Academic literature on the topic 'Xenophon Knowledge Military art and science'

Military-political issues is an important area of research work at MGIMO. The difference in this direction from the classical international specialization is that it is at the intersection of several disciplines: military science, military-technical and military-industrial as well as International Relations. A specialist in military and political issues should not only be an expert in the field of international relations and diplomacy, but also have a deep knowledge of military-technical issues to understand the basic trends in the development of scientific and technological progress and its impact on the balance of forces in the world. Global changes in the balance of power and the nature of the conflict, the emergence of new types of weapons are changing the basic methods and approaches to the art of war, which requires a science-based perspective on problem solving and multi-disciplinary approach in achieving the goals. Military and political studies allow us to understand how the development of military technology and military organization of the state affected by the political situation in the world, the national security of the country and its place in the system of international relations. Military-political research has been developing at MGIMO for a few decades. It laid down the basis for a scientific school of political-military studies. Its founding fathers were such prominent scholars of international affairs, as I.G. Usachyov, A.D. Nikonov, A.G. Arbatov, V.G. Baranovsky, V.M. Kulagin, A.N. Nikitin and other well-known experts. Their work covers a wide range of military and political issues, including the topics of arms control and disarmament, international, and especially European security, military policy, NATO, the Western military-political doctrines and their practical application. Now the lead in the development of this research at MGIMO has taken Center for Military-Political Studies, which became a concentration of relevant information, knowledge and expertise. The center was established in 2012 with the financial support of Air Defense Concern "Almaz-Antey". The Center is headed by Vice-Rector of MGIMO professor A.I.Podberezkin.

It is known that the history of book collections of past centuries’ libraries, including military ones, is tragic: for many reasons, they are often either scattered or preserved in small fragments. Today, when libraries intensively work to digitize their holdings and search out historical book collections, it is very important to identify and attribute books from foreign, as well as from Russian military libraries.For the first time, the article describes the work carried out to identify publications of foreign (and partly Russian) military libraries from the rare books collection of the Library for Natural Sciences of the Russian Academy of Sciences. The article considers the publications as a source of information about scientific knowledge (military libraries were aimed to acquaint their readers with the basics of military art and the latest achievements in military science). There is shown that the content of such libraries’ collections did not exclude thematic diversity, targeted to comprehensively form the officer’s personality: professional, moral and cultural. The article examines the books of the 18th—19th centuries from military libraries of Europe, currently stored in the Library for Natural Sciences of the Russian Academy of Sciences, and the book marks in them proving the publications’ belonging to specific military libraries. There is highlighted the importance of book marks for the attribution of collections (and libraries) that existed in the past, but turned out to be scattered. The results obtained show that the publications and book marks of military book collections are a strong and reliable source in studying the history of military affairs, military science, and the history of military libraries, and confirm the need for further serious work with the library’s rare book collection.

AbstractThis paper explores the efforts and impact of the Society for the Diffusion of Useful Knowledge in China (1834–1839), which existed during the five years before the First Opium War. It contends that the Society represented a third form of British engagement with the Chinese, alongside the diplomatic attempts of 1793 and 1816, and the military conflict of 1839–1842. The Society waged an ‘information war’ to penetrate the information barrier that the Qing had established to contain European trade and missions. The foreigners in Canton believed they were barred from further access to China because the Chinese had no information on the true character of the Europeans. Thus, they prepared ‘intellectual artillery’ in the form of Chinese language publications, especially on world geography, to distribute among the Chinese, in the hope that this effort would familiarize the Chinese with the science and art of Westerners and thereby cultivate respect and a welcoming atmosphere. The war metaphor was conceived, and the information war was waged, in the periphery of the British informal empire in Canton, but it contributed to the conceptualization of war against China, both in Canton and in Britain, in the years before actual military action. Behind the rhetoric of war and knowledge diffusion in Canton, lay a convergence of interests between merchants and missionaries, which drove both to employ information and military power to further their shared aim of opening China up for trade and proselytizing.

