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If “politics” can be broadly defined as the systems of
relationships between groups or communities, then Kaldor’s insights
on the changing face of global politics and war may provide useful
tools for examining other kinds of relationships. Write a
paper in which you use Kaldor’s ideas to reframe relationships
or politics in two of the essays we’ve read this semester.
Note: rather than applying these terms independtly (first to essay
B and then to essay C), try instead to find something more synthetic,
something that makes an overall argument about Kaldor or the issues
or the essays.
Some questions to get you started:
Is the Jewish diaspora a kind of netforce? Is it possible to have
a netforce that’s not engaging in war? Do netforces use portable
landscapes? How? Does the emergence of the “new war” represent
a kind of evolution? Variational or transformational? How might we
re-see the Ganges River problem in terms of modernity or globalization?
How might we use Kaldor’s ideas to discuss Maoist China? Was
the New York crime epidemic a kind of new war? Was there a netforce?
Protectionforce? If so, how might what happened in New York be applied
back onto Kaldor’s ideas about war?
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What is the relationship between politics and violence—locally,
nationally, or globally—and how can we change that relationship?
Use Kaldor and two other essays we’ve read this semester.
Some questions to get you started:
Netforces use new wars for political mobilization; “old”
war (the Clausewitzian kind) created the nation-state. Seems like
no matter what, politics is connected to violence. Is this so? Consider
the other essays to locate an answer and, as you do, think about “violence”
in broad terms: violence done to the environment, the citizens of
a nation, the individual. Alternatively, how might you use what we’ve
read to formulate a different relationship between politics and violence?
- How can the US win the war on terrorism? Use Kaldor and two
of the essays we've read this semester to formulate a broad conceptual
strategy or, alternatively, to argue for something other than a "war"
on "terrorism." In pursuing this option, you’ll
want to define “war” and/or “terrorism” through
Kaldor. Rather than research terrorism or recent terrorist acts, then,
you’ll want to ground your argument in Kaldor’s essay. Given
what she says, what strategies might work? Is Kaldor’s solution
a workable one given what she and the other authors have to say? How
might you use ideas or incidents from other essays to point to another
solution? What does it mean to “win” the war on terrorism?
What’s our real goal here? Can we reach it another way? You might
also find it helpful to look at Kaldor’s proposed alternative
reaction to the events of September 11.
Rough drafts must be 4 pages long; final drafts must be 5-6 pages
long. Bring a total of 3 copies of your draft to peer revision—I’ll
collect one and your peers will comment on the other two.
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