The Shield of Achilles and the War on Terror : Ekphrasis As Critique

Total Page:16

File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb

The Shield of Achilles and the War on Terror : Ekphrasis As Critique University of Massachusetts Amherst ScholarWorks@UMass Amherst Doctoral Dissertations 1896 - February 2014 1-1-2006 The shield of Achilles and the war on terror : Ekphrasis as critique. Christopher D. Erickson University of Massachusetts Amherst Follow this and additional works at: https://scholarworks.umass.edu/dissertations_1 Recommended Citation Erickson, Christopher D., "The shield of Achilles and the war on terror : Ekphrasis as critique." (2006). Doctoral Dissertations 1896 - February 2014. 2409. https://scholarworks.umass.edu/dissertations_1/2409 This Open Access Dissertation is brought to you for free and open access by ScholarWorks@UMass Amherst. It has been accepted for inclusion in Doctoral Dissertations 1896 - February 2014 by an authorized administrator of ScholarWorks@UMass Amherst. For more information, please contact [email protected]. University of Massachusetts Amherst L I B R R This is an authorized facsimile, made from the microfilm master copy of the original dissertation or master thesis published by UMI. The bibliographic information for this thesis is contained in UMl's Dissertation Abstracts database, the only central source for accessing almost every doctoral dissertation accepted in North America since 1861. T T\/TT Dissertation Services FromiPro^vuest COMPANY 300 North Zeeb Road P.O. Box 1346 Ann Arbor, Michigan 48106-1346 USA 800.521.0600 734.761.4700 web www.il.proquest.com Printed in 2006 by digital xerographic process on acid-tree paper THE SHIELD OF ACHILLES AND THE WAR ON TERROR: EKPHRASIS AS CRITIQUE A Dissertation Presented by CHRISTOPHER D. ERICKSON Submitted to the Graduate School of the University of Massachusetts Amherst in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY May 2006 Department of Political Science UMI Number: 3215770 Copyright 2006 by Erickson, Christopher D. All rights reserved. UMI<g) UMI Microform 3215770 Copyright 2006 by ProQuest Information and Learning Company. All rights reserved. This microform edition is protected against unauthorized copying under Title 17, United States Code. ProQuest Information and Learning Company 300 North Zeeb Road P.O. Box 1346 Ann Arbor, Ml 48106-1346 © Copyright by Christopher D. Erickson 2006 All Rights Reserved THE SHIELD OF ACHILLES AND THE WAR ON TERROR: EKPHRASIS AS CRITIQUE A Dissertation Presented by CHRISTOPHER D. ERICKSON Approved as to style and content by: James Der Derian, Chair Roberto Alejandro, Member Briankle Chang, Member George Sulzner, Department Head Department of Political Science THE SHIELD OF ACHILLES AND THE WAR ON TERROR: EKPHRASIS AS CRITIQUE A Dissertation Presented by CHRISTOPHER D. ERICKSON Approved as to style and content by; Briankle Chang, Member Department of Political Science DEDICATION For Cindy, Kieren, and Aidan. ACKNOWLEDGMENTS of guidance of a number of individuals in a variety This project has benefited from the Briankle Chang to my committee members. settings. Thanks must first be extended area of semiotics and his unwaveringly provided assistance with his expertise in the of assistance with Plato, Homer and positive approach. Roberto Alejandro was reference to which my arguments Nietzsche, often providing a useful counterpoint in the role of representation and could be better refined. James Der Derian’s expertise in invaluable. Their respective areas of simulation in international politics was absolutely formulated herein. 1 was expertise complimented and strengthened the arguments thorugh lively discussions fortunate enough to have gained valuable feedback conference occasioned by my presentation of the second chapter of the dissertaion at a and at the New on Terrorism. Democray and Empire at Carelton University in Ottawa, Special thanks is England Political Science Association’s annual conference in Boston. gave also due to Dennis Kabush who served as an unofficial outside reader, and who outstanding intellectual and moral support. Of course, this project would not have been forbearance) possible were it not for the patience, encouragement, companionship (and of my wife, Cindy. V ABSTRACT THE SHIELD OF ACHILLES AND THE WAR ON TERROR: EKPHRASIS AS CRITIQUE MAY 2006 CHRISTOPHER D. ERICKSON, B.A., UNIVERSITY OF BRITISH COLUMBIA M.A., BOND UNIVERSITY Ph.D., UNIVERSITY OF MASSACHUSETTS AMFCERST Directed by: Professor James Der Derian This dissertation is guided by two central questions. The first question is “Is the