Was the Iraq war really an act of goodwill to liberate people from injustice? Or was it a strategic move to maintain US dominance globally?
This book casts a critical light on the real motives behind war and conflict. David Keen explores how winning war is rarely an end in itself; rather, war tends to be part of a wider political and economic game that is consistent with strengthening the enemy. Keen devises a radical framework for analysing an unending war project, where the ‘war on terror’ is an extension of the Cold War.
The book draws on the author’s detailed study of wars in Sudan, Sierra Leone, as well as in a range of other conflicts.
Table of Content
1. Introduction
2. Fuel On The Fire. Predictably Counter-Productive Tactics In The ‘War On Terror’
3. War Systems. Local And Global
4. Elusive Enemies And The Need For Certainty
5. The New Witch-Hunt. Finding And Removing The Source Of Evil
6. The Retreat From Evidence-Based Thinking
7. Action-As-Propaganda
8. Warding Off The Shame Of Powerlessness
9. Shame, Purity And Violence
10. Culture And Magic
11. Conclusion
Notes
Index
About the author
David Keen is Reader in Complex Emergencies at the Institute of Development Studies at the London School of Economics. He has written a number of books on conflicts, famines and civil wars, including Endless War?: Hidden Functions of the ‘War on Terror’ (Pluto, 2006). In recent years, he has conducted extensive fieldwork in Sudan, Sierra Leone and Iraq.
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