L. H. M. Ling

Power and Play through Poisies: Reconstructing Self and Other in the 9/11 Commission Report

Analyses of 9/11 tend to narrowly punctuate understandings of Self vs Other. These mystify the power of politics in international relations, fixing us in locked cycles of dominance, retaliation, and indeed, anihilation. We explore an alternative method (poetry) derived from a dialectical epistemology (poisies) framed by a prismatic ontology (Worldism) to address the relations between Self and Other, and their implications for an emancipatory, transformative world politics. We focus on the 9/11 Commission Report as a starting point.

The ‘Kitsch’ of War

U.S. interest in The Art of War (sunzi bingfa, 512 BCE) has risen dramatically since 9/11.1 Both former Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld and General Tommy Franks, masterminds of the Iraq campaign, regularly quote Sun Tzu.2 The New York Times notes that insurgents in Iraq and Afghanistan may also be learning from The Art of War.3