5 articles
Given the speed of geopolitical, technological and media landscape changes impacting how war is waged, it is becoming increasingly difficult to discern actual threats from misinformation, to reflect on issues that could induce fear but require measured responses.
Eurozine’s partner journals publishing from across Europe and beyond – located in once-colonial powers, ex-fascist realms, neutral territories, the ex-Soviet countries and neo-colonial nations – are well placed to analyse pressing cultural reflections on contemporary warfare from sanctions, human rights abuses and peace negotiations to recruitment, rearmament, autonomous weapons and civil protection mechanisms.
Warring parties that benefit from violence and extortion – targeting civilians, looting, smuggling and abducting, pushing identity politics – are averse to resolution. How can diplomatic peace negotiations move beyond discussions about territory and improve the lives of war victims? And how can objective threats be identified in times of escalating conflict?
Russian drones entering Polish airspace, militarily seen as intensified provocation rather than open warfare, have nevertheless provoked costly responses – both from NATO’s air defence systems and civilian reactions to disinformation. A war correspondent’s view of what can be done technologically – for greater military efficiency and improved civil defence.
The technological link between the rifle and the film camera, the medial links between the Gulf War and Star Wars, the colonial history of bombs – piecing together historical and contemporary fragments reveals an image of Kurdistan as a testing ground for military technology unleashed without responsibility for its consequences.
Modern warfare, currently playing out in the Middle East, relies on algorithms that often foreshadow further violence. But is the predilection for predicting attacks more a deterrent or provocation? And is managing risk a matter of neo-colonial imperialism rather than defence?



