As military and other forms of political violence become the planetary norm, On Posthuman War traces the expansion of war as manifest within humanity’s individual, sociocultural, and biological existence. Author Mike Hill identifies three human-focused disciplines newly turned against humanity (demography, anthropology, and neuroscience) and questions the very notion of society. This episode brings Hill into conversation with Robyn Marasco and Warren Montag.

Mike Hill is professor of English at SUNY Albany. He is coauthor of The Other Adam Smith and author of After Whiteness and On Posthuman War.

Robyn Marasco teaches political theory at Hunter College and The Graduate Center, CUNY.

Warren Montag is professor of English at Occidental College in Los Angeles.



References:
Immanuel Kant
Claus von Clausewitz (On War)
Counterinsurgency Field Manual (FM 3–24) of 2006
The U.S. Army/Marine Corps Counterinsurgency Field Manual (from University of Chicago Press)
Gates doctrine
National Security Strategy
American Sniper (opening of the film)
Alain Badiou


Topics:
US war strategy (specifically in Iraq and Afghanistan)
Gender politics in the US
Crisis in the humanities
Climate change


Terms/keywords:
Civilianized
De-civilianized
Identity infiltration
Computation


“Moving through the three fields of study identified in what follows as war disciplines (demography, anthropology, and neuroscience), computational technology is key … because, like war, it is both ubiquitous and largely invisible.” (from the Preface, page xxi)

Have we ever been civilian? On war’s expansion beyond the battlefield.

Red Gold: The Managed Extinction of the Giant Bluefin Tuna is a book that asks why so many big bluefin tuna have vanished from the Atlantic Ocean. Author Jen Telesca notes that the term “red gold” has emerged out of the exorbitant price her ruby-colored flesh commands on the global market; for reference, in January 2019, a 613-pound Pacific bluefin tuna sold at market in Tokyo for an astounding record of $3.1 million US dollars. To research this book, Telesca gained unparalleled access to the International Commission for the Conservation of Atlantic Tunas (also known as ICCAT) to show that the institution has faithfully executed the task assigned to it by international law: to fish as hard as possible to grow national economies. This interview between Telesca and editor Jason Weidemann was recorded in May 2020.

More about the book: http://z.umn.edu/redgold

A transcription of this conversation is available: z.umn.edu/t-redgold

Have we ever been civilian? On war’s expansion beyond the battlefield.

University of Minnesota Press

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