“Civil-Military Relations From International Conflict Zones to the United States.”

Corri Zoli & Robert Rubinstein, Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs, Syracuse University.

Civil-military relations in the United States are much more militarized today than they were thirty years ago. We will discuss how efforts to improve humanitarian action and warfighting by taking a “cultural turn” created a web of relationships that at first entangled and later entrapped institutions and actors. The processes involved began in the 1990s and accelerated as the “cultural turn” became more central to post-9/11 security developments in the United States. We consider the mutual dependences and dependencies attendant to these processes and consider the emergence of the militarization of local policing an exemplar of the broader societal arrangements they entailed.

Conversations in Conflict Studies is a weekly educational speaker series for students, faculty, and the community. The series, sponsored by PARCC, draws its speakers from Syracuse University faculty, national and international scholars and activists, and PhD students. Pizza is served.