Thesis (master's)--Universität, Mainz. / Includes bibliographical references (p. 195-205).

In this thesis, I argue that twenty-first century American war films are constructed in dialogue with the past, repurposing earlier forms of war representation by evoking the visual and narrative memory of the past that is embedded in genre form—what Mikhail Bakhtin calls 'genre memory.' Comparing post-9/11 war films with Vietnam War films, my project examines how contemporary war films envision war's impact on culture and social space, explore how war refashions ideas about race and national identity, and re-imagine war's rewriting of the human psyche. My research expands on earlier research and departs from traditional approaches to the war film genre by locating the American Civil War at the origin of this genre memory, and, in doing so, argues that nineteenth century documentation of the Civil War serves as a rehearsal for the twentieth and twenty-first century war film. Constructed in explicit relation to the Vietnam film, I argue that post-9/11 war films rehearse the history of war representation in American culture while also emphasizing the radically different culture of the present day. Rather than representing a departure from past forms of war representation, as has been argued by many theorists, I show that contemporary American war films can be seen as the latest chapter in a long history of reimagining American military and cultural history in pictorial and narrative form.

Submitted by Maria Dulce (mdulce@ndc.uff.br) on 2014-05-14T20:03:09Z No. of bitstreams: 1 Trigueiro, Gabriel-Dissert-2013.pdf: 1230993 bytes, checksum: f54fb670fa26a260acf423b0f8c19fb6 (MD5) / Made available in DSpace on 2014-05-14T20:03:09Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Trigueiro, Gabriel-Dissert-2013.pdf: 1230993 bytes, checksum: f54fb670fa26a260acf423b0f8c19fb6 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2013 / Este trabalho aborda as reações às guerras do Afeganistão e Iraque de diversos intelectuais envolvidos com a revista norte-americana de esquerda Dissent Magazine. Afinados com aquilo que chamo de campo liberal-left, parte substantiva desses intelectuais não hesitou em prover apoio às medidas militares adotadas pelo governo de George W. Bush. As causas originárias desse apoio são examinadas na presente pesquisa, bem como os argumentos daqueles que, no mesmo periódico, membros da mesma cultura política em questão, se puseram a criticar as ações de política externa do governo Republicano – bem como, por conseguinte, seus colegas de revista. A natureza desses embates e as consequências intelectuais para a cultura política liberal-left são investigadas a seguir. / This paper discusses the reactions to the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq for many intellectuals involved with the U. S. left-wing magazine Dissent. Attuned to what I call the liberal-left field, a substantial part of these intellectuals did not hesitate to support the military measures taken by the George W. Bush government. The primary causes of this support are examined in this study, as well as the arguments of those who, in the same journal, members of the same political culture in question, began the criticize the foreign policy of the Republican government – and, therefore, their magazine colleagues.The nature of these conflicts and its intellectual consequences to the liberal-left political culture are investigated below.

中東地處歐亞非交界，是地緣戰略不可忽略的地方，亦是全球的能源生產重地，世界強權皆欲在此佔有一席之地，其中伊拉克含括兩河流域，為中東地區中心位置，石油儲量全球第二，戰略地點更顯重要，但宗教派系紛爭及強權覬覦的影響，伊拉克經常呈現紛亂狀態。 911事件後，美國將伊拉克列為邪惡軸心國家之一，認定其與恐怖組織掛勾，危害國際社會，決定再次出兵撻伐，並計劃以「美式民主」將伊拉克改造成中東的民主表率，期能在該地區推動民主風潮，但事實與結果卻是美國深陷伊拉克戰爭泥沼，為此付出極大代價，並被國際社會批判。 美國對伊拉克發動戰爭共經歷小布希總統及歐巴馬總統共3個任期，兩人政黨背景不同，執政理念存在差異，執政期間亦經歷各種國內外不同事件之影響，繼而產生不同的伊拉克政策；分析比較兩位總統在對伊拉克戰爭期間的做法，有助探討美國在不同政黨及總統外交政策的延續情況。 經過探討小布希總統與歐巴馬總統採取的伊拉克政策、對極端分子的態度及國內外重大事件等對美國伊拉克政策的影響，顯示美國不會因政黨及總統改變而轉變其外交政策，其政策是延續性的，政策的最高原則仍是將國家利益與安全放在第一位。 / The Middle East which is located at the junction of the three continents of Europe, Asia and Africa, is important for both geography and energy. That is the reason why all powerful countries wanted to occupy it. Iraq which includes Mesopotamia is in the central location of Middle East and takes the second leading in the world’s oil output. However, Iraq is usually in a unstable situation because of religious tribal disputes and keen competition of many powerful countries. After the 911attacks, the United States identified Iraq as the key of the evil countries and also a terrorist organization. The U.S. sent troops to attack Iraq and planned to transform Iraq into a democratic example of the Middle East with "American democracy". However, the U.S. paid a great price, and faced lots of criticism from the international community. The United States launched a war against Iraq across the term of office from President George W. Bush to President Barack Obama. Because the two presidents of different political parties and leading styles were influenced with various internal and external events, they also held different policies to Iraq. To analyze and compare the measures took by these two presidents in the Iraq war will help us to explore the situation of the U. S. foreign policies during the two political parties. After analyzing the foreign policies of President George W. Bush and President Obama towards Iraq and terrorist, we can know that the U.S. did not change its foreign policy through the two presidents of different political parties. The policy practiced by U.S. is continuous and consistent. The U.S. always put the nation’s interests and safety in the first place.

