Course webpage is here: http://peterasaro.org/courses/2012War.html
Course blog is here: http://digitalwar2012.wordpress.com/
In the late 1990s the US military committed itself to pursuing Network-Centric Warfare and Full-Spectrum Dominance, which eventually led to the largest military R&D contract in history--the Future Combat Systems program. Several years, two wars, and many billions of dollars later, those digital technologies are finding their way onto the battlefields of Iraq, Afghanistan, and the Global War on Terror. This course focuses on exploring the technologies and media that are having the greatest impact on the way war will be fought in the near future, as well as the cultural meanings of warfare, and the propensity to war itself. We explore how these technologies are changing the nature of warfare, and the rhetoric that is used to justify the development and use of these technologies. The course critically examines the claims that technologies can produce increasingly risk-free, or even bloodless, wars, and considers how the risks of engaging in armed conflict are being redistributed. Topics discussed include the military's use of video games for recruitment and training, the use of video game interfaces for real-world technologies, the use of database systems to manage vast quantities of information in warfare, and the increasing use of military robotics including armed Predator and Reaper drones.
This course examines the complex relationship between digital technologies and warfare, from both the perspective of how wars are conducted, and how they are represented in media.
You are expected to have thoroughly and thoughtfully read the assigned texts, viewed the assigned videos, and to have prepared yourself to contribute meaningfully to the class discussions. For some people, that preparation requires taking copious notes on the assigned readings; for others, it entails supplementing the assigned readings with explanatory texts found in survey textbooks or in online sources; and for others still, it involves reading the texts, ruminating on them afterwards, then discussing those readings with classmates before the class meeting. Whatever method best suits you, I hope you will arrive at class with copies of the assigned reading, ready and willing to make yourself a valued contributor to the discussion, and eager to share your own relevant media experiences and interests. Your participation will be evaluated in terms of both quantity and quality.
Each week we will have students prepare comments and initate discussion on selected reading assignments. Each student is required to do 2 such presentations over the course of the semester. There will usually be 2 each week, and we will seek volunteers for selected reading the preceeding week. The goal of the presentation is to provide a short high-level summary of the main argument of the reading, followed by a critical assessment of it, and the initiation of class discussion.
As this is a seminar, regular attendance is essential. You will be permitted two excused absences (you must notify me of your inability to attend before class, via email). Any subsequent absences and any un-excused absences will adversely affect your grade.
Students will be required to make weekly blog entries commenting on the
readings for the week. You will be required to create an
account on WordPress, and send me an email with their LoginID and the EMAIL
ADDRESS used to create the account, so that you can be added as authors
for the collective course blog. Everyone will be posting to a common blog page,
and this will be readable by your classmates. When writing and making comments,
you are expected to treat other students with the same respect and courtesy as
you should in the classroom.
Discussion questions will be posted each week to help stimulate the writing
process. You are also expected to read the posts of your classmates, and
encouraged to comment on other people's posts each week. Posts will not be
graded (they will recieve 2, 1 or 0 points based on timely completion), but I
will read them and occasionally comment on them myself.
Blog posts will be due before the start of each class. They are time stamped when you post them, and late posts will only receive half credit (1 point). Discussion questions for the next week will be posted shortly after each class.
Research Paper Proposal Due: September 27
Length: 500-1000 words (approx. 1-2 pages)
Research Paper First Draft Due: November 15
Length: 2000-3000 words (approx. 5-10 pages)
Final Research Paper Due: December 17
Length: 3000-5000 words (approx. 10-18 pages)
There will be no final exam. Instead, a final research project will be
required. For most students, this will take the form of a 3000-5000 word (Times
New Roman, 12pt font, double spaced) term paper, due shortly after the last day
of class. If that deadline will not work for you, you need to make other
arrangements one week in advance, at the latest. Films and media projects can
also be used to fulfill this requirement, but must be approved and should
approximate a similar amount of research and work.
Project topics can address any aspect of the topics and materials discussed in class. Projects should include materials beyond what is directly covered in class, as appropriate for your topic. In other words, they should require research. The blog will provide many ideas for projects, as will class discussion.
