Abstract
This essay presents global warring theory and explores its utility for explaining the recent USA–Iraq War. In global warring theory, imperial global warring is what is to be explained; contradiction, reproduction, security elites, and their hermeneutic politics as well as their public délires do the explaining. First, the two concepts to be explained are presented; next, those that do the explaining are discussed. The theory puts contradiction front and center in the understanding of contemporary wars, but introduces the notions of hermeneutic politics and public délires to account for how, and when, security elites respond with violence to contradiction. Finally, the theory is illustrated with reference to the recent Iraq War.
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Notes
A ‘string’ is a recurrent sequence of human actualities, depicted in terms of concrete and specific observations, as they occur in space and time. A ‘logic’ is and abstract and general account of a string. Selling goods is a string that may exhibit a capitalist logic.
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Reyna, S. Deadly contradictions: global warring theory and the Iraq war, 1991–2011. Dialect Anthropol 38, 1–12 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10624-013-9320-3
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10624-013-9320-3