Forwarded from George Snedeker

[Louis Proyect <lnp3@xxxxxxxxx>]

would you post the following call for papers on your list? I know the
editor of the book very well.

Maisonneuve Press seeks contributions for a forthcoming volume, tentatively
titled Enduring Freedom or Enduring War. Contributions that focus on the
new global conditions declared by the Bush administration in the aftermath
of the destruction of the World Trade Center are welcome. We aim to place
the current war in the context of long-standing US military and foreign
policies. We seek well-researched, authoritative work that avoids
"presentism" and places recent policy in a deeper historical and analytic
perspective. Essays should meet strict standards of scholarly research,
while being written in a clear, lively style for a wide readership. The
most suitable papers will address one of the themes below:

1. Oil interests. For several years, in think tanks like RAND, SAIS, CSIS,
PNAC, etc. there's been an increasing demand that the US get its military
into Central Asia and elsewhere to be sure that US/European oil companies
dominate the development of oil fields and pipelines. Congress passed the
Silk Road Act in 1999 and authorized military installations in Central Asia.

2. Backgrounds to Al Queda and Osama bin Laden. In his proclamations, bin
Laden cites the US occupation of Saudi Arabia and the subsequent
degeneration of Saudi society as the central factor for his rebellion. The
royal family in Saudi Arabia is no different from other US puppet regimes
we've seen in the likes of Marcos, Mobutu, Samosa, Suharto, Resa Pavlavi,
and many, many more.

3. History of US involvement with Pakistani Intelligence, bin Laden,
mujahadeen, and other non-conventional armies in the various wars of the
last decade. Why is the US now carrying out a war on those who assisted it
in the destabilization of Yugoslavia, Chechnya, Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, and
other places? Is it finished with Muslim fundamentalist freedom fighters?
Or is this the beginning of a new wave of terrorism and destabilization in
Central Asia.

4. The "Bush Doctrine" - in a series of policy speeches and papers
beginning with the address to graduates of West Point, Bush has articulated
what is being called a new American foreign policy. It centers on
preemptive or first-strike wars against any nation that rises to compete
with or challenge US dominance in any area of the world. The doctrine also
includes the militarization of space. The Pentagon's Joint Vision 2020
forecasts what the US military might look like in 17 years. Its slogan is
"Full Spectrum Dominance." Actually these policies go back to the first
Bush administration and are more related to Cheney. David Armstrong's
article, "Dick Cheney's Song of America" is an excellent reference point in
this regard.

5. Case Histories - Iraq, N. Korea, Afghanistan, Philippines, and etc. Any
one country provides a good close look at how all of this "new imperialism"
works out.

6. Looking at the Future. Enduring Freedom will mean an increasingly
militarized society in the US. It will begin to look more and more like
Israel or even like the dystopia depicted in Orwell's 1984. The Patriot
Acts I and II and the blending of the CIA and FBI and the Homeland Security
Department will all transform American society. What will be some of the
implications of these changes? We seek to re-contextualize the discussion
of Bush's War on Terrorism. Get it off of the "innocent America, victim of
a horrible and surprise attack" and get the focus back on the steady
progress of US foreign policy. This war is not taking the US away from its
long held plans but only taking us deeper into them.


Louis Proyect, Marxism mailing list: http://www.marxmail.org