New book: Why We Fight by Mike Martin

[davidbfpo]

Found via Twitter a Q&A podcast (30 mins) and a lively exchange with Dan Snow, a UK TV historian.
Link:https://www.acast.com/dansnowshistor...artin?autoplay

[davidbfpo]

A powerful short article based on his book. He starts with:

It took me a long time to work out what was going on in Afghanistan. What I saw in front of me—everyone’s behaviour—did not match any of the narratives describing the war.
(He ends with) Essentially, the character of the war was one of manipulation, specifically four manipulations used by pretty much all of the Afghan actors: side-switching, betrayal, denunciation, and collaboration. This meant that—during every era of the conflict—Afghans pursued their own personal and group interests, yet justified them in the dominant ideological narrative of the outsiders. Thus, an old personal enemy would be described to the foreigners as a Talib, or a Mujahed, in order to get the foreigners to kill them. When actions of the foreigners were deemed to impinge upon the interests of a particular Afghan actor, appeals would be made to the defense of Islam. In short, pursuit of personal interest—accruing power (status) and allies (belonging) in order to survive—was always justified by the prevailing ideological framework.

Link:https://taskandpurpose.com/war-afghanistan-ideology/

[davidbfpo]

Spotted via Twitter and may be of interest if you can get to Kings College London. It is a public lecture and requires booking via the link.

The Abstract:

Mike will make the argument that conflict scholarship, and prevention, must increasingly look to biology and psychology in order to explain the most essential and everlasting question in our field: why do humans fight? He will draw on the most recent research in those two fields, as well as his own experiences fighting in Afghanistan, in order to outline a radically different framework for both understanding, and working in, conflict: namely that the sub-conscious, emotional drives of status- and belonging-seeking are what drive conflict, rather than conscious, societal-level factors such as religions and ideologies.
Mike will look at some of the implications – both practical and ethical – of adopting this new approach to the study of war, and he will ask whether the advent of new technologies – particularly AI – will render this approach out-dated before it has even become mainstream.

Link:https://www.kcl.ac.uk/events/event-s...1-e06aaf5f847f