The article presents theoretical and practical aspects of the operation of a key engineering category, i.e. technical engineering, and its dominant influence on the level of technical and civilisational development in evolving societies. The introduction discusses the concept, role, and place of technical engineering, and the general methodological framework applied in it. It emphasises the strong links between the scientific theoretical foundations of technical engineering and engineering practice, which stem chiefly from societal needs and utilitarian passions of many researchers involved in the creative art of engineering. The following section presents technical and technological assumptions and practical achievements of selected categories of technical engineering, such as: civil, water, military, mechanical, electrical, process, materials, and extreme engineering. The article is a conceptual review and stresses the synergy between science, knowledge, and technology (mainly technical and applied), as well as competences and skills, against the background of utilitarian societal needs.

The article analyzes the epistemological foundations of the war. According to the authors, the idea of war is the result of previous cognitive and mental activity of a person. War as a form of struggle involves the use of special knowledge and thinking abilities. A field of specialized knowledge appeared, called the art of war, and then military science. War turned out to be one of the most important spheres of human activity, requiring high achievements in the field of science. Abstract thinking made it possible, by introducing generalized concepts and images ("enemy", "homeland", "good", "evil", "bravery", etc.), to create a categorical field that allows waging a war for certain generalized interests that differ from the private ones. War has a rational motive, goal, methods and means, process, result, and implies a reflexive understanding of the warfare results. Planning and waging war requires a person to search for logical connections, identify patterns and cause-and-effect relationships when solving complex creative tasks and organizing activities in a changing environment. The belligerents strive for the efficient use of funds and the conclusion of peace on reasonable terms. In this sense, war can be seen as a form of a rational solution to social problems.