War on Terror inevitable?” By comparing the language used by President Bush in a speech given on September 20, 2001 to the language used by Homer in the Iliad, particularly his depiction of the shield of Achilles in Book 18, the War on Terror can be recast against a backdrop of mythology rather than fact. It is a tale we tell ourselves about the world, and its status as inevitable is far less convincing. The second guiding question is “How is the appearance of inevitability to be mitigated or resisted?” The second stage of the dissertation addresses the concept of mimesis (representation) as it appears in Plato’s Republic and in the work of Baudrillard. as means by which to resist the power of the shield. As critical tools, mimesis and simulacra extend the promise of critical distance, thereby allowing the "thus it is” claim to be understood as an illusion. However, mimesis and simulacra tend to maintain an underlying "thus it is” of their own. The thirds stage of the argument will challenge the '"thus it is” through a discussion of Odysseus and Nietzsche, both of whom teach that life is poiesis. The final stage will turn to the concept of ekphrasis, the verbal representation of a non-verbal representation, in order to develop it as a tool useful for critical theorists. Ekphrasis has VI power of mimetic representation and disrupting the advantage of both recognizing the 2001 conclude with an ekphrastic reading of the September 20, it. The dissertation will speech. 1 TABLE OF CONTENTS Page ACKNOWLEDGMENTS v I. INTRODUCTION 1 II. THE GOD OF FIRE’S GIFT; THE SHIELD OF ACHILLES AND THE WAR ON TERROR 21 The 30 Second Iliad 23 The Shield of Achilles 24 The Arms of Agamemnon 26 Beauty, Hope and Fear 3 Sarpedon’s Body 36 The Shield of George W. Bush 40 Achilles and Priam: Setting aside the Shield 52 III. MIMESIS AS RESISTANCE: PLATO AND BAUDRILLARD ON THE SHORES OF ETHIOPIA 61 Plato 63 Shields and Rings: Plato Against the Poets 63 Plato As A Poet 79 Plato As A Bearer of the Shield 85 From Cratylus to Baudrillard 92 Baudrillard 94 The Shield as Simulacrum 94 The Spirit of Terrorism 105 “Hyperrealist Abjection” or The Shield of Baudrillard 112 Perseus, Plato, Baudrillard 1 16 IV. AFTER ACHILLES 119 Warnings Unheeded 120 Ajax 121 Neoptolemus 124 viii 134 Odysseus: Artfulness Above All Else 140 The Homeric Question 150 Nietzsche's Language 158 V. EKPHRASIS AS CRITIQUE 160 From Perseus to Paris 162 Krieger: The Still Mo(ve)ment of Ekphrasis 167 Mitchell: Ekphrastic Hope 172 Becker: Breaking the Illusion 179 "This is [Something Like] Civilzation’s Fight:” 179 The Shield of George W. Bush. Revisited APPENDICES 202 A. PRESIDENT BUSH’S ADDRESS TO A JOINT SESSION OF CONGRESS 210 B. THE SHIELD OF ACHILLES 214 C. THE SHIELD OF AGAMEMNON BIBLIOGRAPHY 215 CHAPTER I INTRODUCTION On September 1 1, 2001 two hijacked airliners loaded with fuel slammed into the twin towers of the World Trade Centre. Another hit the Pentagon and a fourth crashed in a field in rural Pennsylvania. On September 20, 2001, President George W. Bush stood before a joint session of Congress and pronounced a War on Terror. His insistence that “either you are with us or you are with the terrorists”' was one of the opening salvos in a rhetorical bombardment that has worked to confirm the presence of what Samuel Huntington has famously dubbed a “clash of civilizations.” This Huntingtonian theory has deeply influenced those in the Bush Administration and the neoconservative agenda it pursues. In the words of Emran Qureshi, the premise of this theory is that such a clash is not the product of particular historical circumstances that can change but that the essence of Islam as a religion is antipathetic to the fundamental core values of the West; that Islam is inherently violent in nature; and that, therefore, violent acts against the West are inevitable and are provoked not by any particular grievances or set of circumstances but by the very existence of Western civilization.^ ' George W Bush, Address to a Joint Session of Congress and the American People, 20 September, 2001 (2001 [cited December 15 2004]); available from http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2001/09/print/20010920-8.htm., 30. The full text of the speech is given in Appendix A. All further references will be to paragraph number. ^ Samuel P. Huntington, "The Clash of Civilizations," Foreign Affairs 72, no. 3 (1993). ^ Emran Qureshi and Martin A. Sells, "Introduction," in The NeM' Crusades: Constructing the Muslim Enemy, ed. Emran Qureshi and Martin A. Sells (New York: Columbia University Press, 2003), p.2. Qureshi is less than charitable in his reading 1 first question is “Is the This dissertation is guided by two central questions. The it been presented as such."