Interval of resistance

This chapter illuminates aspects of Tibetan resistance in the face of Chinese suppression. Rather than focusing on the censorships and erasures—be they physical or conceptual—the chapter focuses instead on how Tibetans celebrate the “emptiness” left behind. It turns to three primary images—the empty chair, holes in newspapers, and the lotus—to signify how, rather than successfully eradicating the memory of the Dalai Lama, they have instead generated hope for the people they are trying to suppress. Beyond Tibet, the chapter looks at other ways in which these symbols have come to define resistance to the wars peculiar to China.

Specter of vietnam

This chapter discusses the problem of an exit strategy during the final days of the George W. Bush administration and how these issues echo the U.S. policy on Vietnam of many years before. It goes further, however, to analyze how the Obama administration approached future conflict in its initial years. On the one hand, the Bush administration's official storyline had revived the familiar paranoia of having victory turned over to the enemies. On the other, the exit strategy for withdrawal also raised widespread doubt about what was achievable in Iraq and Afghanistan and what the comprehensive results of the Iraq War turned out to be. The classic double bind thus wrote itself into every discussion of the “post-Iraq” era of U.S. foreign policy.

How to write an ending?

This chapter discusses the aftermath of bin Laden's death and the war in Iraq. In questioning the meaning of victory during wartime, the chapter examines how bin Laden's memory endures and the contentions surrounding his death and legacy. It also questions the sense of American patriotism in the aftermath of his death before turning to the larger questions of the Patriot Act and national security, in considering what it means to be a free citizen in a post-bin Laden world. Finally, the chapter turns toward U.S. foreign policy, particularly of the circumstances surrounding the United States' occupation of and departure from Iraq—which, while signaling the end of one war, appears to be the prelude to another.

Displaced, dispossessed, disappeared

This chapter explores the consequences of Chinese attempts at modernization and urbanization as imposed upon Tibet. It examines the likely shifts to occur in Tibet's ethnographic demography as a result of China's efforts at economic development, before surveying the latter in greater detail as China undergoes a “Great Uprooting” of its own, promoting, with her mammoth urbanization drive, rapid shifts from production to consumption, and from countryside to city and megacity. In addition, the chapter looks at the people who have been displaced as a result of this economic progress, before turning to China's tourism industry and how it echoes the discourse of displacement and belonging.

The world is watching

This chapter focuses on Tibet. It first explores the symbolic power of tears and expressions of sadness, before giving way to a discussion on Tibetan resistance against Chinese attempts at liberation and modernization, as well as Chinese brutality against Tibet. But the chapter goes beyond Sino-Tibetan relations, arguing that Tibet is an international issue—one that continually brings itself to the world's attention. With the nation's turbulent history and unique position in the world, Tibet stands out as one of the most sensitive security and political issues for China, though one that is usually kept in low profile and remains almost invisible in certain parts of the Middle Empire. Within and beyond the Great Wall, the chapter argues, Tibet is China's—and the UN's—“Big Denial.”

The mole’s empire

This chapter further examines the human costs of war, first discussing quantitative measures of victory (for the United States) versus qualitative (for al-Qaeda) and how they compare with each other. On a broader scope the chapter lingers on the concept of time as it applies to war. In today's battles across the world, if on the side of the occupying forces, “victory” is short lived and accordingly defined with time—meaning, at most, preventing catastrophe—on the side of those fighting against occupation and colonization, victory remains defiantly linked to strategic outcomes. As long as battles à la David and Goliath persist, there will be claims for David-versus-Goliath victories and gleeful stories of heroism woven around them. The chapter then returns to an oft-remembered setting for such David-versus-Goliath conflicts—Vietnam.

Between victor and victor

This chapter posits similarities between the two warring factions—primarily focusing on the United States and Iraq, although it does include discussions of other nations and factions that the United States has had to contend with throughout history. Rather than the commonly held assumption that there is only the victor and the defeated, this chapter argues that both sides can be considered “victors,” and that such perspectives are even encouraged by media coverage. Moreover, the methods with which both sides use to make war with the other and obtain victory are likewise similar. The chapter concludes by showing how the delusion of the two victors only serves to benefit the cause of war.

This sky which is not blue

This chapter examines the portentous implications of a sky that is not blue. More than mere metaphor, the chapter indicates atmospheric and geographical phenomenon which can be attributed to the sky's more grayish hue. It illustrates a different kind of violence—a natural disaster that might not be, after all, quite natural, as even these disasters have come to displace individuals—to turn people into “refugees.” Yet, despite this seeming prelude to destruction and the bleak future imminent in a violence-wracked world, the chapter invites the reader to cast aside cynicism and indifference in order to make a difference and to take one's destiny in hand.

The new rebels

This chapter examines not only the unrest in Tibet but also that among China's civil society. It explores social media as a platform for speaking out against the human rights abuses, as well as the limitations of social media given the Chinese government's attempts at censoring these platforms on the matter of Tibet—an act that shares similarities with the U.S. government's own attempts at information surveillance and control as depicted in the previous chapters. The chapter then turns to Chinese civil society at large, as well as the emerging socio-political significance of the legal profession as China's rule of law consistently comes under public scrutiny.

The matter of war

This chapter focuses on other major themes that surfaced in the conflicts that took place during the Bush presidency: oil, info-wars, the “Us versus Them” mentality, and imprisonment. It criticizes U.S. attitudes regarding its approach to war during this period, particularly in the ways American media chooses to perceive and portray the violence. Political analysts have widely commented on the danger of having a victor commander-in-chief who sought glory in war with little consideration for the long-term human costs involved. But the chapter remarks on the greater danger of recasting the world according to his and his surrogates' small-minded view, which continues fatally today to bleed America—economically, politically, mentally, emotionally, and spiritually.