Survival Governance

2021 ◽  
pp. 196-224
Author(s):  
Peter Drahos
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
National Security ◽  
The United States ◽  
Regulatory Mechanisms ◽  
Export Controls ◽  
Technology Markets ◽  
Us Military ◽  
The Us ◽  
The Face ◽  
National Security State

The success of the project of survival governance, which requires states to focus on the repair of ecosystems, depends on the success of China’s experimental cities and whether China can manage to develop core technologies in the face of opposition from the US national security state. The technologies that are central to the construction of the bio-digital energy paradigm are also the ones that matter to US military power. The United States is using regulatory mechanisms such as intellectual property and export controls to block or slow China’s acquisition of core technologies. The United States has already created a technological fork in global technology markets, making it more or less impossible for companies like Google to deal with Chinese companies like Huawei. Less clear is whether multinational capital will support this fork. It may choose to support the new circuits of accumulation that emerge as states embrace survival governance.

scholarly journals The first hundred days of the Biden administration and the us foreign and security policy

2021 ◽  
Vol 73 (2) ◽  
pp. 187-213
Author(s):  
Dragan Simic ◽  
Dragan Zivojinovic
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
National Security ◽  
Security Policy ◽  
The United States ◽  
The Us ◽  
Foreign And Security Policy ◽  
The Face ◽  
Good Reading ◽  
Franklin Delano Roosevelt ◽  
Presidential Performance

The paper deals with the foreign and security policy of the United States of America during the first hundred days of the Biden administration. Ever since Franklin Delano Roosevelt?s first term, the presidential performance at the beginning of the administration has been measured by the first hundred days of a president?s term. The most important intentions about what is to be achieved, the selection of the team, key appointments, and the establishment of the National Security Council System, the most important speeches, and concrete moves towards regional and functional issues, say a lot about what the foreign and security policy of an administration will look like. President Joe Biden is no exception. Moreover, his insistence that the circumstances in which the United States finds itself are a truly ?Rooseveltian moment? contributed to the first hundred days of his administration being monitored with special attention. The authors start from the hypothesis that Biden, owing to his experience in government and a good reading of the circumstances in which America and the world find themselves, established a good and functional national security system as well as a clear list of foreign policy priorities. He, like Franklin Delano Roosevelt, found the appropriate balance between values and interests, means and goals, pragmatism and principle. The authors conclude that, although the first steps are promising, it remains to be seen whether Biden will reach the highest standards set by his famous predecessor, especially in the face of some unforeseen and unexpected events.

Adaptation under Fire

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
David Barno ◽  
Nora Bensahel
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
21St Century ◽  
The United States ◽  
Military Organizations ◽  
Us Military ◽  
Security Challenges ◽  
The Us ◽  
Precise Shape ◽  
The Face ◽  
Do So

Adaptation under Fire looks at the essential importance of military adaptation in winning wars. Every military must prepare for future wars despite inevitably having little confidence about the precise shape that those wars will take. As former US secretary of defense Robert Gates once noted, the United States has a perfect record in predicting the next war: “We have never once gotten it right.” Despite this uncertainty, military organizations still must make choices. They must determine the nature of doctrine they will need to fight effectively, the type of weaponry and equipment they must procure to defeat their potential foe, and the kind of leaders they must select and develop to guide the force to victory. Since the US military has global security responsibilities, it will have to make these choices without knowing when, where, or how the next war will unfold, or even who the enemy may be. It will need to adapt quickly and successfully in the face of the unexpected in order to prevail. The book starts by providing a framework for understanding adaptation and includes several historical examples of success and failure. The second part examines US military adaptation during the recent wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and explains why certain forms of adaptation have proven so problematic. The final part argues that the US military must become more adaptable in order to successfully address the fast-changing security challenges of the 21st century, and concludes with some recommendations on how it should do so.

Imagineering empire: how Hollywood and the US national security state ‘operationalize narrative’

2019 ◽  
Vol 42 (3) ◽  
pp. 398-413
Author(s):  
Sylvia J Martin
Keyword(s):  
Los Angeles ◽  
National Security ◽  
The United States ◽  
Entertainment Media ◽  
The Public ◽  
Us Military ◽  
The Us ◽  
National Security State ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
Favorable Light

While the Pentagon has long enlisted Hollywood to make films that show the United States in a favorable light for the public, this article examines how and why US military agencies hire entertainment professionals for national security purposes such as imagining defense strategy against possible threats. Drawing from ethnographic fieldwork in Los Angeles, I argue that the application of entertainment media and creative expertise for internal military purposes articulates the totalizing resourcefulness of a national security state which after 9/11 increasingly identifies the capacity to imagine as its greatest weapon. I suggest that ‘Imagineering’, the Disney method for storytelling and developing scenarios that has become emblematic of the US entertainment industry, is a fitting concept with which to understand the state’s harnessing of creative labor for its project of empire. Tracing the relationship between Hollywood narrative and national security illuminates the imaginings of US empire at its domestic source.

Refuge in the National Security State

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
María Cristina García
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
National Security ◽  
Homeland Security ◽  
The United States ◽  
State Policies ◽  
Us Foreign Policy ◽  
Terrorist Attacks ◽  
Department Of Homeland Security ◽  
The World ◽  
National Security State

In response to the terrorist attacks of 1993 and 2001, the Clinton and Bush administrations restructured the immigration bureaucracy, placed it within the new Department of Homeland Security, and tried to convey to Americans a greater sense of safety. Refugees, especially those from Iraq, Afghanistan, and Syria, suffered the consequences of the new national security state policies, and found it increasingly difficult to find refuge in the United States. In the post-9/11 era, refugee advocates became even more important to the admission of refugees, reminding Americans of their humanitarian obligations, especially to those refugees who came from areas of the world where US foreign policy had played a role in displacing populations.

