A Bickford
Biographic Data
| ID | 2688 |
|---|---|
| NAME | A Bickford |
| GIVEN NAMES | A |
| FAMILY NAME | Bickford |
| SIGNATURE | BICKFORD A |
| AFFILIATIONS | George Mason University |
| ORCID | 0009-0002-6313-3153 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 14 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 17 |
| WORKS AS AUTHOR | 14 |
| WORKS AS EDITOR | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2008 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2025 |
| H-INDEX | 3 |
The tentacles of surveillance
This article examines the symbol placed on a US spy satellite, National Reconnaissance Office Launch-39 (NROL-39). In 2013, NROL-39 was launched into space, the payload vehicle and mission patch emblazoned with a gigantic octopus, its tentacles surrounding the globe, and the words "Nothing Is Beyond Our Reach" written below the globe. Spy satellites are not new, but what is new here is the explicit use of a known symbol of threat and domination b…
Imagining the Human Camel
Water molecules are the building blocks of life, but they're also the building blocks of war: without water, soldiers cannot fight, and militaries cannot function. The paths and routes of water molecules into the bodies of soldiers can mean success or failure, life or death, on the battlefield. In this article, I'll examine US military plans to weaponize water in the form of hydration enhancement and the body's ability to store and process water …
Spy tours
Field Station Berlin - a National Security Agency/US Army listening post atop Berlin's rubble-built Teufelsberg ('Devil's Mountain') - shows how societies transform surveillance infrastructure into spaces of memory. Drawing on 18 months of ethnographic fieldwork and his experience as a former US Army intelligence operative at the site, the author reveals how visitors make sense of this Cold War ruin. Through Alison Landsberg's concept of 'prosthe…
Behind the Curtain
Dreaming of Robots and War without Humans
Liquid Metal Masculinity
My focus in this article is on the connections between masculinity, “will,” ideology, and biomedical and pharmacological enhancements designed to make soldiers—either the New Man of modernity or the emergent pharmacological “supersoldier” of the current era in the United States—more effective and resilient on (and off) the battlefield. The body is, as we know, a site for expressing political ideals; for fascism and communism, the armored body of …
The 'superman' solution
Current US military research focused on the development of pharmacological 'super soldiers' - soldiers enhanced through a variety of pharmaceuticals and biomedical technologies to perform far beyond what unenhanced soldiers can do - draws from and often mimics popular or pop-cultural conceptions of the superhero. These biomedical and pharmacological interventions pose profound ethical problems and possibilities that are solved - in part - by imag…
Rhetorics of Militarism
Military Labor
"Kill-Proofing" the Soldier
While vigorously exploring new and improved external protection technologies, the US military has long focused on ways to internally armor the soldier through biomedical interventions. The goal of these projects is to create a new kind of soldier with different expectations of performance, capabilities, and survivability. Much of the focus of US military biomedical performance-enhancement programs is on the impact of environmental threats and inf…
From Idiophylaxis to Inner Armor
All militaries try to develop a 'winning edge' in warfare. More often than not these attempts focus on new weapons systems and weapons platforms, on new ways of maximizing the offensive capabilities of a military through firepower. These attempts can also involve the training and development of soldiers, including performance enhancements to make them fight better, longer, and smarter than the enemy and to counter human frailty on the battlefield…
Militaries and Militarization, Anthropology of
Soldiers, Citizens, and the State
Despite official narratives of a relatively smooth transition, of the merging of 'those things which belong together,' German unification and the formation of a new German state has been an uneven project filled with friction and animosity. While the West German government celebrated the 'victory' of unification, and stated that all East Germans wanted unification, one group of East Germans did not look forward to the dissolution of the GDR: memb…
Report from the Field
The US military's creation and deployment of “Human Terrain Teams” and the use of anthropology as a weapon in counterinsurgency operations bears a disturbing similarity to militarized forms of medicine and biotechnology currently in development for US military personnel. Through the mobilization and instrumentalization of health, the US military intends to manipulate the bodies of soldiers while claiming that this manipulation is to protect the w…
Report from the Field
The US military's creation and deployment of “Human Terrain Teams” and the use of anthropology as a weapon in counterinsurgency operations bears a disturbing similarity to militarized forms of medicine and biotechnology currently in development for US military personnel. Through the mobilization and instrumentalization of health, the US military intends to manipulate the bodies of soldiers while claiming that this manipulation is to protect the w…
"Kill-Proofing" the Soldier
While vigorously exploring new and improved external protection technologies, the US military has long focused on ways to internally armor the soldier through biomedical interventions. The goal of these projects is to create a new kind of soldier with different expectations of performance, capabilities, and survivability. Much of the focus of US military biomedical performance-enhancement programs is on the impact of environmental threats and inf…
