Capitalism and War
| Title | Καπιταλισμός και Πόλεμος / Capitalism and War |
| Code | ΠΙΥΕ13 |
| Faculty | Social and Economic Sciences |
| School | Political Sciences |
| Cycle / Level | 2nd / Postgraduate |
| Teaching Period | Winter |
| Coordinator | Spyros Marchetos |
| Common | Yes |
| Status | Active |
| Course ID | 600016202 |
| Academic Year | 2018 – 2019 |
| Class Period | Winter |
| Faculty Instructors |
|
| Weekly Hours | 3 |
| Class ID | 600131416
|
Course Type 2011-2015
Specific Foundation / Core
Mode of Delivery
- Face to face
Digital Course Content
- e-Study Guide https://qa.auth.gr/en/class/1/600131416
Erasmus
The course is also offered to exchange programme students.
Language of Instruction
- Greek (Instruction, Examination)
Learning Outcomes
On successfully finishing this course students will know in depth how and why they are expendable in the framework of a world system fomenting eternal war, a culture with strong tendencies towards further militarisation, and the capitalist mode of production. How they will use this knowledge depends on their love for freedom.
General Competences
- Apply knowledge in practice
- Retrieve, analyse and synthesise data and information, with the use of necessary technologies
- Adapt to new situations
- Make decisions
- Work autonomously
- Work in teams
- Work in an international context
- Work in an interdisciplinary team
- Generate new research ideas
- Respect natural environment
- Demonstrate social, professional and ethical commitment and sensitivity to gender issues
- Be critical and self-critical
- Advance free, creative and causative thinking
Course Content (Syllabus)
This course consists of three parts.
The first part, starting with a general introduction to the objectives and the content of the course, traces from a historical perspective the place of war in the capitalist world system and in the capitalist mode of production. Here we focus on the characterization of the twentieth century as 'the Century of War', the war against women from the prehistory till today and the connection between capitalism and patriarchy, and the function of war in the emergence of the world empires and the capitalist world system from the sixteenth to the eighteenth centuries.
The second part researches the relationships developed between capitalism and war from the French Revolution till the Second World War. It examines the function of war in the slave-owning and settler societies developed in America, as well as its implications today. Overviews the ways war has been used in the context of liberal ideology and its connections to democratic and oligarchic historical and social contexts. Questions how war was used by revolutions, and its importance for counter-revolution. Finally, here we dissect the relationship between capitalism and the genocides that multiplied after its global spread.
The third part focusses on the functions and forms of war in the post-1945 conflict between the capitalist West and its enemies. Here we the bring into relief the NATO interventions, the development of the New Imperialism, and our contemporary Hybrid Wars, Coloured Revolutions and Non-Conventional Wars. Finally we trace the consequences of the war trauma on social psychology.
Keywords
Capitalism, War, Capitalist Mode of Production, Capitalist World-System, Patriarchy, State, World-Empires, Slavery, Slave-holding Colonialism, Settler Colonialism, Liberalism, Democracy, Oligarchy, Revolution, Counter-Revolution, Genocide, Racism, NATO, New Imperialism, Mutually Assured Destruction, Nuclear Primacy, Hybrid War, Coloured Revolutions, Trauma, Non-Conventional War,
Educational Material Types
- Book
Use of Information and Communication Technologies
Use of ICT
- Use of ICT in Course Teaching
Student Assessment
Student Assessment methods
- Oral Exams (Formative, Summative)
- Performance / Staging (Formative, Summative)
Bibliography
Additional bibliography for study
The fundamental studies that we use are the following.
Lesson 2. The Century of War. Giovanni Arrighi, The Long Twentieth Century. Money, Power, and the Origins of our Times, Verso, London, New York 1994. Samir Amin, The Liberal Virus. Permanent War and the Americanization of the World, Pluto Press, London, New York 2004.
Lesson 3. The War Against Women. Gerda Lerner, The Creation of Patriarchy, Oxford University Press, New York, London 1986. James C. Scott, Against the Grain. A Deep History of the Earliest States, Yale University Press, New Haven, London 2017.
Lesson 4. World Empires and the Capitalist World-System. Kees van der Pijl, Nomads, Empires, States. Modes of Foreign Relations and Political Economy, Volume I, Pluto Press, London, New York 2007. Alexander Anievas, Kerem Nişancıoğlu, How the West Came to Rule: The Geopolitical Origins of Capitalism, Pluto Press, London 2015. Janet Abu-Lughod, Before European Hegemony. The World System A.D. 1250-1350, Oxford University Press, New York 1989. Immanuel Wallerstein, The Modern World-System. Capitalist Agriculture and the Origins of the European World-Economy in the Sixteenth Century, Academic Press, New York 1974.
Lesson 5. Slave-owning and Settler Colonialism. Edward E. Baptist, The Half Has Never Been Told. Slavery and the Making of American Capitalism, Basic Books 2014. Walter L. Hixson, American Settler Colonialism. A History, Palgrave Macmillan, New York 2013.
Lesson 6. Liberalism, Democracy, Oligarchy. Luciano Canfora, Democracy in Europe. A History of an Ideology, μετάφραση Simon Jones, Blackwell, Οξφόρδη 2006. Domenico Losurdo, Liberalism. A Counter-History, μετάφραση Gregory Elliott, Verso, London 2011 [2006]. Jeffrey A. Winters, Oligarchy, Cambridge University Press, New York 2011.
Lesson 7. Revolution and Counter-revolution. Arno J. Mayer, Dynamics of Counterrevolution in Europe, 1870 - 1956: An Analytic Framework, Harper Torchbooks, Νέα Υόρκη 1971.
Lesson 8. Capitalism and Genocide. Garry Leech, Capitalism. A Structural Genocide, Zed Books, London, New York 2012. David E. Stannard, American Holocaust. Columbus and the Conquest of the New World, Oxford University Press, New York, Oxford 1993.
Lesson 9. Parapolitics, Deep State, and the ΝΑΤΟ. Daniele Ganser, NATO's Secret Armies. Operation Gladio and Terrorism in Western Europe. An Approach to NATO's Secret Stay-Behind Armies, πρόλογος John Prados, Frank Cass, Λονδίνο 2005. Eric Wilson (επιμ.), Government of the Shadows. Parapolitics and Criminal Sovereignty, Pluto Press, Λονδίνο, Νέα Υόρκη 2009.
Lesson 10. The New Imperialism. Michael Hudson, Super Imperialism. The Origin and Fundamentals of U.S. World Dominance, Second Edition, Pluto Press, London, Sterling VA 2003 [1972]. David Harvey, The New Imperialism, Oxford University Press, Οξφόρδη 2003. Emmanuel Todd, After the Empire. The Breakdown of the American Order, foreword Michael Lind, translation C. Jon Delogu, Columbia University Press, New York 2003 [2002].
Lesson 11. Mutually Assured Destruction and Nuclear Primacy. Peter Paret (ed.), Makers of Modern Strategy from Machiavelli to the Nuclear Age, Princeton University Press, Princeton 1986.
Lesson 12. Hybrid Wars, Coloured Revolutions, and Non-conventional Wars. Andrew Korybko, Hybrid Wars. The Indirect Adaptive Approach To Regime Change, Peoples' Friendship University of Russia, Moscow 2015.
Lesson 13. Τhe War Trauma. Judith L. Herman, Trauma and Recovery. The Aftermath of Violence from Domestic Abuse to Political Terror, Basic Books, New York 2015 [1992].
Last Update
13-09-2018
