Description
Book SynopsisA sharp examination into the methods used to depict, defend and justify the use of state violence in recent wars, from Iraq to Libya.
Trade Review'One of our shrewdest commentators on the complicated ways in which we come to believe that wars are right and weapons are good.' -- Hugh Gusterson, Professor of Anthropology and Sociology at George Mason University
'An important book with much to offer to anyone concerned with the study of statecraft in time of war' -- Paul Rogers is Professor of Peace Studies at Bradford University
'A sophisticated exploration of how understandings of war and weapons are produced by the movements between disclosure and concealment in official discourse. An important and very readable addition to the literature on contemporary Western warmaking' -- Martin Shaw, Research Professor, Institut Barcelona d'Estudis Internacionals and University of Sussex, and Professorial Fellow in International Relations and Human Rights, University of Roehampton, London. Author of The New Western Way of War.
Table of ContentsIntroduction: Grasping Shadows
Part I: Partial Revelations
1. Show and Tell: Distortion, Accuracy, and WMD
2. Estimating Ignorance
3. Disabling Discourses: International Law, Legitimacy, and the Politics of Balance
Part II: Dialogues
4. Open Conversations and Public Secrets?: The Banning of Cluster Munitions
5 . Binding Options
6. Framing and Framed: The Category of Explosive Violence
Conclusion. Pulling Back
Notes
Index
