GLOBAL SECURITY, GLOBAL MEDIA, INFOTERROR AND A CULTURE OF WAR
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James Der Derian at UiT
In a joint effort, the Centre for Peace Studies, the Department of Political Science and the Institute for Culture and Literature are hosting a visit by James Der Derian to UiT. We invite all researchers, faculty staff and MA-students to a one-day seminar at SVFAK/HUM/UiT on global media and their implications for global security and the war on terror - Thursday March 13th.
Programme Thursday March 13th:
1015-1200: Session 1 (E-0101) 'Beyond Terror: Creating a Global Security Agenda for the 21st Century'
After 9/11, how do we move beyond the preoccupation with terrorism and promote public awareness and multilateral responses to new global threats and vulnerabilities? One response is the Global Security Matrix, which has become internationally recognized as a premier analytical and educational tool for understanding all aspects of global security.
1400-1545: Session 2 (E-0101) 'Global Media, Infoterror and the Culture of War'
From the 'CNN-effect' to the 'YouTube-effect', and as the production of terror becomes inextricable from the consumption of information, global media has become not only the transmitter but the trigger of international crises.
1615-1730: Session 3 (E-0101) Screening: 'Culture of War'- Rough Cut
From knowledge of the other to human terrain analysis - how is science implicated in the war on terror? What is the role of Social Sciences and Humanities scholars in preparations for, and executions of, military campaigns? Preview of parts of the yet unfinished documentary ‘Culture of War’ produced and written by James Der Derian, Michael Udris and David Udris.
About James Der Derian:
James Der Derian is professor of international studies at Watson Institute for International Studies. In July 2004, he became the director of the Institute's Global Security Program. Der Derian also directs the Information Technology, War, and Peace Project in the Watson Institute's Global Security Program.
Der Derian was a Rhodes Scholar at Oxford University, where he completed a M.Phil. and D.Phil. in international relations. He has been a visiting scholar at the University of Southern California, MIT, Harvard, Oxford, and the Institute for Advanced Study at Princeton.
He is author of On Diplomacy: A Genealogy of Western Estrangement (1987) and Antidiplomacy: Spies, Terror, Speed, and War (1992); editor of International Theory: Critical Investigations (1995) and The Virilio Reader (1998); and co-editor with Michael Shapiro of International/Intertextual Relations: Postmodern Readings of World Politics (1989). His most recent book is Virtuous War: Mapping the Military-Industrial-Media-Entertainment Network (2001).
James Der Derian is a distinguished scholar of International Relations Theory and has published widely in the field. His previous research focused on the role new technologies play for the planning, execution, and representation of war and warfare. He is an expert on thinkers such as Paul Virilio, Walter Benjamin, or Jean Baudrillard and has opened the field of International Relations Theory for post-structuralist approaches.
James Der Derian focuses on the impact global media and new technologies have on our perception of, and conduct in, wars. He coined the term MIME-net: Military-Industrial-Media-Entertainment network - an unprecedented cooperation between the military-industrial complex president Eisenhower warned against already in 1961, and media and entertainment industries - which serve to shape an all encompassing system for the representation, legitimization, and execution of virtuous wars. To direct focus on these logistics of perception, which “effectively clean up the discourse as well as the battlefield” is of significance for political science, documentation science, and peace and conflict research.
Der Derian is currently working on the role of global media in creating a new global security agenda, and on the “Culture of War”-project, which addresses the US military's effort and means to enlist social scientists in the war against terrorism and the Iraq war. He will give two talks addressing his current research on Thursday March 13th. In addition, we will be able to screen parts of a rough cut of his latest documentary (co-produced with Michael and David Udris).