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Book Movies  Myth    the National Security State

Download or read book Movies Myth the National Security State written by Dan O'Meara and published by . This book was released on 2016 with total page 293 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: While analysts may agree that Hollywood movies have always both mirrored and helped to shape the tenor of their times, the question remains: Just how do they do it? And how do we identify the underlying political/ideological content of a film? Movies, Myth, and the National Security State answers these questions, exploring how Hollywood movies have served to propagate, or to debate, or sometimes to challenge the evolving US national security state since 1945. Drawing on more than a thousand films-and focusing in detail on 48 films that address key issues confronting the US and its sense of se.

Book National Security Cinema

Download or read book National Security Cinema written by Matthew Alford and published by . This book was released on 2017-06-27 with total page 264 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This is a book about secrecy, militarism, manipulation, and censorship at the heart of the world's leading democracy-and about those who try to fight them. Using thousands of pages of documents acquired through the Freedom of Information Act National Security Cinema exclusively reveals that the national security state-led by the CIA and Pentagon-has worked on more than eight-hundred Hollywood films and over a thousand network television shows. The latest scholarship has underestimated the size of this operation, in part because the government has gone to considerable lengths to prevent data emerging, especially in the 21st Century, as the practice of government-Hollywood cooperation has escalated and become more aggressive. National Security Cinema reveals for the first time specific script changes made by the government for political reasons on dozens of blockbusting films and franchises like Transformers, Avatar, Meet the Parents, and The Terminator. These forces have suppressed important narratives about: CIA drug trafficking; illegal arms sales; military creation of bio-weapons; the interaction of private armies and oil companies; government treatment of minorities; torture; coups; assassinations, and the failure to prevent 9/11.

Book American Grand Strategy under Obama

Download or read book American Grand Strategy under Obama written by Lofflmann Georg Lofflmann and published by Edinburgh University Press. This book was released on 2017-07-03 with total page 333 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Discover how rivalling discourses of American grand strategy reveal a fractured consensus of geopolitical identity and national security under President Obama. This conflict manifested in divergent elite visions of liberal hegemony, cooperative engagement and unilateral restraint. Georg Lfflmann examines the identity conflict within the Washington foreign policy establishment, between elite insiders and outsiders, and how the 'Obama Doctrine' both confirmed a geopolitical vision of American exceptionalism and challenged established notions of US hegemony and world leadership.

Book Movies  Myth  and the National Security State

Download or read book Movies Myth and the National Security State written by Dan O'Meara and published by . This book was released on 2016 with total page 293 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "A valuable book.... highly engaging and thought provoking. Sweeping in its analysis, it brings together a sophisticated discussion of US political history since World War II with a very sharp evaluation of movies during the distinct eras of these years." --Robert Snyder, Southwestern University While analysts may agree that Hollywood movies have always both mirrored and helped to shape the tenor of their times, the question remains: Just how do they do it? And beyond that, how do we identify the political/ideological content of any film? The authors of Movies, Myth, and the National Security State offer answers to these questions, exploring how Hollywood movies have functioned to propagate, or to debate, or sometimes to contest the evolving US national security state since 1945. Drawing on more than a thousand films released since 1948, and focusing in detail on 48 films that address key issues and dilemmas confronting the US and its sense of self and role in the world, they provide insights into US political life as it has developed across some seven decades. Dan O¿Meara and Alex Macleod are professors of international relations at the University of Quebec at Montreal (UQAM). Frédérick Gagnon is assistant professor of political science at UQAM. David Grondin is assistant professor of American studies and international relations at the University of Ottawa.

Book Violence  Religion  Peacemaking

Download or read book Violence Religion Peacemaking written by Douglas Irvin-Erickson and published by Springer. This book was released on 2016-09-09 with total page 205 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This volume explores how religious leaders can contribute to cultures of peace around the world. The essays are written by leading and emerging scholars and practitioners who have lived, taught, or worked in the areas of conflict about which they write. Connecting the theory and practice of religious peacebuilding to illuminate key challenges facing interreligious dialogue and interreligious peace work, the volume is explicitly interreligious, intercultural, and global in perspective. The chapters approach religion and peace from the vantage point of security studies, sociology, ethics, ecology, theology, and philosophy. A foreword by David Smock, the Vice President of Governance, Law and Society and Director of the Religion and Peacebuilding Center at the United States Institute of Peace, outlines the current state of the field.

Book Being Religious Interreligiously

Download or read book Being Religious Interreligiously written by Peter C. Phan and published by Orbis Books. This book was released on 2015-02-25 with total page 481 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Book Historicizing Myths in Contemporary India

Download or read book Historicizing Myths in Contemporary India written by Swapna Gopinath and published by Taylor & Francis. This book was released on 2023-02-03 with total page 245 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book examines cinematic practices in Bollywood as narratives that assist in shaping the imagination of the age, especially in contemporary India. It examines historical films released in India since the new millennium and analyses cinema as a reflection of the changing socio-political and economic conditions at any given period. The chapters in Historicizing Myths in Contemporary India: Cinematic Representations and Nationalist Agendas in Hindi Cinemas also illuminate different perspectives on how cinematic historical representations follow political patterns and market compulsions, giving precedence to a certain past over the other, creating a narrative suited for the dominant narrative of the present. From Mughal-e-Azam to Padmaavat, and Bajirao Mastani to Raazi, the chapters show how creating history out of myths validate hegemonic identities in a rapidly evolving Indian society. The volume will be of interest to scholars of film and media studies, literature and culture studies, and South Asian studies.