From Idiophylaxis to Inner Armor
All militaries try to develop a 'winning edge' in warfare. More often than not these attempts focus on new weapons systems and weapons platforms, on new ways of maximizing the offensive capabilities of a military through firepower. These attempts can also involve the training and development of soldiers, including performance enhancements to make them fight better, longer, and smarter than the enemy and to counter human frailty on the battlefield…
Soldiers, Citizens, and the State
Despite official narratives of a relatively smooth transition, of the merging of 'those things which belong together,' German unification and the formation of a new German state has been an uneven project filled with friction and animosity. While the West German government celebrated the 'victory' of unification, and stated that all East Germans wanted unification, one group of East Germans did not look forward to the dissolution of the GDR: memb…
Report from the Field
The US military's creation and deployment of “Human Terrain Teams” and the use of anthropology as a weapon in counterinsurgency operations bears a disturbing similarity to militarized forms of medicine and biotechnology currently in development for US military personnel. Through the mobilization and instrumentalization of health, the US military intends to manipulate the bodies of soldiers while claiming that this manipulation is to protect the w…
Soldiers, Citizens, and the State
Despite official narratives of a relatively smooth transition, of the merging of 'those things which belong together,' German unification and the formation of a new German state has been an uneven project filled with friction and animosity. While the West German government celebrated the 'victory' of unification, and stated that all East Germans wanted unification, one group of East Germans did not look forward to the dissolution of the GDR: memb…
Militaries and Militarization, Anthropology of
From Idiophylaxis to Inner Armor
All militaries try to develop a 'winning edge' in warfare. More often than not these attempts focus on new weapons systems and weapons platforms, on new ways of maximizing the offensive capabilities of a military through firepower. These attempts can also involve the training and development of soldiers, including performance enhancements to make them fight better, longer, and smarter than the enemy and to counter human frailty on the battlefield…
Rhetorics of Militarism
Military Labor
"Kill-Proofing" the Soldier
While vigorously exploring new and improved external protection technologies, the US military has long focused on ways to internally armor the soldier through biomedical interventions. The goal of these projects is to create a new kind of soldier with different expectations of performance, capabilities, and survivability. Much of the focus of US military biomedical performance-enhancement programs is on the impact of environmental threats and inf…
The 'superman' solution
Current US military research focused on the development of pharmacological 'super soldiers' - soldiers enhanced through a variety of pharmaceuticals and biomedical technologies to perform far beyond what unenhanced soldiers can do - draws from and often mimics popular or pop-cultural conceptions of the superhero. These biomedical and pharmacological interventions pose profound ethical problems and possibilities that are solved - in part - by imag…
Liquid Metal Masculinity
My focus in this article is on the connections between masculinity, “will,” ideology, and biomedical and pharmacological enhancements designed to make soldiers—either the New Man of modernity or the emergent pharmacological “supersoldier” of the current era in the United States—more effective and resilient on (and off) the battlefield. The body is, as we know, a site for expressing political ideals; for fascism and communism, the armored body of …
Behind the Curtain
Dreaming of Robots and War without Humans
The tentacles of surveillance
This article examines the symbol placed on a US spy satellite, National Reconnaissance Office Launch-39 (NROL-39). In 2013, NROL-39 was launched into space, the payload vehicle and mission patch emblazoned with a gigantic octopus, its tentacles surrounding the globe, and the words "Nothing Is Beyond Our Reach" written below the globe. Spy satellites are not new, but what is new here is the explicit use of a known symbol of threat and domination b…
Imagining the Human Camel
Water molecules are the building blocks of life, but they're also the building blocks of war: without water, soldiers cannot fight, and militaries cannot function. The paths and routes of water molecules into the bodies of soldiers can mean success or failure, life or death, on the battlefield. In this article, I'll examine US military plans to weaponize water in the form of hydration enhancement and the body's ability to store and process water …
Spy tours
Field Station Berlin - a National Security Agency/US Army listening post atop Berlin's rubble-built Teufelsberg ('Devil's Mountain') - shows how societies transform surveillance infrastructure into spaces of memory. Drawing on 18 months of ethnographic fieldwork and his experience as a former US Army intelligence operative at the site, the author reveals how visitors make sense of this Cold War ruin. Through Alison Landsberg's concept of 'prosthe…
Political science (12 works) · Law (11 works) · Politics (8 works) · History (6 works) · Sociology (6 works) · Computer Science (4 works) · Environmental ethics (4 works) · Art (3 works) · Cold war (3 works) · Engineering (3 works)