Logical reason for research. The flute art has its own history of development, which is marked by different traditions – the performing, composing, and pedagogical. The mentioned traditions outline the ways of the development of the flute art of the present and the future; they have a certain originality of geographical and cultural orientation. Today, the flute art is the subject of the audience demand, the performing and composing creativity, and has a solid repertoire in various styles and genres of both translations and original compositions in many instrumental compounds, ranging from solo to various ensembles and orchestras. This situation in music practice requires the theoretical understanding and generalization, including those in the projection of national and cultural traditions of different countries and regions. However, we can state that, at the moment, music science addresses the performance on the flute not systematically, mostly in a methodological direction. The Ukrainian flute art is closely related to the traditions of the flute music of Western European and Eastern European music art, but it also has its originality, which exists owing not only to musical (intonation, genre, and repertoire), but also to the historical, national-cultural or human reasons. Kharkiv, as one of the historical and cultural centres of Ukraine, has a rich musical history, and traditions of the flute art are its important component. Innovation. The presented article is devoted to the research of the Kharkiv flute art in the aspect of unity and interaction of the performing and pedagogical traditions. This aspect combines a number of historical, theoretical, and practical questions, and allows finding their answers related to the demands of both music science and music practice. We are talking about a number of aspects of the study of the flute art in the aspect of music regionalism, from organology and common European traditions of the flute art to the peculiar features of its development in Kharkiv in all the directions – the composing, performing, and pedagogical. Objectives. The purpose of the study is to identify the specifics of the performing and pedagogical traditions of the flute art in Kharkiv in the aspects of the continuity from European musical art and the identity of the Ukrainian, in particular, Kharkiv flute school. Methods. The main methods of the presented research are the historical one and the systematic one. The first one is related to the historical factors of the development of the flute art both in the European and Ukrainian historical cultural and artistic context. The second one allows one to represent the performing and pedagogical traditions associated with the flute art in their legacy and cultural and regional specification. Results and Discussion. Kharkiv is one of the most important historical and cultural centres of Ukraine. Its military purpose determined the nature of music playing (the regimental music of the Kharkiv Cossack Regiment), its instruments (primarily the wind instruments) and the genre direction. The relevant performing and pedagogical traditions of the Kharkiv musical culture are still marked today by the significant influence of the Kharkiv Wind Instruments School, known both in Ukraine and abroad. The flute art is an important and illustrative part of this historical process. The regimental music influenced the development of music education and training of musicians in Kharkiv – the opened schools for teaching children also had a "military profile" (from the nature of the student recruitment to instrumentation and repertoire). In the 18th-19th centuries the flute was spreading in the general education system in Ukraine. Many Ukrainian art and culture figures started their musical training with the flute and perfectly mastered the instrument; the spread of the flute in the musical life of the 18th century is mentioned in the writings by M. Zagaykevych, O. Schreyer-Tkachenko, I. Pyaskovsky and others. The musical activity of the national enlightener G. Skovoroda can be considered essential in this sense; the flute was his companion in many years of his legendary travels about Ukraine. The subsequent opening of schools and vocal-instrumental classes at Kharkiv College demonstrated the expansion of the character of the performing and pedagogical foundations of the flute art in Kharkiv, connected not only with military music, but also with the development of noble-house culture and theatrical and amateur practice. Flute performers were one of the first orders to European teachers. The flute was a part of practically all the variants of ensembles and orchestras of Kharkiv and Slobidska Ukraine. This stimulated the development of performing skills, music pedagogy, composing creativity. It is important that the most skilled flute performers in Kharkiv were, as a rule, the leading teachers and educators. In addition, the Kharkiv wind instruments performance and pedagogy were characterized by such a quality as multi-instrumentalism. At different times, the flute art in Kharkiv (both the performing one and the pedagogical one) was glorified by such artists as I. Vitkovsky, I. Lozynsky, K. Kestner, E. Prill, F. Kuchera, A. Boroznin, E. Krychevsky, G. Heck, D. Rykov, F. Prokhachev. Representing various national schools, they ensured the multicultural development of the Kharkiv flute art. In the 20th-21st centuries the activity of the teachers and students of Kharkiv National University of Arts named after I. P. Kotlyarevsky who were putting their forces into the creation of the local ensembles and orchestras played a decisive role in the development of the flute art in Kharkiv. Conclusions. The "genetic memory" of Kharkiv’s history as a city-military frontier was reflected in the performing and pedagogical traditions of wind instruments music, in particular, the flute art, in its performing (genres, repertoire, and performing stylistic) and pedagogical specificity. The further development of the flute music in the Kharkiv region has enriched these traditions of European music with its diverse repertoire in all genres and styles, but the Kharkiv specificity remains its recognizable core. The summarized results of the presented article indicate that the selected aspect of the study, related to the characteristic of the performing and pedagogical traditions of the flute art in Kharkiv through the prisms of continuity and interaction, is the link that integrates the theoretical and practical directions of studying the art of the flute playing into the whole complex of knowledge, that helps to understand the universal and specific in the processes of the development of the flute art in different aspects – the historical, cultural-regional, and artistic, etc.

Knowledge is a form of power, but power for those who deploy it, not create it. New technoscientific programs, such as nanotechnology, are crucial realms for democratizing society since they aren’t ‘locked-in’ through technological momentum and because they are sites of cultural and technological production, which is another important form of power. Science and technology in the early 21st Century are mainly shaped by market (profit) and military priorities. Sometimes within these new areas, resistance to these pressures produces new ways of understanding how science and technology can contribute to a just and sustainable future. In nanotechnology research this tension can be seen in the various codes promulgated for its regulation. It is also clear in such theories and practices as cyborg citizenship, hybrid imagination, scientists’ social responsibility and activism, prefigurative practices such as art and Do-It-Yourself (DIY) and Do-It-Together (DIT) organizing and the democracy and technology movement. They reveal how the development of nanotechnologies and the nanosciences can lead not just to new inventions and medical treatments, but to stronger democracy as well.

