Synopses & Reviews
Geopolitics is changing. The conduct of war and peace is being transformed by our increasing dependence on visual images and practices. Satellite surveillance, computer games, streaming video, retinal scanning and mobile phone cameras are just some of the technologies that are shaping contemporary geopolitics. From the horrors of 9/11 and Abu Ghraib to the mechanical, mundane functioning of airport biometrics, geopolitical truths are established through a process of visual demonstration. Visual culture has become part of the apparatus of persuasion. Observant States brings together leading international authors to explore the developing relationship between geopolitics and visual culture. The result is a definitive contribution to a globally significant, newly emergent field of enquiry.
About the Author
Fraser MacDonald is Lecturer in Human Geography at the University of Melbourne.
Rachel Hughes is Lecturer in Human Geography at the University of Melbourne.
Klaus Dodds is Professor of Geopolitics at Royal Holloway, University of London. He is the author of a number of books including Pink Ice (I.B.Tauris, 2002) and Geopolitics: a Very Short Introduction (Oxford, 2007).
Table of Contents
Introduction: Envisioning Geopolitics -- Fraser MacDonald, Rachel Hughes and Klaus Dodds * Imaging Terror: Logos, Pathos and Ethos -- James Der Derian * Torture and the Ethics of Photography -- Judith Butler * Not to be Missed Weapons of Mass Destruction -- Timothy W. Luke * Flying the Flag -- Alison Williams * Affectivity and Geopolitical Images -- Sean Carter and Derek P. McCormack * Gameworld Geopolitics and the Genre of the Quest -- Rachel Hughes * ‘I Used to Keep a Camera in my Top Left-hand Pocket -- Rachel Woodward, Trish Winter and K. Neil Jenkings * The Scopic Regime of ‘Africa ‘ -- David Campbell and Marcus Power * Combat Zones that See: Urban Warfare and US Military Technology -- Stephen Graham * Eye to Eye: Biometrics, the Observer, the Observed and the Body Politic -- Emily Gilbert * Vigilant Visualities:the Watchful Politics of the War on Terror -- Louise Amoore * Perpendicular Sublime: Regarding Rocketry and the Cold War -- Fraser MacDonald * Notes * Bibliography * Index