the Political so that as a class we can develop provisional, working definitions of politics and war to use and revise as the class proceeds. In particular these two weeks are a kind of crash course in why people organize states and what purpose war is thought to serve so that as a class we have a common vocabulary to discuss the subsequent texts and problems presented to complicate the distinctions drawn between politics, war, and the state.
Thursday, January 21, 2010
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