Rethinking U.S. National Security after Covid19

2020 ◽  
Vol 26 (3) ◽  
Author(s):  
Linda J. Bilmes
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
United States ◽  
National Security ◽  
The United States ◽  
Emerging Diseases ◽  
Defense Spending ◽  
Federal Spending ◽  
Us Economy ◽  
The Us ◽  
The Military

AbstractThe United States has traditionally defined national security in the context of military threats and addressed them through military spending. This article considers whether the United States will rethink this mindset following the disruption of the Covid19 pandemic, during which a non-military actor has inflicted widespread harm. The author argues that the US will not redefine national security explicitly due to the importance of the military in the US economy and the bipartisan trend toward growing the military budget since 2001. However, the pandemic has opened the floodgates with respect to federal spending. This shift will enable the next administration to allocate greater resources to non-military threats such as climate change and emerging diseases, even as it continues to increase defense spending to address traditionally defined military threats such as hypersonics and cyberterrorism.

Washington will rethink its foreign chip strategy

2021 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Supply Chain ◽  
The United States ◽  
Export Controls ◽  
Political Pressure ◽  
Technical Standards ◽  
Content Type ◽  
The Us ◽  
Technology Competition ◽  
Business In China

Significance Follow-on action from Washington and responses from foreign actors will shape the US government’s adversarial policy towards China in semiconductors and other strategic technologies. Impacts The Biden administration will likely conclude that broad-based diversion of the semiconductor supply chain away from China is not feasible. The United States will rely on export controls and political pressure to prevent diffusion to China of cutting-edge chip technologies. The United States will focus on persuading foreign semiconductor leaders to help develop US capabilities, thereby staying ahead of China. Washington will focus on less direct approaches to strategic technology competition with China, notably technical standards-setting. Industry leaders in the semiconductor supply chain worldwide will continue expanding business in China in less politically sensitive areas.

scholarly journals Conflict in the Middle East: The US and the Turkish-Kurdish Conflict

2018 ◽  
Vol 25 ◽  
pp. 11-21
Author(s):  
Matthew Dotzler
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Foreign Policy ◽  
National Security ◽  
Boiling Point ◽  
The United States ◽  
Us Foreign Policy ◽  
Northern Iraq ◽  
The Us ◽  
History Of ◽  
Kurdish Conflict

The conflict between Turkey and the Kurds is once again reaching a boiling point. Following the defeat of ISIL in northern Iraq and Syria, Turkey is now concerned that the returning Kurdish militias pose a threat to its national security. The United States, as an ally to both parties, finds itself in a unique position to push for diplomatic solutions and to mediate the conflict before it grows out of control once again. This paper will examine the history of the Turkish-Kurdish conflict, the actors involved, and how US foreign policy can be used to try and deter yet another war in the region.

A White Man’s War?

2020 ◽  
pp. 39-68
Author(s):  
Brian Taylor
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Civil War ◽  
African Americans ◽  
Black Men ◽  
The United States ◽  
Us Army ◽  
Us Military ◽  
The Us ◽  
Founding Principle ◽  
Proper Response

This chapter looks at the first two years of the Civil War, when black men were barred from serving in the US Army. It follows the debate that black Northerners conducted about the proper response to the call to serve in the US military, which they were sure would come at some point. Immediate enlistment advocates sparred with those who counseled withholding enlistment until African Americans’ demands had been met. Black Northerners began to articulate the terms under which they would serve the Union, among which citizenship emerged as central, as well as the changes necessary to bring lived reality in the United States in line with the founding principle of equality.

24. The War in Iraq

2020 ◽  
pp. 587-611
Author(s):  
John W. Young ◽  
John Kent
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
National Security ◽  
Operation Iraqi Freedom ◽  
The United States ◽  
Weapons Of Mass Destruction ◽  
The Troubles ◽  
The Us ◽  
The Government ◽  
The Arab Spring ◽  
Iraqi Freedom

This chapter focuses on the Iraq war of 2003–11 and the troubles in the Middle East. George W. Bush’s advisers, led by Dick Cheney and Don Rumsfeld, had been considering an attack on Iraq well before 9/11. At the same time, many experts within the government pointed to the lack of any evidence for Iraqi-sponsored terrorism directed against the United States. The threats to US national security were outlined to Bush in a briefing just prior to his inauguration; these threats came primarily from al-Qaeda’s terrorism and the proliferation of nuclear arms and other weapons of mass destruction (WMDs). The chapter first considers the US decision to invade Iraq, before discussing the war, taking into account the US’s Operation Iraqi Freedom and the war’s costs to the US and to Iraq. It also examines the Israeli–Palestinian conflict and concludes with an assessment of the ‘Arab Spring’.

Eyes in the Sky

The Drone Age ◽  
2020 ◽  
pp. 96-130
Author(s):  
Michael J. Boyle
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Organizational Structures ◽  
The United States ◽  
Us Military ◽  
The Us ◽  
The Military ◽  
Organizational Costs

Chapter 4 argues that drones accelerate the trend toward information-rich warfare and place enormous pressure on the military to learn ever more about the battlefields that it faces. Today, for the United States, war is increasingly a contest for information about any future battlespace. This has had an organizational effect as the ability for the United States to know more through drone imagery has turned into a necessity to know more. The US military is becoming so enamored of its ability to know more through drone surveillance that it is overlooking the operational and organizational costs of “collecting the whole haystack.” Using drones for a vast surveillance apparatus, as the United States and now other countries have been doing, has underappreciated implications for the workload, organizational structures, and culture of the military itself.

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