You will have to write a proposal for your project by the deadline, but you should be thinking about possible topics from the start of the semester. Research proposals should state the question, problem, or phenomenon that will be the focus of your research. It should also state your thesis or position on the issue, as well as outline the argument you will use to support your position. This applies to both papers and media projects. You should also indicate the sources and materials you will consult and utilize in making your argument. For media projects, you should state as clearly as possible what you intend to deliver for the final draft (i.e., video length, style, format, content, etc.).
The first draft of your project is due in November. Like all drafts, this should be treated as if it could be the final draft.It should be a complete term paper or media project. The argument should be fully developed, with appropriate citations, and draw upon your research. You will receive feedback on this proposal to further develop your research into the final project.
Since even the best papers can be expanded and improved, you will get a chance to do this, based on my feedback, for the final. Re-writing, re-editing, and revising are important and necessary skills for improving your work, so we will focus on this when turning the first draft into a final draft. Ideally, some papers might be suitable for submitting to journals for publication by the end.
Papers and written proposals should be submitted to me in electronic form (Word Perfect, MS Word, PDF, HTML and plain TXT are all fine). Late final papers will not be accepted, as I must turn in grades shortly thereafter.
Instead of pursuing an individual research project, you have the option of pursuing a group research project. For the students pursuing this option, the process will be much the same, with the Proposal being an individual statement of what you plan to contribute to the group project, and the Draft and Final projects being collective efforts to realize the research project. In addition, each person choosing this option must submit a 1-page self-assessment of their participation in the group, due at the same time as the Final project.
For the Group Project Option, the topic will be to develop a media stragtegy and/or social media strategy for the International Committee for Robot Arms Control (www.icrac.net). As a co-founder of this organization, I will provide guidance to the group. However, it is largely up to the group to conceive and develop the project. The actual project could range from a high-level media strategy, to a website re-design, to a social media campaign, to an audio/video or digital media project, or any combination of these or other ideas.
All readings will be available electronically, via the web, in PDF, MS Word, HTML, or similar format.
Course Syllabus Overview
Student Introductions
How to create a WordPress Account, and make a Blog Entry
Watch: DocZone, (2011) Remote Control War, CBC, 45 min.
Required:
Recommended:
Watch: Frontline (2010) Digital Nation, Waging War: Immersion Training, PBS, 15 min.
Required:
"Unmanned: A Talk with Molleindustria about the Politics of War Games" Nightmare Mode Blog
Dave Mosher (2011) "Defeated Videogame-Violence Experts: Science Was on Our Side,"Wired Science, June 28, 2011.
Watch: (2011) Game Deaths, YouTube, 3 min.
Recommended:
Listen: Radiolab (2011) Games, WNYC, 78 min.
Society and Space: Forum on Militarism
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Video_game_controversy
Supreme Court Opinion on California Law restriciting youth access to violent video games
Dave Grossman (1995) On Killing, New York, NY: Back Bay Books, pp 1-94.
9pm, Front Room, Public Assembly, 70 North 6th St Brooklyn NY
Between Kent & Wythe - Bedford Avenue L
Required:
Smedly Butler (1921) War is a Racket.
Nick Turse (2009) The Complex: How the Military Invades Our Everyday Lives, Metropolitan Books.
Watch: President Dwight D. Eisenhower (1961) Farwell Speech, 15 min.Watch: Veterans Today (2011) VFW Speech by Smedly Butler, 9 min.
Recommended:
Seymour Melman (1970) Pentagon Capitalism: The Political Economy of War, New York, NY: McGraw Hill, pp. 1-138.
Watch: Eugene Jarecki (2005) Why We Fight, 98 min.
Watch: Robert Greenwald (2006) Iraq for Sale: The War Profiteers, 75 min.
Required:
David Ropeik (2011) "Risk Perception," Nature, SoapboxScience Blog, May 11, 2011.
Recommended:
Watch: Frontline (2011) Top Secret America, PBS, 54 min.
Required:
Christopher Coker (2009) War in an Age of Risk, Cambridge, UK: Polity Press.
