Anticipation, Social Theory, and the Stories We Tell Ourselves
Document Type
Article
Publication Date
12-1-2023
Abstract
This paper is about how the future is conceived and perceived in military policy circles. The recent proliferation of terms used to articulate the likely features of future warfare—“hybrid,” “unconventional,” and especially “deep” wars—suggests that far from witnessing a coherent military readjustment to future threats, we are instead seeing linguistic, largely bureaucratic efforts to think about the near future, and how we should respond today, in order to be prepared. These military-policy terms are meaningful within expert communities, and may even express felt reality eloquently. However, on the front line, and in the public square, expert discourse smacks of bureaucratic involution, possibly even intentional obfuscation, thus generating paranoia about the true state of affairs.
Publication Title
Telos
First Page
41
Last Page
61
Recommended Citation
Mark Maguire & David A. Westbrook,
Anticipation, Social Theory, and the Stories We Tell Ourselves,
205
Telos
41
(2023).
Available at:
https://digitalcommons.law.buffalo.edu/journal_articles/1216
Comments
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