Michelle Bentley

War and/of Words: Constructing WMD in US Foreign Policy

This article provides an examination of the use of concepts— specifically “weapons of mass destruction” (WMD)—in security discourse. There are two key aspects to this discussion. First, the paper disputes current perceptions of WMD conceptual meaning. By analyzing the origins of the concept within the context of US foreign policy c.1945–48, it will be shown that, far from the fixed concept this has been assumed to be, WMD has been defined in a wide variety of ways. Second, this paper will demonstrate that these shifts in conceptual meaning are the strategic and intentional product of security actors. In the case of the concepts emergence, US policymakers exploited the concept as a political resource where its selective definition created an opportunity to manipulate and shape the post-Hiroshima arms-control regime. This article will discuss this in relation to the work of Quentin Skinner—in particular, his conception of the “innovating ideologist.”

Trump’s 100 days: foreign policy and security implications – introduction

This is an Accepted Manuscript of an article published by Taylor & Francis in Critical Studies on Security on 25 July 2017, available online: http://www.tandfonline.com/10.1080/21624887.2017.1355153 ‘I think the 100 days is, you know, it’s an artificial barrier. It’s not very meaningful,’ Trump (2017) declared in an April 2017 interview. Yet candidate Trump (2016) had also issued a ‘100 day action plan to Make America Great Again’. The first ‘100 days’ of an administration has been a barometer for a president’s credibility in the White House since President Franklin Roosevelt (Keith 2017).‘I think the 100 days is, you know, it’s an artificial barrier. It’s not very meaningful’, Trump (2017) declared in an April 2017 interview. Yet candidate Trump (2016) had also issued a ‘100 day action plan to Make America Great Again’. The first ‘100 days’ of an administration has been a barometer for a president’s credibility in the White House since President Franklin Roosevelt (Keith 2017). It is an effort to systematise events and behaviours. However, Trump’s 100 days poses a challenge. The President appears to defy systematisation: he rejects his own 100-day measurement, albeit as a way of avoiding criticism and downplaying expectation (Berenson 2017); he is unwilling to operate within predefined structures and look beyond the short-term; and his presidency lacks doctrine. As one of our contributors argues, in the haste to fit the Trump Presidency within existing frameworks, analysts risk identifying some deeper rationale or coherent motivation that simply does not exist. A recurrent theme of this Intervention issue is one of unpredictability and unexpected U-turns. Yet unpredictable need not mean unintelligible. This special Interventions issue offers multiple approaches to understand the President’s early security and foreign policy decisions. Our contributors consider Trump’s actions in light of domestic and foreign policy audiences, relations with other states and broader implications for international politics. We identify theoretical frameworks that help make sense of Trump’s decisions, including realism, constructivism, image and performance, discourse analysis and critical theory. For Davis and Holland and Fermor, Trump’s foreign policy is understood as an exercise in perception management as part of a discursive war of position with his detractors. The administration engages with multiple discourses (Hassan). Eroukhmanoff uses gender theory to illuminate the president’s bordering practices and the Mother Of All Bombs attack in Afghanistan. Our contributors consider the administration’s realist ‘America First’ commitments, its ambiguous relationship with the chemical weapons ‘taboo’ (Bentley). In terms of empirical analysis, this Intervention explores American relations with the Middle East (Hassan), Russia (Davis), the chemical weapons taboo (Bentley), a discourse analysis of foreign policy (Holland and Fermor) and a feminist analysis of Trump’s 100 days (Eroukhmanoff). Perhaps the origins of Trump’s unpredictable decisions can be traced to Trump’s own business playbook: hide your game and do not let your adversary know your cards. This

Strategic taboos: : chemical weapons and US foreign policy

This article examines US President Barack Obamas foreign policy rhetoric on Syria, specifically in relation to the threat of chemical weapons and the prohibitionary taboo surrounding their use. It contends that Obamas rhetorical construction of the taboo is not simply a commitment to the control of these horrific weapons (where such arms have been comprehended as so extensively vile as to preclude their employment), but that this also represents the strategic linguistic exploitation of these normative ideals in order to directly shape policy. By analysing of presidential speeches made during the conflict, it demonstrates that Obama has manipulated pre-existing conceptions of chemical weapons as taboo, and also as forms of weapons of mass destruction, to deliberately construct policy in line with his own political ambitions�most notably as a way of forcing a multilateral solution to the situation in Syria. This article challenges existing perceptions of the chemical weapons taboo as an inherently normative constraint, arguing that this instead comprises a more agency-driven construct. Static notions of the taboo must be abandoned and subsequently replaced with a framework of understanding that recognizes how the taboo can be used as a deliberate driver of foreign policy.

Fetishised data: counterterrorism, drone warfare and pilot testimony

ABSTRACT Drones now comprise a major part of our culture – primarily as a consequence of the so-called War on Terror and the rise in violent extremism. Yet the available data on what it means to operate a drone (where this can influence wider perceptions on the appropriateness and effectiveness of remote warfare as an act of counterterrorism) is highly contradictory. This article explores a new source of data capable of shedding light on this contested issue: online interviews with current and former pilots discussing their personal experiences. Access to this testimony has the potential to influence cultural understandings of remote warfare, specifically where these stories highlight the severe psychological difficulties pilots can be subject to. In analysing this new data, however, the article questions whether the media typically employed to express pilot testimony comprises an appropriate space in which to publicise and engage with this evidence. It argues that this presentation has caused these personal accounts to become fetishised – to the extent this undermines the cultural, political, and informative value of the data and even reinforces the narratives of remote warfare this testimony frequently seeks to reverse.