This thesis examines how the press of the erstwhile German Democratic Republic represented Iran in the years from 1949 – the year of the GDR’s formation – until 1989, the last complete year before its demise on 3 October 1990. The study focuses on key events in Iranian history such as the overthrow of the Mossadegh government in 1953, the White Revolution, the Islamic Revolution of 1979, and the Iran-Iraq war. It will be shown that although news and articles were based on selected facts, they still presented a picture of Iran that was at best distorted, the distortions and misrepresentations amounting to what could be described as 'factual fiction'. Furthermore, clear evidence will be provided that economical and political relations with Iran were a primary concern of the GDR’s leadership, and thus also of the GDR’s press and have therefore dominated the reporting on Iran. Whatever ideological concerns there may have been, they were hardly ever allowed to get in the way of amicable relations with the Shah or later with the Islamic Republic. Only in periods where the two countries enjoyed less amicable or poor relations, was the press free to critically report events in Iran and to openly support the cause of the SED’s communist Iranian sister party, the Tudeh. Despite East Germany’s diametric ideological environment and despite the fundamentally different role that the GDR’s political system had assigned to the press and to journalism, East Germany’s press was as reliant on the input of the global news agencies as any Western media. The at times almost complete reliance on Western news agencies as sources for news on Iran challenged more than just the hermeneutic hegemony the SED and the GDR’s press wanted to establish. After all, which news and information were made available by the news agencies to the media in both East and West was primarily determined by the business interests of said agencies. The study makes a contribution to three fields: Modern Iranian history, (East-) German history and media studies. The most valid findings were certainly made in the latter.

Private military companies have rapidly filled in many operational force capacities that national militaries now longer have the capabilities to fill natively. As such, PMCs have expanded their rosters as well as their services provided to fill in many roles, and have carried out many such roles such as logistics management, personal and site security, and some inherently state functions such as training indigenous security forces and interrogation of prisoners. This rise has impacted national militaries in many facets of their operations and abstract professional bases. The ability of the PMC to carry out operations at the same standard as regular soldiers but with higher pay has impacted how the regular soldier views their own place in the professional national military, and creates problems for the establishment as a whole. This thesis will discuss the Iraq War as a case study and the impact of PMCs on the war, as well as introduce the Huntingtonian theories of soldier professionalism and corporateness, and will also employ a critical Marxist perspective to analyse the role and impact of PMCs in the modern military convention and in civil-military relations.

This study examines the decision making process in Washington which led to the current non-existence of political and economic relations between the Islamic Republic of Iran and the United States. The study examines the U.S.-Iran relationship at three levels-of-analysis: the individual, state, and system levels. From a geopolitical perspective, Iran and the United States have often been natural allies that pursued similar policy goals. After 9/11, the U.S. entered Afghanistan and Iraq which further necessitated the reengagement of Tehran. Iranian regional clout would play a vital role in stabilization of Iraq and Afghanistan and without Iran's assistance; peace will not likely be realized in those states. Amongst the most compelling reasons for Washington to engage in meaningful dialogue with Tehran are: terrorism, the war on drugs, the Iranian sponsorship of militant groups, and Tehran's pursuit of a nuclear program. The study concludes that rapprochement should occur in two phases. The first being cooperation in areas of mutual concern such as the war on drugs. The second phase promoting confidence building methods, which would lead to a strategic partnership based on mutual interests.

No description available.

This study was done to see the effects of a war on the economy and the internal politics of the United States. In selecting the engagement, we would study we agreed the Iraq War would be aided by a large amount of sampling of public opinion that was more nuanced than in previous wars. The Iraq War was a very complicated war, as it was controversial from the beginning and became a political issue while continuing to be a war fought by Americans abroad. Based on the literature, there were many starting effects and assumptions that were accounted for such as the ‘rally round the flag effect.' As a historical landmark, the Iraq War is important for being a significant conflict after the Vietnam War, another very controversial conflict in the eyes of the American public. The hypothesis that I presented were not supported by the data. The impact of the war on the economy was not strong enough that it would create pressure for the sort of model I created to apply. In this model the economic problems faced domestically could lead to more unemployment and therefore to higher military recruitment rates. While this was partially true in 2008, the consequence was not a significantly higher amount of people in the military. Ultimately, this project requires to be done in a more thorough setting where effects may be compared with those of other similar countries in similar scenarios.

No description available.