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2018 | Buch

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Capitalism, Hegemony and Violence in the Age of Drones

verfasst von: Prof. Norman Pollack

Verlag: Springer International Publishing

Enthalten in: Springer Professional "Wirtschaft+Technik" , Springer Professional "Wirtschaft"

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This book offers a critical analysis of the rise of the US to global hegemony against a background of increased erosion of democracy and rule of law, and a rising linear pattern of near-absolute capitalist development. The author argues that the significant shrinkage of the ideological spectrum globally, as a result of worrisome levels of business and government interpenetration, has created a dangerous 'prefascist configuration' whereby unthinkable levels of violence have been normalized through the use of technologies such as drones, increasingly condoned even by 'liberal' groups and the so-called political left. Using the example of the Obama administration and its increased reliance on drone assassinations, the volume makes a case for the dangers that lie in today's unique convergence of lack of transparency in government, business-government interpenetration, informal social regimentation, and militarization of capitalism.

Inhaltsverzeichnis

Frontmatter

Theoretical Perspective: Global Hegemony

Frontmatter

Chapter 1. Introduction: Moral-Political Philosophy, a Spectrum Shift Rightward

Abstract

This introduction seeks to reinterpret the nature of government and its relation to capitalism, as well as preview the following chapters, with topics including the reconceptualization of military power, the “just war” doctrine, and the potential progression of the USA toward fascism.

Norman Pollack

Chapter 2. Advancing Monopoly Capitalism: A Totalitarian Mental Landscape

Abstract

Emerging from World War II, the USA actively sought the consolidation of its banking, industrial, and commercial sectors, creating a political economy of advancing monopoly capitalism. This chapter traces the impact of this process of nation-building and development of capitalism on the USA’s increased independence from Europe, and the creation of a new crucial agenda of labor pacification and a US foreign policy of market expansion.

Norman Pollack

Chapter 3. Hierarchical Structuring of the Social Order: Ideological Implications

Abstract

This chapter examines the USA’s close alignment between capitalism and the State in the post–Civil War period onward, as well as the military-component included as part of an integrated ruling group and protector-underwriter of capitalist expansion and success after 1945. It also discusses the potential transitions of capitalism and socialism to fascism.

Norman Pollack

Chapter 4. Interpenetration: Business-Government Co-partnership

Abstract

This chapter compares the US government machine to Weber’s rational-legal theory of bureaucracy, and emphasizes fascism as interpenetration, signifying the collapse of the public and private spheres of structure, polity, and society into one. It examines the policies of President Theodore Roosevelt and President Franklin Delano Roosevelt and their influences on capitalism and the State.

Norman Pollack

Chapter 5. Comparative Probing of Fascism: Japan and America

Abstract

This chapter confronts the issue of whether a feudal past, its presence or absence, proves decisive in the subsequent development of political structure and ideology. By comparing the USA to Japan, the author analyzes hierarchy and homogeneity and the requirement of the elimination of the peasantry for the creation of a capitalist democracy.

Norman Pollack

Chapter 6. Liberal Dimensions of Structural Uniformity: Capitalism and National Power

Abstract

This chapter analyzes the effective synonymity of democracy and capitalism in the twentieth century, as well as the growing synonymity between militarism and capitalism. The author also takes into account the individual’s role and contribution to capitalism, alongside an increasing emphasis placing ownership above any other human attribute.

Norman Pollack

Praxis: Customary Practice or Conduct

Frontmatter

Chapter 7. Framework of Corporatism: Contrasts in Leadership (FDR vs. Obama)

Abstract

This chapter examines first the differences in foreign and domestic policy during the presidential campaigns of Barack Obama and Mitt Romney in 2012. President Franklin Delano Roosevelt’s New Deal then becomes an important foil for President Obama’s liberal policies.

Norman Pollack

Chapter 8. Political Reflections: Education of a (Sometime) Radical

Abstract

This chapter illustrates the development of the author’s political views and ideologies and his education in radicalism. The author discusses Marx, Freidel, and Moore, as well as how his views have changed or remained the same over the years, especially in relation to Barack Obama’s administration.

Norman Pollack

Chapter 9. Master of Counterrevolution: Obama—Character and Policies

Abstract

This chapter includes a critique of President Barack Obama’s policies, including his championship of drone-targeted assassination and approach to social justice. The chapter focuses on President Obama’s “countertransference”—the author’s theory of President Obama’s role as a blank slate onto which Americans could transfer their personal desires for government, and President Obama’s use of that transference to pursue his own goals.

Norman Pollack

Chapter 10. Butchers of the Beltway: Anatomy of “Legitimated Violence”

Abstract

This chapter analyzes major topics of conflict in regard to American policy: if drone assassination symbolizes and confirms American foreign policy, the gun, and the disposition to violence it creates, symbolizes and confirms American domestic policy. The author hypothesizes that violence, its readiness for use or its potential, firms up confidence on the national and individual levels, conveying a sense of moral rightness in the exercise of, or capacity for, strength.

