Reviews for The Culture of War

The average rating for The Culture of War based on 2 reviews is 4 stars.

Review # 1 was written on 2012-12-19 00:00:00 Terry Sundt This is a collection of academic essays more than an actual book. The main focus of each essay is on the validation and justification of military interventions in the more modern age. Specifically humanitarian interventions. The book is written by mostly Australian academics (philosophy, legal and international studies) and so it reads as though it is written for academic consumption. Though it is often a dry read the authours do attempt often to meander with legalese and official language in order to validate the expeditions into others nations by the United Nations and Western powers. It in many cases over looks the hypocrisy of most of these interventions where the intervening parties may have in the past been supportive of so of the militant regimes or factions, whether they may have helped to inspire the calamity or if the went about face despite the initial intentions of the said intervention. Published in 2006 it is a product of the Howard-Bush years as far as respective foreign policies and the, then recent invasions of Afghanistan and Iraq are points of legal and philosophical relevance. I should imagine that even now a decade later where the outcome is vulgar, unending in its tragedy and has spread further afield that such experts could either retrospectively suit their arguments either for or against. Because of when it was published I have a feeling that some of the authours may be more partisan than principled and their stances as far as military interventions may change should it be a Democrat or Labour Party administration leading the charge abroad. Now while I do agree with much of what is written in this book, I find that it is often with a decree of academic arrogance that many protected experts look down and across at so many other human beings with either a fascination or a clinical observance when it comes to their consequential misery due often in part to the violent policies of 'better' nations. Policies often supported, advised upon and granted credit by academic elites who consider the human condition of individual suffering as being a distant secondary consideration to tenure, peer praise and grants. Now while that may be unfair to some of the authours of this always relevant book, for me, its pages where stained with such official language and importance. A good read for those interested in the perspectives when it comes to bombing and killing other people in the name of human rights or 'democracy'. Though it is certainly void of rhetoric it is also absent of passion and human concern. Not really a criticism, I know but for me such matters should not be viewed with such a disassociation as far as individual suffering goes. 60%

Review # 2 was written on 2019-01-11 00:00:00 Thomas Otway Written by a journalist, this book has a lot of reports and insightful descriptions of the working of UN and its quest to maintain its global roles as the world 'policeman'. Another important aspect the book brought to light was the some time tense relationships between the UN and the US (and a little bit of UK too). You'll learn some understanding about the tension between maintaining the global interest versus national interests. Chapter 3 reads pretty much like a brief history of UN intervention in Cambodia. The problem is that you'll learn about that history from a one-sided perspective. Well, again I'm not sure if there's been a book on that topic written by a local person yet. However, I did find some of the inside stories of UN operation in Cambodia at that time pretty interesting to read. It seems like the author has been closed to Kofi Annan, so parts of the book read almost like Annan's biography. The book lacks some deeper and more critical perspectives on the issues reported, such as the uneasy relationships between the UN and the US.