Co-sponsored by the Center for Middle Eastern and North African Studies and the International Institute.
Energy, Security, and America’s Long War in the Middle East
Abstract: President Obama's recent decision to once again escalate American military involvement in the Middle East appears rooted in a pressing set of worries about new patterns of terrorism and violence in the region. Whatever the pretense for the current military escalation, it is hardly controversial to argue that this marks just one more moment in a long history of American war-fighting in the Middle East. How should we think about this longer pattern of militarization and war? Understanding America's long war in the Middle East requires us to think through not just talk of terrorism and security, but of the relationships of these concerns to energy and the ways in which American material interests have taken shape spatially, geographically, and technopolitically.
Toby Jones’ scholarship focuses primarily on the political intersections between science, technology, the environment, knowledge production, and state formation, war, and Islamism. He is autho of Desert Kingdom: How Oil and Water Forged Modern Saudi Arabia (Harvard University Press, 2010). He is currently working on a new book project, “America’s Oil Wars,” also to be published by Harvard University Press.
More information: Science, Technology and Society Program 734-763-2066 www.lsa.umich.edu/sts/
The Science, Technology, Medicine, and Society (STeMS) Speaker Series is made possible by generous contributions from the Department of Communications Studies, Department of History, LS&A Dean’s Office, and School of Information.
| Speaker: |
|---|