Abstract Historical European martial arts (HEMA) have to be considered an important part of our common European cultural heritage. Studies within this field of research have the potential to enlighten the puzzle posed by past societies, for example in the field of history, history of science and technology, or fields related to material culture. The military aspects of history are still to be considered among the most popular themes of modern times, generating huge public interest. In the last few decades, serious HEMA study groups have started appearing all over the world – focusing on re-creating a lost martial art. The terminology “Historical European Martial Arts” therefore also refers to modem-day practices of ancient martial arts. Many of these groups focus on a “hands-on” approach, thus bringing practical experience and observation to enlighten their interpretation of the source material. However, most of the time, they do not establish inquiries based on scientific research, nor do they follow methodologies that allow for a critical analysis of the findings or observations. This paper will therefore propose and discuss, ideas on how to bridge the gap between enthusiasts and scholars; since their embodied knowledge, acquired by practice, is of tremendous value for scientific inquiries and scientific experimentation. It will also address HEMA practices in the context of modern day acceptance of experimental (or experiential) processes and their value for research purposes and restoration of an historical praxis. The goal is therefore to sketch relevant methodological and theoretical elements, suitable for a multidisciplinary approach, to HEMA, where the “H” for “historical” matters.

ABSTRACT Introduction Modafinil is an eugeroic drug that has been examined to maintain or recover wakefulness, alertness, and cognitive performance when sleep deprived. In a nonmilitary context, the use of modafinil as a nootropic or smart drug, i.e., to improve cognitive performance without being sleep deprived, increases. Although cognitive performance is receiving more explicit attention in a military context, research into the impact of modafinil as a smart drug in function of operationality is lacking. Therefore, the current review aimed at presenting a current state-of-the-art and research agenda on modafinil as a smart drug. Beside the question whether modafinil has an effect or not on cognitive performance, we examined four research questions based on the knowledge on modafinil in sleep-deprived subjects: (1) Is there a difference between the effect of modafinil as a smart drug when administered in repeated doses versus one single dose?; (2) Is the effect of modafinil as a smart drug dose-dependent?; (3) Are there individual-related and/or task-related impact factors?; and (4) What are the reported mental and/or somatic side effects of modafinil as a smart drug? Method We conducted a systematic search of the literature in the databases PubMed, Web of Science, and Scopus, using the search terms “Modafinil” and “Cognitive enhance*” in combination with specific terms related to the research questions. The inclusion criteria were studies on healthy human subjects with quantifiable cognitive outcome based on cognitive tasks. Results We found no literature on the impact of a repeated intake of modafinil as a smart drug, although, in users, intake occurs on a regular basis. Moreover, although modafinil was initially said to comprise no risk for abuse, there are now indications that modafinil works on the same neurobiological mechanisms as other addictive stimulants. There is also no thorough research into a potential risk for overconfidence, whereas this risk was identified in sleep-deprived subjects. Furthermore, eventual enhancing effects were beneficial only in persons with an initial lower performance level and/or performing more difficult tasks and modafinil has an adverse effect when used under time pressure and may negatively impact physical performance. Finally, time-on-task may interact with the dose taken. Discussion The use of modafinil as a smart drug should be examined in function of different military profiles considering their individual performance level and the task characteristics in terms of cognitive demands, physical demands, and sleep availability. It is not yet clear to what extent an improvement in one component (e.g., cognitive performance) may negatively affect another component (e.g., physical performance). Moreover, potential risks for abuse and overconfidence in both regular and occasional intake should be thoroughly investigated to depict the trade-off between user benefits and unwanted side effects. We identified that there is a current risk to the field, as this trade-off has been deemed acceptable for sleep-deprived subjects (considering the risk of sleep deprivation to performance) but this reasoning cannot and should not be readily transposed to non-sleep-deprived individuals. We thus conclude against the use of modafinil as a cognitive enhancer in military contexts that do not involve sleep deprivation.