Book Creating the National Security State

Download or read book Creating the National Security State written by Douglas Stuart and published by Princeton University Press. This book was released on 2009-04-11 with total page 357 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: For the last sixty years, American foreign and defense policymaking has been dominated by a network of institutions created by one piece of legislation--the 1947 National Security Act. This is the definitive study of the intense political and bureaucratic struggles that surrounded the passage and initial implementation of the law. Focusing on the critical years from 1937 to 1960, Douglas Stuart shows how disputes over the lessons of Pearl Harbor and World War II informed the debates that culminated in the legislation, and how the new national security agencies were subsequently transformed by battles over missions, budgets, and influence during the early cold war. Stuart provides an in-depth account of the fight over Truman's plan for unification of the armed services, demonstrating how this dispute colored debates about institutional reform. He traces the rise of the Office of the Secretary of Defense, the transformation of the CIA, and the institutionalization of the National Security Council. He also illustrates how the development of this network of national security institutions resulted in the progressive marginalization of the State Department. Stuart concludes with some insights that will be of value to anyone interested in the current debate over institutional reform.

Book Popular Cinema as Political Theory

Download or read book Popular Cinema as Political Theory written by J. Nelson and published by Springer. This book was released on 2013-12-05 with total page 266 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The book presents cinematic case studies in political realism versus political idealism, demonstrating methods of viewing popular cinema as political theory. The book appreciates political myth-making in popular genres as especially practical and accessible theorizing about politics.

Book American Political Movies

Download or read book American Political Movies written by James Combs and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2013-12-17 with total page 196 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Essays here explore the relationship between politics and explicitly political feature films from the beginning of the movie industry to World War I, and for each decade through to the 1980's. The included filmography is particularly useful. Originally published in 1990, the method of inquiry put forward in this text is nonetheless extendable to the decades following its publication.

Book American Terminator

Download or read book American Terminator written by Ziauddin Sardar and published by Red Wheel Weiser. This book was released on 2004-10-01 with total page 409 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A hard-hitting sequel and companion piece to the international bestseller Why Do People Hate America?. The book begins its examination of the state of American society with the California Gubernatorial Election of 2003. The victory of Hollywood superstar Arnold Schwarzenegger in that election is more than the triumph of a populist candidate—it is a telling indicator of how an uninformed people has been misled by a political illusion. This is fantasy politics, and it is set to unfold across the US in the future. It is, therefore, a vital concern for people everywhere. How American democracy is understood and enacted in the United States is an essential guide to how its nation-building efforts abroad operate. The authors argue that the failures of American democracy at home—its increasing reliance on fantasy versions of reality—are blueprints for its failures overseas. What America cannot resolve at home, as much as how it constructs and operates its foreign policy, makes the world a more unstable and dangerous place for everyone. The authors diagnose these failures as “Schwar-zenegger’s Laws.” These laws allow us to understand how Hollywood’s global superstar was elected to office, not as a reaction against political failure but as the pure expression of an enduring and disturbing thread of fantasy within American politics, culture and society. As a political candidate, Schwarzenegger did not need to create a conventional political platform—he had only to present himself, for he was already an oven-ready candidate, an established persona with a set of values defined by his films which provided him with a definable policy stance in the public imagination. With America now the lone hyperpower, “Schwarzenegger’s Laws” affect every citizen of every country.

Book The Powers That Be

    Book Details:
  • Author : Walter Wink
  • Publisher : Harmony
  • Release : 2010-02-24
  • ISBN : 0307575454
  • Pages : 238 pages

Download or read book The Powers That Be written by Walter Wink and published by Harmony. This book was released on 2010-02-24 with total page 238 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In our fast-paced secular world, God and theology are second-class citizens. Money, politics, sports, and science seem better suited to the hard realities of our world. As the church steeple has been eclipsed by the skyscraper as the centerpiece of the urban landscape, so has the divine realm been set aside in favor of more immediate human experience. One sad consequence of this shift is the loss of spiritual and theological bearings, most clearly evident in our inability to understand or speak about such things. If the old way of viewing the universe no longer works, something else has to replace it. The Powers That Be reclaims the divine realm as central to human existence by offering new ways of understanding our world in theological terms. Walter Wink reformulates ancient concepts, such as God and the devil, heaven and hell, angels and demons, principalities and powers, in light of our modern experience. He helps us see heaven and hell, sin and salvation, and the powers that shape our lives as tangible parts of our day-to-day experience, rather than as mysterious phantoms. Based on his reading of the Bible and analysis of the world around him, Wink creates a whole new language for talking about and to God. Equipped with this fresh world view, we can embark on a new relationship with God and our world into the next millennium.