^ War on Terror inevitable?’" There can be little doubt that has the warring parties Even a passing familiarity with the rhetorical pronouncements of looking more makes this abundantly clear. An answer to this question will begin by follow will show that closely at the speech of September 20, 2001. The argument to to the despite claims to the contrary, the War on Ten'or is not inevitable. This leads and his interpretation does overstate Huntington's position. In the 1993 article, Huntington says: differences among civilizations are not only real; they are basic. Civilizations are differentiated Ifom each other by history, language, culture, tradition and, most important, religion. The people of different civilizations have different views on the relations between God and man, the individual and the group, the citizen and the state, parents and children, husband and wife, as well as differing views of the relative importance of rights and responsibilities, liberty and authority, equality and hierarchy.
Recommended publications
  • Px Hawkish Hack.Qxp 06/12/2006 15:54 Page 1
    px hawkish hack cover (HDS).qxp 07/12/2006 20:25 Page 1 think tank of the year Much of the discourse on the war on terror sacrifices historical 2006/2007 perspective for an often partisan focus on the day-by-day flow of events. Confessions of a Hawkish Hack: The Media and the War on Terror is Matthew d’Ancona’s critique of such short-termism. In it, he outlines his own interpretation of the attacks of 9/11 and the media’s coverage of events since then. Above all, he urges the West to show greater patience and stamina in a conflict that is likely to last for decades and may never have a clear end point. Thus far our biggest deficit in waging war on terror has been a lack of ideas—the“ kind of reshaping ideas that Viner, Brodie, Schelling, and others developed to cope with the emergence of the nuclear threat during the Cold War. In this remarkable essay, Matthew d’Ancona undertakes precisely this groundbreaking effort, focusing on the fraught relationship between the media and the wars on terror. It is a triumph.” Philip Bobbitt, author of The Shield of Achilles Matthew d'Ancona blends the slow, medium and fast pulses of history in a“ way that truly illuminates the bundle of problems facing open societies confronting international terrorism of a kind and on a scale none of them have experienced before. Would that more journalists had the intellectual Confessions of a and verbal horsepower evident in this immensely thoughtful piece.” Peter Hennessy, Attlee Professor of Contemporary British History, Queen Mary, University of London Hawkish
    [Show full text]
  • Counsel to the President: a Guide to Its Records at the Jimmy Carter Library
    441 Freedom Parkway NE Atlanta, GA 30307 http://www.jimmycarterlibrary.gov Records of the White House Office of Counsel to the President: A Guide to Its Records at the Jimmy Carter Library Collection Summary Creator: Office of Counsel to the President Title: Records of the White House Office of Counsel to the President Dates: 1977-1981 Quantity: 400 linear feet (118 linear feet, 7 linear inches open for research), 462 containers Identification: Accession Number: 80-1 National Archives Identifier: 1083 Scope and Content: The files consist of correspondence, memoranda, notes, briefing papers, legal documents, and miscellaneous printed material. These materials relate to information regarding all official White House legal issues including domestic matters and foreign policy treaties. The files also consist of legal advice given to the president on personal and political situations. Creator Information: Office of Counsel to the President The purpose of the White House Office of Counsel to the President was to provide legal advice to the President and the White House staff. It also acted as liaison to the Department of Justice and to the legal counsels of various government agencies. It dealt with ethical matters, conflicts of interest, and security clearances concerning Presidential appointees and White House staff. It provided legal advice on the President's official and personal legal affairs, legislation, and Supreme Court cases. It also was involved in the coordination of appointments to the1 federal judiciary. The Counsel's Office staff is comprised of lawyers plus clerical and administrative personnel. Detailees, consultants, and interns increased the size of the office to varying levels throughout the administration.