The aim of the article is to analyze the system of Higher Education in the USA. It reviews the kinds of educational institutions and types of education which they provide. The system of Higher education in the United States of America is made up of two levels or stages. The first level is undergraduate education and when students complete it they usually become Bachelors of Art or Bachelors of Science. The second level is called postgraduate education which is completed with acquiring Master or Ph.D. degrees. There are several types of higher educational institutions such as colleges, universities, 2-year community colleges, conservatories, art schools, military academies and others. To be admitted in each level of higher education students have to take some certain standardized tests and prove their ability to manage the educational program. The article describes the system of funding of the USA higher education. The educational institutions can be categorized into public, private and for-profit schools. Private and for-profit colleges and universities are the most expensive schools. Students pay for tuition, room and board with their own money. There is a system of educational loans, scholarships and grants which you can take or receive if you do not have enough of your own finance. Americans are willing to pay for the education of their children as well as their own. It has to do with their belief that education will enable them to achieve success and financial stability. Many Americans follow the lifelong learning for professional growth, new knowledge and skills.

With the DoD acquisition of programs and projects becoming increasingly expensive, it is imperative that the method or measure for determining value for a particular project, real or conceptual, be identified and used enterprise-wide. The form of analysis known as the Knowledge Value Added (KVA) methodology, KVA will evaluate the Office Force Transformation Wolf-PAC / Stiletto concepts. This thesis will explore two distinctly different areas which demonstrate the KVA method's use and benefit: 1. The use of the KVA method to find improvements in a Command and Control (C2) process, and 2. To demonstrate the increase value that the Stiletto ship brings to littoral operations (i.e., Mine hunting). The resulting values will be compared in varying notional scenarios to assess potential improvements for knowledge processes. This method of analysis will demonstrate how a reengineered process, resulting from the KVA method, enables organizations to maximize knowledge creation and production capacity.

Recherche sur l'existence d'une culture stratégique typiquement occidentale, européenne et américaine, culture qui trouverait l'un de ses fondements dans les représentations des combattants dans la pensée stratégique depuis la Renaissance
Doctorat en sciences politiques
info:eu-repo/semantics/nonPublished