Book Conversations with Gore Vidal

Download or read book Conversations with Gore Vidal written by Gore Vidal and published by Univ. Press of Mississippi. This book was released on 2005 with total page 228 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Almost sixty years ago, Gore Vidal burst onto the literary landscape with his World War II novel Williwaw. He never looked back. To date he has published twenty-nine novels, one short story collection, six theatrical plays, and numerous books of nonfiction. His novel The City and the Pillar was a groundbreaking work in the history of homosexual literature. In Myra Breckinridge Vidal created a ribald parody of sexual morality and identity. In 1967 Vidal published Washington, D.C. It would be the first of seven novels that have come to be known as the American Chronicles, a sprawling history of the empire filled with a cast of the most significant social, literary, and political figures of the United States. Conversations with Gore Vidal features provocative and intriguing interviews with one of America's most prolific authors. Vidal was an enfant terrible in the 1940s and a marginalized homosexual in the 1950s. As Edgar Box he wrote mysteries, and as a screenwriter he penned the script for Ben-Hur. In 1960 he ran for Congress. In the 1990s, he appeared in films such as Gattaca, Bob Roberts, and Shadow Conspiracy. His essay collection United States: Essays 1952-1992, which features 114 pieces on everything from Howard Hughes to French literature, won the National Book Award. Vidal proves himself here to be a witty, acerbic, cantankerous conversationalist, one who is willing to-and often eager to-defy conventional wisdom and lacerate the tired clich s inherent in both politics and literature. A defiant political insider who is related to both the Gores and the Kennedys, he is a proud Leftist who nevertheless does not hesitate to slash at party orthodoxy when he deems it necessary. Richard Peabody and Lucinda Ebersole are the editors of the literary journal Gargoyle, based in Washington, D.C.

Book Masked Men

    Book Details:
  • Author : Steve Cohan
  • Publisher : Indiana University Press
  • Release : 1997-12-22
  • ISBN : 9780253115874
  • Pages : 376 pages

Download or read book Masked Men written by Steve Cohan and published by Indiana University Press. This book was released on 1997-12-22 with total page 376 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The fifties marks the moment when a heterosexual/homosexual dualism came to dominate U.S. culture's thinking about masculinity. The films of this era record how gender and sexuality did not easily come together in a normative manhood common to American men. Instead these films demonstrate the widely held perception of a crises of masculinity. Masked Men documents how movies of the fifties represented masculinity as a multiple masquerade. Hollywood's star system positioned the male actor as a professional performer and as a body intended to solicit the erotic interest of male and female viewers alike. Drawing on publicity, poster art, fan magazines, and the popular press as a means of following the links between fifties stars, their films, and the social tensions of the period, Cohan juxtaposes Hollywood's narratives of masculinity against the personae of leading men like Cary Grant, Humphrey Bogart, John Wayne, Charlton Heston, Yul Brynner, William Holden, Montgomery Clift, Marlon Brando, and Rock Hudson. Masked Men focuses on the gender and sexual masquerades that organized their performances of masculinity on and off screen.

Book Civil Resistance Today

Download or read book Civil Resistance Today written by Kurt Schock and published by John Wiley & Sons. This book was released on 2015-07-09 with total page 232 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: From Gandhi's salt march to the US civil rights movement and Occupy Wall Street, nonviolent campaigns to promote democracy, human rights and social justice have long played an important transformative role in local, national and global politics. Some have succeeded, some have failed; but nonviolent action remains a very effective means of achieving significant social and political change. In this authoritative book Kurt Schock expertly guides readers through the changing terrain of nonviolent struggle, exploring the historical roots and development of modern civil resistance and its proliferation in recent decades. Discussing movements against economic and social injustice as well as political oppression, he explains how resistance happens and unpacks the complex interactions between state and non-state actors that affect the trajectories and outcomes of nonviolent campaigns. Drawing on a wealth of empirical data and comparative research, Civil Resistance Today will be an essential "one stop shop" for anyone keen to learn more about the methods, objectives and outcomes of civil resistance in the contemporary world.

Book The Film of the Islamic State

Download or read book The Film of the Islamic State written by Yorck Beese and published by Springer Nature. This book was released on with total page 416 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Book Hard Power

    Book Details:
  • Author : Kurt Campbell
  • Publisher : Basic Books
  • Release : 2007-03-09
  • ISBN : 046500380X
  • Pages : 336 pages

Download or read book Hard Power written by Kurt Campbell and published by Basic Books. This book was released on 2007-03-09 with total page 336 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Our ideas about national security have changed radically over the last five years. It has become a political tool, a "wedge issue," a symbol of pride and fear. It is also the one issue above all others that can make or break an election. And this is why the Democratic Party has been steadily losing power since 2001. In Hard Power, Michael O'Hanlon, an expert on foreign policy at the Brookings Institution, and Kurt Campbell, an authority on international security at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, explain how the Democrats lost credibility on issues of security and foreign policy, how they can get it back--and why they must. They recall the successful Democratic military legacy of past decades, as well as recent Democratic innovations--like the Homeland Security Office and the idea of nation-building--that have been successfully co-opted by the Republican administration. And, most importantly, they develop a broad national security vision for America, including specific defense policies and a strategy to win the war on terror.