How America Justifies Its War: A Modern/Postmodern Aesthetics of Masculinity and Sovereignty

Citation:

Mann, Bonnie. 2006. “How America Justifies Its War: A Modern/Postmodern Aesthetics of Masculinity and Sovereignty.” Hypatia 21 (4): 147-163. 

Author: Bonnie Mann

Abstract:

The lies about the reasons for the U.S. war against Iraq provoked no mass public outcry in the United States against the war. What is the process of justification for this war, a process that seems to need no reasons? Mann argues that the process of justification is not a process of rational deliberation but one of aesthetic self-constitution, of rebuilding a masculine national identity. Included is a feminist reading of the National Defense University document Shock and Awe.

Topics: Armed Conflict, "New Wars", Feminisms, Gender, Masculinity/ies, Gendered Discourses, Military Forces & Armed Groups, Terrorism Regions: Americas, North America Countries: United States of America

Year: 2006

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