More than 2.6 million troops have deployed in support of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. Still, surveys reveal that more than half feel “disconnected” from their civilian counterparts, and this feeling persists despite ongoing efforts, in the academy and elsewhere, to help returning veterans overcome physical and mental wounds, seek an education, and find meaningful ways to contribute to society after taking off the uniform. This dissertation argues that Iraq and Afghanistan War veterans struggle with reassimilation because they lack healthy, complete models of veteran identity to draw upon in their postwar lives, a problem they’re working through collectively in literature and artwork. The war veteran—returning home transformed by the harsh realities of military training and service, having seen humanity at its extremes, and interacting with a society apathetic toward his or her experiences—should engage in the act of storytelling. This act of sharing experiences and crafting-self subverts stereotypes. Storytelling, whether in a book read by millions, or in a single conversation with a close family member, should instruct civilians on the topic of human resiliency; it should instruct veterans on the topic of homecoming. But typically, veterans do not tell stories. Civilians create barriers to storytelling in the form of hollow platitudes—“thank you for your service” or “I can never understand what you’ve been through”—disconnected from the meaning of wartime service itself. The dissonance between veteran and civilian only becomes more complicated when one considers the implicit demands and expectations attached to patriotism. These often well-intentioned gestures and government programs fail to convey a message of appreciation because they refuse to convey a message of acceptance; the exceptional treatment of veterans by larger society implies also that they are insufficient, broken, or incomplete. So, many veterans chose conformity and silence, adopting one of two identities available to them: the forever pitied “Wounded Warrior” or the superficially praised “Hero.” These identities are not complete. They’re not even identities as much as they are collections of rumors, misrepresentations, and expectations of conformity. Once an individual veteran begins unconsciously performing the “Wounded Warrior” or “Hero” character, the number of potential outcomes available in that individual’s life is severely diminished. Society reinforces a feeling among veterans that they are “different.” This shared experience has resulted in commiseration, camaraderie, and also the proliferation of veterans’ creative communities. As storytellers, the members of these communities are restoring meaning to veteran-civilian discourse by privileging the nuanced experiences of the individual over stereotypes and emotionless rhetoric. They are instructing on the topics of war and homecoming, producing fictional and nonfictional representations of the veteran capable of competing with stereotypes, capable of reassimilation. The Introduction establishes the existence of veteran culture, deconstructs notions of there being a single or binary set of veteran identities, and critiques the social and cultural rhetoric used to maintain symbolic boundaries between veterans and civilians. It begins by establishing an approach rooted in interdisciplinary literary theory, taking veteran identity as its topic of consideration and the American unconscious as the text it seeks to examine, asking readers to suspend belief in patriotic rhetoric long enough to critically examine veteran identity as an apparatus used to sell war to each generation of new recruits. Patriotism, beyond the well-meaning gestures and entitlements afforded to veterans, also results in feelings of “difference,” in the veteran feeling apart from larger society. The inescapability of veteran “difference” is a trait which sets it apart from other cultures, and it is one bolstered by inaccurate and, at times, offensive portrayals of veterans in mass media and Hollywood films such as The Manchurian Candidate (1962), First Blood (1982), or Taxi Driver (1976). To understand this inescapability the chapter engages with theories of race, discussing the Korean War veteran in Home (2012) and other works by Toni Morrison to directly and indirectly explore descriptions of “difference” by African Americans and “others” not in positions of power. From there, the chapter traces veteran identity back to the Italian renaissance, arguing that modern notions of veteran identity are founded upon fears of returning veterans causing chaos and disorder. At the same time, writers such as Sebastian Junger, who are intimately familiar with veteran culture, repeatedly emphasize the camaraderie and “tribal” bonds found among members of the military, and instead of creating symbolic categories in which veterans might exist exceptionally as “Heroes,” or pitied as “Wounded Warriors,” the chapter argues that the altruistic nature which leads recruits to war, their capabilities as leaders and educators, and the need of larger society for examples of human resiliency are more appropriate starting points for establishing veteran identity. The Introduction is followed by an independent “Example” section, a brief examination of a student veteran named “Bingo,” one who demonstrates an ability to challenge, even employ veteran stereotypes to maintain his right to self-definition. Bingo’s story, as told in a “spotlight” article meant to attract student veterans to a college campus, portrays the veteran as a “Wounded Warrior” who overcomes mental illness and the scars of war through education, emerging as an exceptional example—a “Hero”—that other student veterans can model by enrolling at the school. Bingo’s story sets the stage for close examinations of the “Hero” and the “Wounded Warrior” in the first and second chapters. Chapter One deconstructs notions of heroism, primarily the belief that all veterans are “Heroes.” The chapter examines military training and indoctrination, Medal of Honor award citations, and film examples such as All Quiet on the Western Front (1930), Heroes for Sale (1933), Sergeant York (1941), and Top Gun (1986) to distinguish between actual feats of heroism and “Heroes” as they are presented in patriotic rhetoric. The chapter provides the Medal of Honor citations attached to awards presented to Donald Cook, Dakota Meyer, and Kyle Carpenter, examining the postwar lives of Meyer and Carpenter, identifying attempts by media and government officials to appropriate heroism—to steal the right to self-definition possessed by these men. Among these Medal of Honor recipients one finds two types