Course webpage is here: http://peterasaro.org/courses/2011War.html
Course blog is here: http://digitalwar2011.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.
In the first part of the course we consider the types of narrative roles that robots have occupied, as well as how the concepts of robotics and automation are reflected in the social and cultural contexts in which those media are produced. The second part of the course examines recent developments in robotics as forms of digital media, both continuous with and distinct from other types of digital media. We assess how contemporary debates about the potential uses and social impacts of robotic media intersect with popular narratives about robotics, both pessimistic and optimistic. The class also considers what makes contemporary discourses on robotics unique, and what that might tell us about contemporary society and culture.
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 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.
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 or phone). 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, as well as the entire internet. Any discussions
you would like to keep within the class should take place on the
Blackboard discussion space. 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: October
13
Length: 500-1000 words (approx. 1-2 pages)
Research Paper First Draft Due: November
22
Length: 2000-3000 words (approx. 5-10 pages)
Final Research Paper Due: December 15
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 on 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 October 13, 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 November 22. 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.
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.
All readings will be available electronically, via the web, in PDF, MS Word, HTML, or similar format.
Course Syllabus Overview
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:
Dave Mosher (2011) "Defeated Videogame-Violence Experts: Science Was on Our Side," Wired Science, June 28, 2011.
Dave Grossman and Gloria DeGaetano (1999) Stop Teaching Our Kids to Kill, New York, NY: Crown Publishers, pp. 1-122.
Recommended:
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.
Required:
Recommended:
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:
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:
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.
Recommended:
New America Foundation, (2011) "The Year of the Drone: Analysis of US Drone Strikes in Pakistan"
Required:
Recommended:
Sparrow, R. (2007). "Killer Robots," Journal of Applied Philosophy, Vol. 24, No. 1, 62-77.
Required:
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.
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 Department of Defense, "Cyber Strategy"
Wikipedia, "Anonynous (group)"