    [Show full text]
  • Philip Bobbitt, Terror and Consent. the Wars for the Twenty-First Century
    Philip Bobbitt, Terror and Consent. The Wars for the Twenty-First Century (Allen Lane, London, 2008) x + 548pp + 3 (acknowledgements) + 1 (poem) + 93 (end-notes) + 15 (bibliography) + 10 (index) £25 This book has taken five years to write. Its author Philip Bobbit has been in an out of federal government since the time of Lyndon Johnson though to judge from the jacket photo it must have been as a precocious juvenile that he was helping that wily old Texan. The vast range of friends and experts – many famous – who are acknowledged as having read a bit here, proposed a change there or thrown in their own point of view suggest an author as abundant in his social intercourse as he is with his words and his ideas: if the back cover is to be believed, both Henry Kissinger and Tony Blair have actually read this book – all 548 pages of it – in proof form. (One maybe, but both?) No fewer than ten of ‘a series of remarkable research assistants’ are signalled out for special praise. This is industrial scholarship on a vast scale, the author not some lonely scholar tucked away in bibliophiliac isolation but rather a celebrity conductor of an orchestra of talents, the greatest of which here is, it has to be said, his own. While Wagnerian in its ambitions, requiring the reader to re-enter a Bobbit- world already created in an earlier blockbuster (The Shield of Achilles) and taking so long to read you could fit in the Ring Cycle and still have time to skim the concluding chapters, the book is worth the effort: it is always well-written, consistently provocative and intelligent on a grand scale.
    [Show full text]
  • The New Leviathan
    Michigan Law Review Volume 101 Issue 6 2003 The New Leviathan Dennis Patterson Rutgers University Follow this and additional works at: https://repository.law.umich.edu/mlr Part of the Human Rights Law Commons, International Law Commons, Law and Economics Commons, Law and Philosophy Commons, and the Military, War, and Peace Commons Recommended Citation Dennis Patterson, The New Leviathan, 101 MICH. L. REV. 1715 (2003). Available at: https://repository.law.umich.edu/mlr/vol101/iss6/15 This Review is brought to you for free and open access by the Michigan Law Review at University of Michigan Law School Scholarship Repository. It has been accepted for inclusion in Michigan Law Review by an authorized editor of University of Michigan Law School Scholarship Repository. For more information, please contact [email protected]. THE NEW LEVIATHAN Dennis Patterson* THE SHIELD OF ACHILLES: WAR, PEACE, AND THE COURSE OF HISTORY. By Philip Bobbitt. New York: Knopf. 2002. Pp. xxxii, 919. $40.00. Good is an empty space into which human choice may move. - Iris Murdoch1 Reputation in any field is an elusive phenomenon: part notoriety, part honor, part fame, part critical assessment.2 Even in legal scholar­ ship it has an uneven, unpredictable quality. It is hard to imagine a book by a law professor that has had more immediate impact on world leaders than Philip Bobbitt's The Shield of Achilles.3 Much of the national-security strategy devised by the U.S. administration after the September 11 attacks expresses ideas Bobbitt conceived long before;4 * Distinguished Professor, School of Law (Camden) and Department of Philosophy (New Brunswick), Rutgers University; Visiting Fellow (2002-03), Department of Politics (Madison Program), Princeton University.