of heroism: Sacrificing Heroes give something of themselves to protect others; Attacking Heroes make a difference during battle offensively. Enduring Heroes, the third type of heroism discussed in the chapter, are a new construct. Colloquially, and for all intents and purposes, an Enduring Hero is simply a veteran who enjoys praise and few questions. Importantly, veterans enjoy the “Hero Treatment” in exchange for silence and conforming to larger narratives which obfuscate past wars and pave the way for new ones. This chapter engages with theorists of gender—such as Jack Judith Halberstam, whose Female Masculinities (1998) anticipates the agency increasingly available to women through military service; like Leo Braudy, whose From Chivalry to Terrorism (2003) traces the historical relationship between war and gender before commenting on the evolution of military masculinity—to discuss the relationship between heroism and agency, begging a question: What do veterans have to lose from the perpetuation of stereotypes? This question frames a detailed examination of William A. Wellman’s film, Heroes for Sale (1933), in the chapter’s final section. This story of stolen valor and the Great Depression depicts the homecoming of a WWI veteran separated from his heroism. The example, when combined with a deeper understanding of the intersection between veteran identity and gender, illustrates not only the impact of stolen valor in the life of a legitimate hero, but it also comments on the destructive nature of appropriation, revealing the ways in which a veteran stereotypes rob service men and women of the right to draw upon memories of military service which complete with those stereotypes. The military “Hero” occupies a moral high ground, but most conceptions of military “Heroes” are socially constructed advertisements for war. Real heroes are much rarer. And, as the Medal of Honor recipients discussed in the chapter reveal, they, too, struggle with lifelong disabilities as well as constant attempts by society to appropriate their narratives. Chapter Two traces the evolution of the modern “Wounded Warrior” from depictions of cowardice in Stephen Crane’s The Red Badge of Courage (1895), to the denigration of World War I veterans afflicted with Shell Shock, to Kevin Powers’s Iraq War novel, The Yellow Birds (2012). As with “Heroes,” “Wounded Warriors” perform a stereotype in place of an authentic, individualized identity, and the chapter uses Walt Kowalski, the protagonist of Clint Eastwood’s film, Gran Torino (2008), as its major example. The chapter discusses “therapeutic culture,” Judith Butler’s work on identity-formation, and Eva Illouz’s examination of a culture obsessed with trauma to comment on veteran performances of victimhood. Butler’s attempts to conceive of new identities absent the influence of systems of definition rooted in the state, in particular, reveal power in the opposite of silence, begging another question: What do civilians have to gain from the perpetuation of veteran stereotypes? Largely, the chapter finds, the “Wounded Warrior” persists in the minds of civilians who fear the veteran’s capacity for violence. A broken, damaged veteran is less of a threat. The story of the “Wounded Warrior” is not one of sacrifice. The “Wounded Warrior” exists after sacrifice, beyond any measure of “honor” achieved in uniform. “Wounded Warriors” are not expected to find a cure because the wound itself is an apparatus of the state that is commodified and injected into the currency of emotional capitalism. This chapter argues that military service and a damaged psyche need not always occur together. Following the second chapter, a close examination of “The Bear That Stands,” a short story by Suzanne S. Rancourt which confronts the author’s sexual assault while serving in the Marines, offers an alternative to both the “Hero” and the “Wounded Warrior” stereotypes. Rancourt, a veteran “Storyteller,” gives testimony of that crime, intervening in social conceptions of veteran identity to include a female perspective. As with the example of Bingo, the author demonstrates an innate ability to recognize and challenge the stereotypes discussed in the first and second chapters. This “Example” sets the stage for a more detailed examination of “Veteran Storytellers” and their communities in the final chapter. Chapter Three looks for examples of veteran “difference,” patriotism, the “Wounded Warrior,” and the “Hero” in nonfiction, fiction, and artwork emerging from the creative arts community, Military Experience and the Arts, an organization which provides workshops, writing consultation, and publishing venues to veterans and their families. The chapter examines veteran “difference” in a short story by Bradley Johnson, “My Life as a Soldier in the ‘War on Terror.’” In “Cold Day in Bridgewater,” a work of short fiction by Jerad W. Alexander, a veteran must confront the inescapability of that difference as well as expectations of conformity from his bigoted, civilian bartender. The final section analyzes artwork by Tif Holmes and Giuseppe Pellicano, which deal with the problems of military sexual assault and the effects of war on the family, respectively. Together, Johnson, Alexander, Holmes, and Pellicano demonstrate skills in recognizing stereotypes, crafting postwar identities, and producing alternative representations of veteran identity which other veterans can then draw upon in their own homecomings. Presently, no unified theory of veteran identity exists. This dissertation begins that discussion, treating individual performances of veteran identity, existing historical, sociological, and psychological scholarship about veterans, and cultural representations of the wars they fight as equal parts of a single text. Further, it invites future considerations of veteran identity which build upon, challenge, or refute its claims. Conversations about veteran identity are the opposite of silence; they force awareness of war’s uncomfortable truths and homecoming’s eventual triumphs. Complicating veteran identity subverts conformity; it provides a steady stream of traits, qualities, and motivations that veterans use to craft postwar selves. The serious considerations of war and homecoming presented in this text will be useful for Iraq and Afghanistan War veterans attempting to piece together postwar identities; they will be useful to scholars hoping to facilitate homecoming for future generations of war veterans. Finally, the Afterword to the dissertation proposes a program for reassimilation capable of harnessing the veteran’s symbolic and moral authority in such a way that self-definition and homecoming might become two parts of a single act.

