Vicarious Warfare

Mapping Intimacies ◽

10.1332/policypress/9781529206999.001.0001 ◽

2021 ◽

Author(s):

Thomas Waldman

Keyword(s):

Public Engagement ◽

Political Capital ◽

Strategic Decisions ◽

Special Forces ◽

Extreme Form

America has been at war for most of the 20th and 21st centuries and during that time has progressively moved towards a vicarious form of warfare, where key tasks are delegated to proxies, the military's exposure to danger is limited, and special forces and covert instruments are on the increase. Important strategic decisions are taken with minimal scrutiny or public engagement. This book charts the historical emergence of this distinctive tradition of war and explains the factors driving its contemporary prominence. It argues that vicarious warfare is an extreme form of strategic alchemy, and contemporary America is its most enthusiastic guild. In simple terms, vicarious warfare refers to the prospect of war on the cheap, fought at a reduced price in blood, treasure or political capital relative to ambition. The book contrasts the tactical advantages of vicarious warfare with its hidden costs and potential to cause significant strategic harm.

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Introduction: The Alchemy of War

10.1332/policypress/9781529206999.003.0001 ◽

2021 ◽

pp. 1-16

Author(s):

Thomas Waldman

Keyword(s):

Political Capital ◽

Special Forces ◽

Extreme Form ◽

Material Resources ◽

Similar Idea ◽

History Of ◽

General Preference ◽

Reduced Costs ◽

Emotional Capital ◽

The Way

This chapter asserts that a recurring theme throughout the history of war — although not necessarily always the most prominent one — concerns the efforts of belligerents to somehow limit, minimize or evade the various liabilities associated with its conduct. It argues that vicarious warfare is an extreme form of the strategic alchemy, and contemporary America is its most enthusiastic guild. The chapter then elaborates the symbol of the squared circle in alchemy which represented the elements that would combine to create the philosopher's stone. It employs a similar idea to capture the way actors seek to 'produce' less burdensome wars through reduced costs and requirements, whether in terms of, among other things, blood, treasure, political capital or material resources. In war, this translates into a form of denial with regard to the serious costs that might have to be incurred or the level of investments in material, social, political and even emotional capital required to realize objectives, resulting in a mismatch between ends and means. Ultimately, the chapter charts the emergence of America's general preference to fight its wars: delegating fighting to proxies, limiting the exposure of its own military forces to danger, and operating in the shadows through the use of special forces, covert practices and evolving offensive cyber techniques.

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Public Engagement - More than just fun

EPJ Web of Conferences ◽

10.1051/epjconf/202024508025 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 245 ◽

pp. 08025

Author(s):

Greg Corbett ◽

Ian Collier ◽

Sophy Palmer

Keyword(s):

Public Engagement ◽

Early Career ◽

Evaluation Framework ◽

Strategic Decisions ◽

The Public ◽

Staff Members ◽

Sustainable Culture ◽

Computing Department ◽

Future Direction ◽

The Impact

Public Engagement (PE) with science should be more than “fun” for the staff involved. PE should be a strategic aim of any publically funded science organisation to ensure the public develops an understanding and appreciation of their work, its benefits to everyday life and to ensure the next generation is enthused to take up STEM careers. Most scientific organisations do have aims to do this, but very few have significant budgets to deliver this. In a landscape of ever tightening budgets, how can we develop a sustainable culture of PE within these organisations? UKRI/STFC’s Scientific Computing Department present how we have worked to embed a culture of PE with the department by developing our early career staff members; highlighting the impact PE makes at the departmental and project level; and linking PE to our competency framework. We will also discuss how our departmental work interacts with and complements STFC’s organisational-wide PE effort, such as making use of a shared evaluation framework that allows us to evaluate our public engagement activities against their goals and make strategic decisions about the programme’s future direction.

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OP30 From Framework To Action: Implementing Patient Engagement

International Journal of Technology Assessment in Health Care ◽

10.1017/s0266462318000909 ◽

2018 ◽

Vol 34 (S1) ◽

pp. 12-13

Author(s):

Amy Lang ◽

David Wells

Keyword(s):

Organizational Culture ◽

Public Engagement ◽

Patient Engagement ◽

Lessons Learned ◽

Successful Implementation ◽

Strategic Decisions ◽

Scarce Resources ◽

Study Approach ◽

Patient And Public Engagement ◽

Early Effects

Introduction:This session will share lessons learned from implementing a comprehensive patient and public engagement framework (developed by winners of the 2017 Egon Jonsson Award) in one government agency's health technology assessment (HTA) process. The presentation will share strategic and operational considerations for successful implementation, and the early effects of patient involvement activities on the agency's HTA recommendations.Methods:This presentation used a case study approach to understand the application of the framework described above.Results:The comprehensive framework by Abelson and colleagues describes many different public and patient engagement activities that could be conducted at each stage of an HTA process. Health Quality Ontario has chosen to focus on engaging patients to: prioritize topics; develop an additional evidence stream on patient preferences and values; serve on a committee that reviews the HTA, deliberates, and makes recommendations; and provide feedback on draft recommendations. Strategic considerations for these decisions include: aligning engagement activities to an evidence-focused organizational culture, and investing in engagement activities earlier in the HTA process to allow for sufficient consideration of the patient voice in developing recommendations. These activities have impacted the agency's organizational culture, and evidence suggests they have also influenced recommendations for what should be publicly funded. Patient engagement activities have also led to increased feedback from the public and patients for some HTAs and the associated draft recommendations.Conclusions:Public agencies must make strategic decisions about how and when to invest scarce resources in patient and public engagement. Investing in direct patient engagement as an additional stream of evidence and supporting the involvement of health system users in decision-making has had a significant impact on HTA deliberations and recommendations. For some HTAs, these activities have facilitated greater public engagement as well.

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From cellular memory to the memory of trauma: Social epigenetics and its public circulation

Social Science Information ◽

10.1177/0539018419897600 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 59 (1) ◽

pp. 144-183 ◽

Cited By ~ 2

Author(s):

Michel Dubois ◽

Catherine Guaspare

Keyword(s):

Social Sciences ◽

Present Article ◽

Public Engagement ◽

Historical Trauma ◽

Research Front ◽

Cellular Memory ◽

Extreme Form ◽

Social Adversity ◽

The Social ◽

General Dynamics

Trauma is associated with the appearance of the concept of ‘accident’ as a social and legal entity, as well as with the successive discoveries of surgery, psychiatrics, and psychoanalysis. Today, epigenetics has redefined trauma as an extreme form of social adversity. Because of the exceptional nature of the events studied and also the social and political significance of its results, the social epigenetics of historical trauma has received undeniable public success. The present article investigates the general dynamics of this research front, as well as the forms and consequences of its public circulation. We highlight the specificity of the circulation modes associated with social epigenetics and the myriad ways it has been used socially and politically. This study addresses four registers of action in particular: to attest, to repair, to intervene, and to treat. The social circulation of the epigenetics of trauma is as influenced by the public’s willingness to see it as socially and politically relevant as it is by the ability of researchers to prepare this collective appropriation through different forms of public engagement. Finally this study allows us to refute the dichotomic conception of the genetics/epigenetics relationship, which is too frequently the foundation for making epigenetics academically acceptable in the social sciences.

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