Truth Wars: The Politics of Climate Change, Military Intervention and Financial Crisis

ISBN-13: 9781137298485 / Angielski / Miękka / 2014 / 226 str.

Peter Lee

Opis

How 'true' is climate change, and how do we know? Who is to blame for the financial crisis? What is the truth about the drone wars? We live in an age of crises that are global in scale and potentially apocalyptic in severity. In response, the language of war has been increasingly deployed across a whole spectrum of ecological, social and economic problems: war on terror; war on warming; war on want; war on bankers' bonuses; war on drugs; war on waste; war on genocidal leaders. Peter Lee examines climate change, military intervention and financial collapse to reveal how truth is used by competing interests to shape individual behaviour, attitudes and identity.

Recenzje

"He explores the political manipulation of truth discourses to explain how individuals come to identify with particular truth claims. Lee divides his exploration into three sections with three chapters in each. ... Lee's ability to write in an engaging and responsible style that assists the reader in serious ethical introspection of these and other political crises is remarkable. Summing Up: Recommended. All readership levels." (J. R. Pottenger, Choice, Vol. 53 (7), March, 2016)

'Focusing upon the three great global political crises of our time military intervention, the financial meltdown, and the actual 'meltdown' threatened by climate change the author provides a probing and deeply unsettling assessment of the manner in which competing and often illusory truth-claims are fashioned by political leaders, governments, international institutions and demagogues solely in order to re-shape the world in their image, and to gain control over the lives of others. Our fundamental assumptions about what Truth is, or what it means, are put to test in this eloquent, articulate, and provocative work.' - George R. Lucas Jr., U.S. Naval Postgraduate School, USA

'Truth Wars makes a unique and important contribution to the literature on some of the most pertinent questions in global politics today. Peter Lee's new book really challenged my own thinking on what I thought was 'true' in the debates about climate change, drone warfare and the global financial crisis. I cannot wait to see my IR students engage with this thought-provoking analysis, which is guaranteed to lead to some heated discussions! Moreover, Truth Wars not only stands out for its innovative approach to global crises and controversies. It is written with such a sense of fun that I could not put it down once I started reading.' - Bettina Renz, University of Nottingham, UK

'Peter Lee provides the reader with a stimulating, non-judgmental foundation for what can only be classified as the attempt to understand how political truths become political truths and their impact on the political process of establishing policy, making decisions that will affect how policy is implemented, and how it ultimately affects each of us.At least after reading Politics in Crises: Truth Wars, each of us will have a better understanding of the way these truth wars are conducted and be better able to form our own truths.' Bill Powers, Potomac Institute for Policy Studies, Canada

Spis treści

Introduction PART I: POLITICS, TRUTH AND CLIMATE CHANGE 1. Climate, Science and Truth 2. Politics and Climate Truth 3. One world, two visions PART II: POLITICS, TRUTH AND MILITARY INTERVENTION 4. Tyranny, Freedom, Democracy 5. Gendering Military Intervention 6. Drone Wars PART III: POLITICS, TRUTH AND THE GLOBAL FINANCIAL CRISIS 7. It's All Your Fault 8. Governing Greed 9. Who Mentioned the War? 10. Epilogue

O autorze

Peter Lee is Lecturer in Air Power Studies at King's College London, based at RAF College Cranwell in Lincolnshire, UK. During the build-up to the 2003 invasion and for most of the period of the UK's involvement in Iraq, he served as a RAF chaplain. He is regularly invited as a public speaker to give seminars on this subject to military, academic and wider audiences.