- Between weeks 8 and 12, each student should provide a weekly reflection (500 words) on the data you have collected to date.
- What data did you collect?
- What is your initial impression of the data?
- How have the data you have collected this week changed/progressed your thinking about your research project?
- What challenges did you encounter while collecting the data?
- What are your next steps?
Annotated Bibliography
- Ettinger, Aaron. 2011. “Neoliberalism and the Rise of the Private Military Industry.”International Journal 66(3):743-764 (https://login.ezproxy.bowdoin.edu/login?url=https://search.proquest.com/docview/1924587037?accountid=9681).
I’ve chosen Ettinger’s piece as it may fill a slight gap in the motivation I have to cover neoliberalism and the US military in the post 9/11 era. As the title indicates, Ettinger offers a detail rich explanation of the rise of private military groups and their significant relationship with the US military. There are many aspects within this subject that I can connect back to neoliberalism. Some I may eventually include are: the choice of many soldiers to leave the US military in favor of these groups because of significantly better pay, the contracting of massive yet relatively unknown numbers of these groups and soldiers by the US military to fight in the Middle East, the armament contacts between the weapons manufactures, the US government and these private military groups, and the intersection between these private groups and their glorification and normalization within the mainstream via Hollywood productions. All of these things relate heavily to neoliberal tenets, including efficiency within foreign intervention and in general, the ways in which neoliberlization manifests itself within the market of war. Ettinger’s piece is backed up by many citations, is peer reviewed and in general, offers a great perspective on understanding the ascent of military privatization.
COMMENTS:
This piece looks really interesting ( I should read it myself). My only suggestion would be to tease out what the author means by “neoliberalism. ” (this suggestion of course applies to other authors as well). At the end, you might see some differences between the ways in which these authors define “neoliberalism” and you can formulate your own definition based on our course material and/or these articles.
- Williams, Ginger and Jennifer Disney. 2015. “Militarism and its Discontents: Neoliberalism, Repression, and Resistance in Twenty-First-Century US-Latin American Relations.” Social Justice 41(3):1-28 (https://login.ezproxy.bowdoin.edu/login?url=https://search-proquest-com.ezproxy.bowdoin.edu/docview/1674270615?accountid=9681).
Ginger Williams and Jennifer Disney’s piece offers a more nuanced lens on tangible effects of neoliberalism and globalization within Latin America, specifically addressing the fervor for left-leaning opposition political groups in the most neoliberal era and US military intervention and neocolonial tactics utilized to curb the rise of these governments. One striking statistics from the reading was that between 2001 and 2005, 85,820 Latin American soldiers were trained in the United States. The intervention of the United States government and the contortion of purpose that the US military go through within this globalized neoliberal context, one that is marked by significant, unjustified intervention and investment in the repression of opposition governments, is a particular aspect of this general subject matter that I hope to include in my paper as well. The marketed roll of a global protector and global police force is severely delegitimized by the reality of these interventions which have occurred throughout Latin America. Protecting favorable economic conditions is not a legitimate reason for state military intervention, but this paper does well to describe the strategies utilized by the US to justify their actions. The paper is heavily cited and I feel will mix well with my other pieces.
COMMENTS:
I guess we can argue that military and intellectual training in the US dominated neoliberal era goes hand in hand given that the Chicago boys (Chile) were trained in the US. Also, I think it would be interesting to think of this piece in relation to Camp’s argument about the relationship between neoliberalism and counterinsurgencies (One theme upon which we have touched in our course is the intrinsic connection between US domestic and foreign policies)
Reflection I remain pleased with how my research is going. I believe I have found further clarity in why I will choose to specifically analyze the post 9/11 era, as US security interests within the globalized neoliberal era prompt a level of military investment that goes far beyond our own borders. Even though I will seek to focus on the post 9/11 era, I believe some history, for example discussing US paramilitary intervention in Latin America throughout the 80’s and 90’s will only strengthen arguments I will then make about the 21st century. Looking ahead to next week, I will plan on now beginning the process fo developing a very rough outline, and thinking about the way in which I want these varying pieces to work together to achieve my end goal of strong and backed up thesis.
COMMENTS:
I liked your research plan, Devon. I guess we can claim that there have been three building blocks of the global order that the US created in the neoliberal era economic, humanitarian, and military. Economic sides include such institutions as IMF and World Bank, humanitarian side includes NGOs and of course the military on which you are focusing.
You might also want to look into how the form of “war” has changed over the last three decades.