Recommended:
Required:
Ciar Byrne, (2003) "War reporting 'changed forever' says BBC," The Gaurdian, March 31, 2003
Donald Matheson and Stuart Allan (2009) Digital War Reporting, Cambridge, UK: Polity Press.
Recommended:
Explore: Witness.org website
Watch: Errol Morris (2008) Standard Operating Procedure, Sony Classics,116 min.
Watch: John Pilger (2010) The War You Don't See, BBC, 120 min.
YouTube link
Required:
Recommended:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Future_Combat_Systems
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Network_Centric_Warfare
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Full-spectrum_dominance
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Global_Information_Grid
Severo Ornstein (1987) "Computers in Battle: A Human Overview," in Computers in Battle: Will They Work? New York, NY: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, pp. 1-43.
David Alberts, John Garstka, and Frederick Stein (1999) Network Centric Warfare: Developing and Leveraging Information Superiority, Second Edition, US Department of Defense: CCRP.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_von_Neumann
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Herman_Kahn
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jay_W._Forrester
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Semi_Automatic_Ground_Environment
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Whirlwind_(computer)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RAND
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mitre_Corporation
Watch: Stanley Kubrick (1964) Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb,95 min.
Required:
Watch: Frontline (2009)Taking out the Taliban: Home for Dinner, PBS, 15 min
Watch: Omer Fast (2011)5,000 Feet is the Best, 30 min. [select from "Online Preview" menu]
Recommended:
Watch: Alex Rivera (2008) Sleep Dealer, Likely Story, 90 min.
Required:
"U.N. warns against extrajudicial killings," UPI, Oct. 21, 2011.
Grégoire Chamayou (2011) "The Manhunt Doctrine," Radical Philosophy, Volume 169, Sep/Oct 2011.
Watch: Frontline (2011) Kill/Capture, PBS, 60 min.
Explore: LivingUnderDrones.org website
Explore: Bureau of Investigative Journalism "Covert War on Terror" website
Recommended:
Explore: New America Foundation (2012) "The Year of the Drone: Analysis of US Drone Strikes in Pakistan"
Christina Bonnington and Spencer Ackerman (2012) "Apple Rejects App That Tracks U.S. Drone Strikes," Wired DangerRoom Blog, August 30, 2012.
Required:
Human Rights Watch (2012) "Losing Humanity: The Case Against Killer Robots," HRW Report, November 19, 2012.
HRW Press release with Video.Wendell Wallach and Colin Allen, "Does Humanity Want Computers Making Moral Decisions" and "Can (Ro)bots Really be Moral?" in Moral Machines: Teaching Robots Right from Wrong. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2009, pp. 57-71.
Recommended:
Sparrow, R. (2007). "Killer Robots," Journal of Applied Philosophy, Vol. 24, No. 1, 62-77.
Required:
Hannah Arendt, (1968) On Violence, New York: Harvest Books.
Huw Lemmey (2012) "Devastation in Meatspace," The New Inquiry, November 28, 2012.
Oliver Woods (2012) "Israel's Social War: Strategy & Tactics," The Big Picture, Nov 18, 2012.
Recommended:
Watch: Frontline (2011) Revolution in Cairo, PBS, 60 min.
Philip N. Howard (2011) "Digital media and the Arab spring," Reuters, February 16, 2011.
Required:
Watch: Fault Lines (2010) Cyberwar, Al Jazeera English, 24 min.
Watch: Democracy Now! (2011) Special: "Conversation w/ Assange & Zizek," 120 min.
Watch: Democracy Now! (2012) "Julian Assange on WikiLeaks,", Nov. 29, 2012, 55 min.
Evgeny Morozov (2011) "Political Repression 2.0," New York Times, September 1, 2011.
Recommended:
Watch: Frontline (2011) WikiSecrets, PBS, 60 min.
Wikipedia, "U.S. Cyber Command"
United States Army Field Manual on Electronic Warfare (2012)
United States Department of Defense, "Cyber Strategy"
Wikipedia, "Anonynous (group)"