James Der Derian

Realism. Historical, social, philosophical, political, economic, legal realism. Machiavellian, Hobbesian, Kissingerian realism. Positivist, post-positivist, liberal, neoliberal, radical realism. Sur-, super-, photo-, anti-, neo-, post-realism. And now on your computer screens and tabloid racks, hyper-realism. Clearly, realism comes in many flavors and everyone has their favorite. Yet in the realm of international relations the meaning of realism has more often than not been presented as uniform, self-evident and transparent. This volume combines the new with the old, by reinvestigating realism through a dialogue between classical international theory and critical theoretical challenges to it. It signals the arrival of a broader range of realisms for a newly multipolar, multicultural international relations. The collection begins where classical realists began, with diplomatic investigations into the limits and possibilities of international theory. These essays are coupled with critical investigations in order to call into question the natural hegemony of traditional realism. Contributors include Martin Wight, Hans Morgenthau, J. Ann Tickner, Hedley Bull, Richard Ashley, Robert Keohane, and Jean Bethke Elshtain.

"Virtuous War is a road trip into the cyborg heart of the military-industrial-media-entertainment network. James Der Derian takes the reader from a family history of war and genocide to new virtual battlespaces in Hollywood, Silicon Valley, and Orlando's Simulation Triangle. We travel with the author to the Army's Advanced Warfighting Experiment in the Mojave Desert, the Marine's Urban Warrior occupation of the San Francisco Bay area, and the staging areas of the Kosovo air campaign in Italy. Der Derian reveals a world in which Marine fire-teams train on the video game Doom, the Navy redesigns a ship's command center as the "Disney Room," and the Army builds a "Holodeck" at a California university. Computer simulations, cable news coverage, and feature movies all blur and converge in this new virtual alliance of the military, the media, and the entertainment industry."--BOOK JACKET.