    [Show full text]
  • The Shield of Achilles and the War on Terror : Ekphrasis As Critique
    University of Massachusetts Amherst ScholarWorks@UMass Amherst Doctoral Dissertations 1896 - February 2014 1-1-2006 The shield of Achilles and the war on terror : Ekphrasis as critique. Christopher D. Erickson University of Massachusetts Amherst Follow this and additional works at: https://scholarworks.umass.edu/dissertations_1 Recommended Citation Erickson, Christopher D., "The shield of Achilles and the war on terror : Ekphrasis as critique." (2006). Doctoral Dissertations 1896 - February 2014. 2409. https://scholarworks.umass.edu/dissertations_1/2409 This Open Access Dissertation is brought to you for free and open access by ScholarWorks@UMass Amherst. It has been accepted for inclusion in Doctoral Dissertations 1896 - February 2014 by an authorized administrator of ScholarWorks@UMass Amherst. For more information, please contact [email protected]. University of Massachusetts Amherst L I B R R This is an authorized facsimile, made from the microfilm master copy of the original dissertation or master thesis published by UMI. The bibliographic information for this thesis is contained in UMl's Dissertation Abstracts database, the only central source for accessing almost every doctoral dissertation accepted in North America since 1861. T T\/TT Dissertation Services FromiPro^vuest COMPANY 300 North Zeeb Road P.O. Box 1346 Ann Arbor, Michigan 48106-1346 USA 800.521.0600 734.761.4700 web www.il.proquest.com Printed in 2006 by digital xerographic process on acid-tree paper THE SHIELD OF ACHILLES AND THE WAR ON TERROR: EKPHRASIS AS CRITIQUE A Dissertation Presented by CHRISTOPHER D. ERICKSON Submitted to the Graduate School of the University of Massachusetts Amherst in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY May 2006 Department of Political Science UMI Number: 3215770 Copyright 2006 by Erickson, Christopher D.
    [Show full text]
  • Sovereignty, National Security, and Internet Governance Proceedings of a Workshop
    SOVEREIGNTY, NATIONAL SECURITY, AND INTERNET GOVERNANCE PROCEEDINGS OF A WOR KSHOP Organized by Milton L Mueller, Syracuse University School of Information Studies, and Hans Klein, Georgia Institute of Technology School of Public Policy, December 12, 2014 The Internet Governance Project http://internetgovernance.org Table of Contents Contents Rationale for the workshop _____________________________________________________ 1 Workshop participants _________________________________________________________ 2 Session 1: Challenges to forms of the state ________________________________________ 3 Session 2: The case of Internet governance _______________________________________ 8 Session 3: The case of surveillance _____________________________________________ 14 Session 4: Possible new forms of the state _______________________________________ 19 Books and articles referenced _________________________________________________ 23 Pg. 01 Rationale for the workshop Rationale for the workshop Is cyberspace The workshop, held December 12, 2014 at Syracuse University’s Lubin House, focused on the changing the changing nature of the state and sovereignty. Informed and in many ways inspired by the work nature of the of Philip Bobbitt (2002, 2006) it brought together scholars of political science, international law, state? national security, and Internet governance to explore the question whether cyberspace is changing the nature of the state. Theories of state sovereignty build on two fundamental distinctions: the distinction between internal and external
    [Show full text]
  • Programs & Exhibitions
    PROGRAMS & EXHIBITIONS Fall 2019/Winter 2020 To purchase tickets by phone call (212) 485-9268 letter | exhibitions | calendar | programs | family | membership | general information Listen, my children, and you shall hear Of the midnight ride of Paul Revere Dear Friends, Who among us has not been enthralled by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow’s description of Revolutionary War hero Paul Revere’s famous ride? This fall, New-York Historical reveals the true story Buck Ennis, Crain’s New York Business of the patriot, silversmith, and entrepreneur immortalized in the Longfellow poem in a brand new, family-friendly exhibition organized by the American Antiquarian Society. It’s a great opportunity for multi-generational visitors, but interesting, intriguing, and provocative for anyone interested in history and art—which surely includes you! Related programming featuring New-York Historical Trustee Annette Gordon- Reed and distinguished constitutional scholar Philip Bobbitt is on offer through our Bernard and Irene Schwartz Distinguished Speakers Series. Less well-known is the story of Mark Twain and the Holy Land, told in a new exhibition on view this season in our Pam and Scott Schafler Gallery. Jonathan Sarna and Gil Troy reflect on the topic in what is sure to be a fascinating Schwartz Series program presented in partnership with the Shapell Manuscript Foundation. Other Schwartz Series programs include “An Evening with Neal Katyal” moderated by New-York Historical Trustee Akhil Reed Amar; “Talking to Strangers: What We Should Know about the People We Don’t Know” featuring Malcolm Gladwell in conversation with Adam Gopnik; and “An Evening with George Will: The Conservative Sensibility” moderated by Richard Brookhiser.
