Readings

Ses # Topics readings

Lec 1

Introduction

Talbot, David. "How Tech Failed in Iraq." MIT Technology Review.

Lab 1

Doctor Strangelove

Screening: Kubrick, Stanley. Doctor Strangelove.

Lec 2

Fictions of War, Philosophy of War, History of War

Buy at Amazon Orwell, George. 1984. Book One. New York, NY: Signet Classic, pp. 1-104. ISBN: 9780451524935. (Required Book)

Tzu, Sun. Art of War. Translated by Lionel Giles. Sections I-VIII, The Internet Classics Archive.

Thucydides. "Outbreak of War." In History of the Peloponnesian War. Penguin Classics. Book II, pp. 124-193.

Buy at Amazon Van Creveld, Martin. Technology and War: From 2000 B.C. to the Present. New York, NY: Free Press, 1989, Chapters 1-3 (pp. 9-50), chapter 5 (pp. 67-78). ISBN: 9780029331514.

Lab 2

Ran

Air Force

Screening: Kurosawa. Ran. 1985.

Hawks. Air Force. 1943.

Lec 3

WWII: Code Wars

Buy at Amazon Stephenson, Neal. Cryptonomicon. New York, NY: Avon, 2002, pp. 77-92, 143-183, 215-294, 315-364. ISBN: 9780060512804.

Buy at Amazon Singh, Simon. The Code Book: The Science of Secrecy from Ancient Egypt to Quantum Cryptography. New York, NY: Doubleday, 1999, Chapters 3-6 (pp. 101-292). ISBN: 9780385495318.

Buy at Amazon Van Creveld, Martin. Technology and War: From 2000 B.C. to the Present. New York, NY: Free Press, 1989, Chapters 16-18 (pp. 235-283).. ISBN: 9780029331514.

Hardt, Michael, and Antonio Negri. Multitude. New York, NY: The Penguin Press, pp. 12-62, notes: pp. 361-369.

Lab 3

Akira

Screening: Katsuhiro 'tomo. Akira.

Arquilla, John, and David Ronfeldt. "Cyberwar is Coming!" pp. 24-50.

Weiguang, Shen. "Information War - A New Challenge." pp. 84-95.

Kittler, Friedrich. "On the History of the Theory of Information Warfare." pp. 266-272.

From: Infowar, Ars Electronica Center (Springer Wien/New York).

Lab 4

Rumsfeld's War

Screening: Frontline: Rumsfeld's War. PBS, 2004.

Lec 5

The New War Machines

Guest Speaker: Owen Cote, Associate Director of Security Studies at MIT

Cote, Owen. "The New War Machines." MIT Technology Review (March 21, 2003).

Lab 5

Eternal War Research Topics: Discussion of Final Papers and Projects

Control Room

Screening: Noujaim, Jehane. Control Room. 2004.

Lec 6

History of War Technologies/War Games

Buy at Amazon DeLanda, Manuel. War in the Age of Intelligent Machines. New York, NY: Zone Books. ISBN: 9780942299755. (Required Book)

Buy at Amazon Van Creveld, Martin. Technology and War: From 2000 B.C. to the Present. New York, NY: Free Press, 1989, Chapters 1-3 (pp. 9-50), chapter 5 (pp. 67-78), chapters 12-13 (pp. 167-199). ISBN: 9780029331514.

Lab 6

War Games

 

Screening: Badham, John. War Games.

Secrets of War: Spy Games of World War II. 1998.

America's Army (Web Game)

Patriot Act (Web)

War Against Terror (Web)

Interview Hyperlink: Democracy Now. Thursday, February 12, 2004.

Lec 7

First-Person Shooters

Haldeman, Joe. The Forever War. Eos.

Buy at Amazon Herr, Michael. "Hell Sucks." In Dispatches. Reprint edition. New York, NY: Avon, 1978, pp. 70-85. ISBN: 9780380019762.

Buy at Amazon Tesanovic, Jasmina. The Diary of a Political Idiot: Normal Life in Belgrade. San Francisco, CA: Cleis Press, 2000, pp. 71-112. ISBN: 9781573441148.

Buy at Amazon Wright, Evan. Generation Kill: Devil Dogs, Iceman, Captain America, and the New Face of American War. New York, NY: Putnam, 2004, Chapters 7-11, pp. 71-123. ISBN: 9780399151934.

Lab 7

 The Fog of War

Screening: Morris, Erol. The Fog of War.

Lec 8

Virtuous War

Guest Speaker: James der Derian

Buy at Amazon der Derian, James. Virtuous War: Mapping the Military-Industiral-Media-Entertainment Network. Boulder, CO: Westview Press, 2001, pp. 22-249. ISBN: 9780813397948.

Silberman, Steve. "The War Room." Wired (September 2004): 150-155, 171-173.

Virilio, Paul, and Sylvere Lotringer. Pure War. Semiotext(e) Foreign Agent Series. Chapters 1-3, pp. 9-36.

Lab 8

Virtual War

After 9/11

Wag the Dog

Levinson, Barry. Wag the Dog.

Screening: der Derian. After 9/11.

Lec 9

Man Machines: Race and War

Guest Speakers: Director Reggie Hudlin and Comic Artist Kyle Baker, Birth of a Nation Comic Book Project

Truth Series. Marvel Comics.

Adas, Michael. Machines as the Measure of Men. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, pp. 343-401.

Buy at Amazon Diamond, Jared. Guns, Germs, and Steel. New York, NY: Norton, 1999, chapter 13, pp. 239-264. ISBN: 9780393317558.

Lab 9

Birth of a Nation and Hearts of the World

Screening: Griffith, D. W. Birth of a Nation and Hearts of the World. 1918.

Lec 10

21 Century War: The War in Iraq and the Branding of Terrorism

Sante, Luc. "Tourists and Torturers." New York Times, May 11, 2004.

Hiro, Dilip. War Without End: The Rise of Islamist Terrorism and the Global Response. New York, NY: Routledge.

"The Rise of Islam," pp. 3-24.

"Islamist Terrorism and Global Response." pp. 267-434.

Agamben, Giorgio. "We Refugees."

Buy at Amazon Black, Edwin. Banking on Baghdad: Inside Iraq's 7,000-Year History of War, Profit, and Conflict. New York, NY: John Wiley & Sons, 2004, chapters 13-17, pp. 211-352. ISBN: 9780471671862.

Van Creveld, Martin. Technology and War: From 2000 B.C. to the Present. Chapters 19-Conclusion, pp. 285-320.

Michael, John. "Beyond Us and Them: Identity and Terror from an Arab American's Perspective." The South Atlantic Quarterly 102, no. 4 (Fall 2003): 701-728.

Lab 10

Battle of Algiers

Screening: Battle of Algiers.

Lec 11

Project Presentations

 

Lab 11

Project Presentations (cont.)

 

Lec 12

Project Presentations (cont.)

 

Lab 12

Project Presentations (cont.)