Norman Pollack

Chapter 11. American/Israeli War Crimes: National Policies Engendering Fear

Abstract

This chapter takes a brief look at drone warfare, paying particular attention to the Israeli attack on Gaza in early 2009. It also closely examines and critiques the New York Times’ role in promoting positive public opinion of drone warfare and its coverage of the Gaza attack.

Norman Pollack

Chapter 12. Contempt for the Law: Presidential Subterfuge

Abstract

This chapter discusses the political policies and practices associated with President Obama and John Brennan, former director of the CIA, including drone-targeted assassination, deregulation, and the pivot of American forces and geopolitical interest from Europe to Asia. Throughout, the author includes his journal entries from 2013, responding to political events at the time.

Norman Pollack

Chapter 13. Nadir of Public Morality: The Age of the Drone

Abstract

This chapter develops President Obama’s use of drone warfare, at the center of his policy framework, in greater detail, to bring out its wider historical-philosophical context. Beyond tactics, strategy, personality, and leadership, this is both a moral question and, by implication, a psychoanalytic snapshot of the society that approves, or is indifferent to, this course.

Norman Pollack

Chapter 14. The Drone and Aberrant Government: Normalization of the Unthinkable

Abstract

This chapter analyzes the political-cultural phenomenon of habituation to indifference, particularly in regard to violence. This phenomenon has been achieved by groups of the unified impact which, together with structure, institutions, and culture, have an influence on the trend toward the commodification of the individual and his/her thinking and feeling, that which brings self-pacification to fruition.

Norman Pollack

Chapter 15. On Distance and Disconnection: Entering a Moral Black Hole

Abstract

This chapter examines the operator and the operation of remote drone strikes and confronts the question of who is ultimately more morally culpable—the pilot of the drone, or the person who orders the attack. Through examination of post-traumatic stress disorder, civilian and child causalities, and statistics from the Bureau of Investigative Journalism, the author critiques the Obama Administration’s response to both foreign and domestic tragedies.

Norman Pollack

Chapter 16. “Greater Leverage”: Military-Speak for Imperialism

Abstract

This chapter analyzes the drone’s connection to the wider framework of political-commercial-military expansion. It discusses three long-term prospects for continuity of imperialism/militarism: the creation of a climate of fear, the acceptance of secrecy in the determination of policy choices, and a shrinkage of the political-ideological spectrum on which permissible policy and action occurs and legitimacy is determined and given moral weight.

Norman Pollack

Chapter 17. A Moment in American Policy: The Death of Anwar al-Awlaki

Abstract

This chapter looks at three policy directions from President Obama’s first three years in office that have influenced the fusion of financialization and militarization in capitalism: the mobilization of force (including the pivot to Asia), heightened convergence of operating principles in reshaping American capitalism for the challenges of globalization, and the gradual separation of government from public reach, the better to conduct military affairs and ensure business hegemony against domestic critics or international rivals. These policies set President Obama somewhat apart from his Europe-centric predecessors, as does his acceleration of the drone campaign.

Norman Pollack

Chapter 18. Transgressions of Moral Law: Enlarged Scope of Legal Authority

Abstract

This chapter discusses the moral transgressions involved in drone strikes, particularly in reference to specific laws and policies. These include the Authorization for the Use of Military Force (AUMF), the selection and authorization of victims, and the concept of “just war.”

Norman Pollack

Chapter 19. Stirrings Toward Usurpation: Defying the Rule of Law

Abstract

This chapter analyzes the morality of President Obama’s policies of rendition, military commissions, and indefinite detention in regard to the Guantanamo Bay detainees. It also examines the effects of intervention and resulting blowback, looking specifically at the case of Yemen and the Saleh government.

Norman Pollack

Chapter 20. Echoes of the Cold War: A Strategy of Preemptive Strikes

Abstract

This chapter argues that use of drones helps promote the re-creation of Cold War fears of an imminent threat to the nation’s peace and welfare. It also studies the use of drone strikes in Pakistan and Yemen to act as precedents for future threats to the USA’s security.

Norman Pollack

Chapter 21. Epilogue: Threads Left Unexplored: Objectification and Bureaucratization

Abstract

This chapter argues that the drone is by no means the culmination of policy; if anything, it sets the stage, a plateau, for continued development, to normalize violence. In fact, it may be the tip of the iceberg, whether nuclear war or a fascist form of government and society.

Norman Pollack

Backmatter

Titel: Capitalism, Hegemony and Violence in the Age of Drones
verfasst von: Prof. Norman Pollack
Verlag: Springer International Publishing
Electronic ISBN: 978-3-319-64888-0
Print ISBN: 978-3-319-64887-3
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-64888-0