Review
Praise for 2nd Edition ‘From Borges to Baudrillard and beyond, James Der Derian chronicles our ongoing obsession with war technology and our increasing disconnection with the reality of war. Eisenhower coined the phrase ‘the military-industrial complex.’ Der Derian has his own phrase, also powerful, thoughtful, and descriptive: ‘the military-industrial-media-entertainment network.’ A frightening thought, but also a central and illuminating thought for our times.’ - Errol Morris, filmmaker ‘There’s a marvellous unmasking here of the modern military-media-entertainment fantasy, a disease that pretends to be the cure… This is a book that brings theory and theorists to life, a book that horrifies and delig [Read More...]
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I’ve read Virtuous War a few times since the first edition came out in the summer of 2001, and I’m both continuously astounded and simultaneously saddened to see how timely and timeless it’s become. Beginning at the end of the Cold War and concluding just months before 9/11, the first edition was a sort of millennial telescoping - looking back at one and into the next - intimating that “we seem to be approaching at great speed a virtual revolution in military and diplomatic affairs.” Hitting the road where Baudrillard left off in ‘America’ (and I guess when U.S. policy makers really began losing their grip on Clausewitz), Der Derian travels through the deserts, shadowlands and virtual futures of post-cold war war games - mixing in a new wave sound-track with sound-bytes from military strategy and postmodern theory, slowing down from high-speed impressionism for information-packed interviews with influential war theorists - tracing along the way the emerging military and social transformations of the 90’s.
From the first edition to the second, from simulated battles to real wars, it’s like history in rewind. Anyone who thinks they know the “truth” and “solutions” to the current wars should get lost (with the rest of us) in this chronicle of the inter-wars. Paraphrasing the spirit haunting “Virtuous War”, Walter Benjamin, the tragedy of “imperialist war” is how little we learn from it - yet Der Derian somehow illuminates while the world sleepwalks through genocide and war. It’s a good read for military thinkers, or just anyone who feels like the present is drifting uncomfortably close to something out of sci-fi. I only wish that Der Derian would make connections between “Virtuous War” today and colonial and post-colonial histories, but maybe that’s open space at the edge of the map where others can wander…