    [Show full text]
  • Creating a 21 Century Diplomacy MSFS 717-01 Working Document
    Creating a 21st Century Diplomacy MSFS 717-01 Working Document This version as of December 8, 2015 Course Texts: There are 9 required books for this course. They are available online: Surprise, Security and the American Experience. John Lewis Gaddis. Harvard University Press. 2004 Collapse. Jared Diamond. Penguin Books. 2005 The Utility of Force. General Rupert Smith. Vintage Books. 2007 The Return of History and the End of Dreams. Robert Kagan. Random House. 2008 Terror and Consent. Phillip Bobbitt. Alfred Knopf. 2008 War of Necessity, War of Choice. Richard Haass. Simon and Schuster. 2009 The Revenge of Geography. Robert D. Kaplan. Random House. 2012. Real Time Diplomacy. Philip Seib. Palgrave MacMillan. 2012. What Good is Grand Strategy? Hal Brands. Cornell University Press. 2014. World Order. Henry Kissinger. Penguin Press. 2014. Additional reading consists of book chapters, speeches, articles in journals and other periodicals. When possible, links are included on the syllabus. All other readings will be available at Library E-Reserve. Convergence (for week 7) and The Economist’s Special Report on Colombia (for week 12) will be provided at the second meeting of the class. A paper or on-line subscription for Foreign Affairs, The New York Times, The Economist and The Wall Street Journal will be helpful. Most have student discounts or can be accessed through the Georgetown Library. Grading and Requirements: Participation: Students are required to attend class, arriving on time. Class participation will be 20% of the final grade.
    [Show full text]
  • A Larger War on Terror?
    Georgetown University Law Center Scholarship @ GEORGETOWN LAW 2008 A Larger War on Terror? David Cole Georgetown University Law Center This paper can be downloaded free of charge from: https://scholarship.law.georgetown.edu/facpub/6 The New York Review of Books, December 4, 2008, at 15 This open-access article is brought to you by the Georgetown Law Library. Posted with permission of the author. Follow this and additional works at: https://scholarship.law.georgetown.edu/facpub Part of the Criminal Law Commons, and the International Law Commons GEORGETOWN LAW Faculty Publications October 2009 A Larger War on Terror? The New York Review of Books, December 4, 2008, at 15. David Cole Professor of Law Georgetown University Law Center [email protected] This paper can be downloaded without charge from: Scholarly Commons: http://scholarship.law.georgetown.edu/facpub/6/ Posted with permission of the author A Larger War on Terror? - The New York Review of Books VOLUME 55, NUMBER 19 · DECEMBER 4, 2008 A Larger War on Terror? By David Cole Terror and Consent: The Wars for the Twenty-first Century by Philip Bobbitt Knopf, 672 pp., $35.00 The United States of America is fighting a war against terrorists of global reach. The enemy is not a single political regime or person or religion or ideology. The enemy is terrorism —premeditated, politically motivated violence perpetrated against innocents. —The National Security Strategy of the United States, September 2002 1. When historians reflect on the Bush administration's legacy, the "war on terror" will almost certainly be its most important feature.