One of the major consequences of the Cold War and the commingling of scientific and military interests by world powers was the increasingly secretive nature of scientific research. From the Manhattan Project onwards, the free exchange implicit in the collective enterprise of scientific knowledge production became regulated and increasingly clandestine. Neal White's artistic research is explicitly engaged in interrogating both the investigative procedures of science as method and the ways in which these procedures can be turned toward an investigation of secrecy itself. In their discussion, Beck and White explore the ideas and practices that inform White's conception of art as a mode of experimental research. Central to this project is what White calls 'overt research,' whereby the spaces of techno-scientific and military-industrial enterprise are explored through the documentation of physical sites and material evidence. In the exhibition Dark Places (Hansard Gallery, Southampton, 2009), White and others explored the ways in which such places are both embedded and imaginatively narrated as part of a contemporary UK landscape. White’s projects are discussed in relation to issues shaped by Cold War research: secrecy, surveillance, accountability, participation, and the power relations implicit in knowledge production.

Photography, as is well known, is the image-making technology which specializes in the freezing of time.1 What kind of historiography, then, might photography be said to embody? How can photography, with its ineluctable connection to the present moment, hope to say anything at all about the past—about either the broad processes of history or even the events of the hours and minutes immediately preceding the second in which the photograph is taken? What kinds of knowledge of the past does photography allow, and what does it disallow? How can photography, that most superficial of media, hope to become a vehicle for the archaeological imagination, with its love of immanent depths? If photographic technology is uniquely equipped to record (visually) the present moment, it is also characterized—famously—by its thorough and indiscriminate recording of surface detail. What it lacks in temporal depth it makes up for in this meticulous rendering of appearances; any surface marked by the effects of action or time can be faithfully recorded by this technology which itself produces the marked surfaces of photographic plate, film, or print. History and the passing of time is available to photography only in the form of its traces, the more-or-less legible marks and remnants it has left behind at any one moment in the world. And it is precisely photography’s own nature as a chemical trace (until digitization, at least) that enables it accurately to reproduce these marks and signs of history. As discussed in Chapter 1, since the nineteenth century (at least) historical sciences such as palaeontology, geology, and archaeology have based themselves upon the reading of such signs of the past in the present, and this broad epistemological model could be extended to include military reconnaissance, forensic science, and art connoisseurship. Photography, fixing these signs in an image, has had—unsurprisingly, perhaps—an important part to play in the historical development of these disciplines. Photography meets the archaeological imagination as soon as photographic images are scanned for historical information in these disciplines and practices. In a sense, however, photography cannot help but represent the world archaeologically, since it cannot help but record its objects and landscapes in a temporal context, the traces of the past scattered across their surfaces. Ruskin enthused over this quality of the new medium.