Trigger warnings and the student experience

The use of trigger warnings (TW) in higher education (HE) is a point of significant contention. Discussion has centred on academic perspectives. This study turns that around to ask what the student experiences of TW are, how they are perceived, and what this contributes to the existing debate. Based on survey and focus group data from two undergraduate modules, this article demonstrates that students are similarly divided on TW. It also re-assesses the current debate with respect to positive/negative effects on students, in-class applications of TW, how far students believe their learning environment should be ‘controlled’, and perceived censorship.

Syria, chemical weapons, and foreign policy: a reply

This is a reply to:Geis, Anna and Gabi Schlag. 2017. “‘The Facts Cannot Be Denied’: Legitimacy, War and the Use of Chemical Weapons in Syria.” Global Discourse. 7 (2–3): 285–303. http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/23269995.2017.1288488.

The Problem With the Chemical Weapons Taboo

The chemical weapons taboo—the idea that chemical weapons are prohibitively abhorrent—has recently taken a leading role in international politics. In Syria, the taboo has comprised an imperative for, and justification of, U.S. interventionist behavior against Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and has been the basis of diplomatic negotiations calculated to sidestep military intervention and promote peaceful resolution, so the taboo has come to define much of the political dialogue surrounding the conflict. This would seem to substantiate the inherent claim underpinning the taboo, that chemical weapons are so excessively repulsive and offensive comparative to conventional weaponry that the international community cannot tolerate or permit their use. On the surface, this would appear to be a positive; chemical weapons are potentially horrific, and their removal from a contentious conflict scenario can surely be only beneficial? Yet this essay argues this assumption is problematic: specifically, that the taboo has in fact disproportionately skewed perceptions of the crisis in Syria in ways that overlook the wider issues, particularly where this concerns the employment of conventional modes of violence and also other forms of “weapons of mass destruction” (WMD). Furthermore, the taboo has encouraged adoption of a highly limited and partial response as well as making it appear as if politicians are doing more to resolve the crisis than is actually the case.

The Long Goodbye: Beyond an Essentialist Construction of WMD

This article responds to an earlier article by Christian Enemark to reassess the concept of weapons of mass destruction (WMD). How is the concept defined and can it be removed from policy and academic discourse? Firstly, this paper contests the reduction of WMD to mean a fixed set of armaments (nuclear, biological, and chemical weapons). In contrast to this essentialist approach, it uses American archival and policy examples to demonstrate that the concept has been defined in a wide variety of ways, choices that reflect the strategic and contextualized intent of the actors. Secondly, this article questions the assertion that the quality of strategic thought and security policy would be improved if the concept were abandoned. While the conflation of diverse weapons under the umbrella of WMD is problematic, the political nature of the concepts construction means its elimination is not straightforward. Conceptual change cannot be imposed independently of the way meaning is politically constructed. While not disputing the serious problems associated with allowing the WMD concept to survive, this article concludes that the real question here is one of context. Failing to address why and how it is used leads to underestimation of how likely removal is within the current discursive climate. As long as that value remains – as long as WMD is an effective resource for policymakers to shape security policy – there is little chance of being able to abandon the WMD concept in the foreseeable future.

Life in the age of drone warfare

the case of Nicaragua, specifically the Anti-Sandinistas Popular Militia (MILPAS). This was an armed organization, which strongly relied on a particular local populace. The group was highly local, as more than 80% were highland peasants. After the peace agreements, members of the MILPAS faction returned to their places of origin and remained geographically proximate after demobilizing. The former fighters remained strongly networked and intact. In the same fashion, Daly works through cases in Guatemala, Peru, Uganda, Indonesia, Sierra Leone, Mozambique, and Angola supporting her argument and pointing at further research opportunities. In conclusion, although I find the book’s main argument repetitive at times, Daly has been able to shed new light on how peace to war transitions are studied. Through her work, she has added new dynamics of geographies to the discussions on why some groups return to war, while others do not. Hence, her book has incredible value both for policymakers and scholars in the field of war to peace transitions. Her structured combination of both quantitative and qualitative data gives the book the needed strength to support future policies and further research. Although Daly admits that demilitarization is not necessarily the perfect outcome ‘as the muted guns could easily be loaded and fired again’ (p. 170), having the possibility to predict how armed groups can be influenced to demobilize, is both promising and highly relevant in the current political context, nationally and internationally.

Experiencing Rwanda: Understanding Mass Atrocity at Nyamata

This chapter analyzes a 360-degree virtual tour of the Nyamata Church memorial in Rwanda. The church commemorates the 1994 genocide by openly displaying the bones of the victims massacred there by Hutu militia. The act of being at and witnessing this emotive site has been transformed into an interactive online experience. This chapter assesses how representative this experience is compared to being physically present at the church and as an act of dark tourism. It concludes that, despite some limitations, the tour does much to capture the essence of the memorial. Furthermore, it identifies key educational benefits related to “teaching” the virtual participant about the atrocity that occurred.