    [Show full text]
  • Diplomacy, Alliances and War: Anglo-American Perspectives on History and Strategy in the September 11Th Era
    Diplomacy, Alliances and War: Anglo-American Perspectives on History and Strategy in the September 11th Era A Joint University of Texas-Austin and King’s College London Conference Panel 1: Historical Memories Panelists: Philip Bobbitt, Philip Zelikow Discussants: Colin Kahl, Timothy Lynch Moderator: Francis Gavin November 1, 2013 | 8:15 AM – 10:15 AM The University of Texas at Austin Diplomacy, Alliances and War: Anglo-American Perspectives on History and Strategy in the September 11th Era A Joint University of Texas-Austin and King’s College London Conference Panel 1: Historical Memories Panelists: Philip Bobbitt, Philip Zelikow Discussants: Colin Kahl, Timothy Lynch Moderator: Francis Gavin 11-01-13 | 8:15 AM – 10:15 AM [Note to Reader: When possible, speakers are identified by first name. If not, then Respondent is used for panelists and discussants, and Audience is used for attendees.] [Begin File: Panel 1a.mp3] William: All right. Good morning, everybody. [Inaudible 0:00:04] attention. Most of you know me. I’m Will Inboden, the executive director of the Clements Center. It is a pleasure to have all of you here for what is really our first big conference as the Clements Center for History, Strategy, & Statecraft. Just a couple of introductory words before we dive in — first, I want to give a strong thanks to our co-sponsor — actually, our true institutional partner, the War Studies Department of King’s College London. You heard from Professor Mike Rainsborough last night. We hear from John Bew later today. But this conference that happened to be taking place physically here in Austin really is a truly collaborative effort of the University of Texas and King’s College.
    [Show full text]
  • Machiavelli, Kissinger and Realism in 21St Century International Relations
    Machiavelli, Kissinger and realism in 21st century international relations There is a well-known maxim in diplomacy that countries do not have friends, just interests. The conduct of international relations when all states are simply pursuing their own self- interest can seem chaotic, fraught with danger, and quite often arbitrary; where the strongest prevail over the weakest. All states have to balance between the competing forces of idealism and realism. Whilst realism was for some time out of fashion, it is now making a comeback due to the increasing volatility in the international system. Both idealism and realism need, however, to be kept within bounds, and this is best done through a multilateral approach and a rules-based international system. When discussing realism in diplomacy, the names of two men come to mind. They lived centuries apart from each other, but their ideas are often linked – Nicolo Machiavelli, advisor to the leaders of city-state of Florence at the end of the fifteenth century, and Henry Kissinger, US academic and diplomat who served as Richard Nixon’s Secretary of State and National Security Advisor towards the end of the 20th century. Both are credited by some, damned by others, for justifying the excesses of their leaders, and propagating a realist policy that put exigency before moral idealist considerations. Machiavelli, whether or not you agree with him, is considered an intellectual giant. Kissinger cannot be put in the same category, but the fact that he led the diplomacy of a modern superpower at a turbulent time in history, makes his thinking highly relevant for current circumstances.
    [Show full text]
  • Programs & Exhibitions
    PROGRAMS & EXHIBITIONS Winter/Spring 2016 To purchase tickets by phone call (212) 485-9268 letter | exhibitions | calendar | programs | family | membership | general information Elie Nadelman (1882–1946), Piano Player (Pianiste), ca. 1921 (plaster ca. 1919). Wood, paint, gesso, metal, 36 1/2 x 22 x 11 3/4 in. Harvard Art Museums/Fogg Museum, Imaging Department, photo © President and Fellows of Harvard College Dear Members & Friends, I recently had occasion to reread a charming history of our institution, written in 1954 in celebration of New-York Historical’s 150th anniversary. The history introduces an imaginary, prophetic rooster “Chanticler,” who foresees a whole new generation of pioneers in our city— “trail-blazers in the realm of scientific discovery and invention [who] will continue the traditions which have made ours the greatest nation in the world.” Walking through the galleries of Silicon City: Computer History Made in New York, on view through April 17 in our Robert H. and Clarice Smith Galleries, it would be difficult not to give credit to Chanticler for correctly predicting the future. This eye-opening exhibition shows how, long before Silicon Valley became synonymous with all things digital, New York was a hub for imagining, developing, and selling the technology that ultimately reshaped our entertainment, as well as commerce and daily life. To complement Silicon City and other special New-York Historical exhibitions and themes is a brand-new public programs series, History with David M. Rubenstein, featuring conversations between distinguished philanthropist David Rubenstein and historians and writers such as Walter Isaacson and Cokie Roberts, both scheduled for this spring.
    [Show full text]