Who Bears the Cost?
Challenging the Narrative of Cost-Free War.
10th – 11th September 2015
Seminar Room 2,
Arts Faculty Building,
The Scores
University of St Andrews, Scotland
An interdisciplinary workshop between the University of Hull, Remote Control and
the University of St Andrews.
Contemporary Western narratives highlight and perpetuate the idea that war has no
cost. Drawing on the legacies of the Kosovo war, it has become fashionable to argue
that the Western dependence on aerial warfare has few costs for those involved. Indeed
this narrative has been cemented in the Western press and government circles through
the idea of ‘precision’ strikes, targeted killings of opponents and the all-pervasive myth
that Western actions have few consequences on the ground. Using the ideas,
narratives and cultures of those on the receiving end of Western strikes this
workshop argues that Western narratives ignore the very essence, the substance and
the timings of what constitutes opposition to aerial warfare by real people in real
places. While it may be comfortable to argue that for example drone strikes have no
negative consequences for the West this workshop explores the many ways in which
resistance
is
formed,
ferments
and
fuels
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counter
Western
narratives.
Challenging the Narrative of Cost-Free War
Two-day programme
Day One: Thursday 10th
September
Coffee Opener
1.30pm-2.00pm
Opening Address: Professor Paul Rogers
2.00pm-2.10pm
Dominant Narratives:
Chair: Professor Nick Rengger
2.10pm – 2.30pm
Professor Anthony Lang: Narrating War:
The Triumph of Technology vs The Death of
Children
2.30pm – 2.50pm
James Iain Rogers: The Desire for Precision
2.50pm – 3.10pm
Chris Woods: Risk Displaced: Remote
Warfare and the Fiction of Risk-Free
Conflict
3.10pm – 3.30pm
Questions & Discussion
Short Recess
3.30pm – 3.40pm
Session 2: Alternative Narratives
Chair: Professor Caroline Kennedy
3.40pm – 4. 00pm
Dr Sibylle Scheipers: “The Most Beautiful of
Wars”: Carl von Clausewitz’s Perspective on
People’s War
4.00pm – 4.20.pm
Dr Caron Gentry & Hannah PartisJennings: Gendering the Libyan
Intervention
Dr Sophia Dingli: Obama’s Arabian
debacle? Re-examining US policy in Yemen
amidst the growing chaos
4.20pm – 4.40pm
4.40pm – 5.00pm
Questions & Discussion
Wine Reception
5.00pm – 5.30pm
Conference Dinner
6.30pm –
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Day Two: Friday 11th
September
Session 3: On the Ground.
Chair: Dr. Michele Olivier
Patrick Bury: Risk Free War and Force
Protection: Some Initial Thoughts
10.00am – 10.20am
Dr Tom Waldman: Clausewitz and CostFree War
10.20am – 10.40am
Edward Burke: ‘Rotten Apple' or Institutional
10.40am – 11.00am
Failure? The Case of Staff Sergeant Robert
Bales
Questions & Discussion
11.00am – 11.20am
Coffee and Refreshments
11.20am - 11-35am
Session 4: Legacies.
Chair: Professor Neil Cooper
Dr. Jeffrey Murer: Not Bug Splat: Anxiety,
Trauma, and the Art Project to Put a Face to
the Costs of Drone Warfare
11.35am – 11.55am
Professor John Williams (Title TBC)
11.55pm – 12. 15pm
Professor Caroline Kennedy: Embrace me in
12.15 pm- 12.35pm
your Suicide Vest.
Questions & Discussion
12.35pm – 12.55pm
Concluding Remarks:
Professor Caroline Kennedy & Dr. Michele
Olivier
12.55pm- 1.15pm
Lunch and Departure
1.15 pm –
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