Maja Zehfuss
Biographic Data
| ID | 6176800 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Maja Zehfuss |
| GIVEN NAMES | Maja |
| FAMILY NAME | Zehfuss |
| SIGNATURE | ZEHFUSS M |
| AFFILIATIONS | University of Manchester |
| VERIFIED | No |
| TOTAL WORKS | 16 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 59 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 15 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 1 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2001 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2019 |
| H-INDEX | 5 |
Conclusion: What can we do to change the world?
Jacques Derrida is one of the most important contemporary philosophers. His strategy of ‘deconstruction’ involves showing how arguments rely on assumptions that at the same time undermine them. This has profound political implications. In September 2011 Occupy Wall Street set up in Zuccotti Park, in New York’s financial district, in order to protest against economic inequality, greed, and the influence of corporations on government, in particular…
Global Politics: A New Introduction
Global Politics: A New Introduction
Culture: Knowledge of the People as Technology of Ethics
This chapter explores how people came to be recognized as central to what the West calls counterinsurgency wars and how cultural knowledge came to be seen as central to war-fighting in line with the vision of ethical war. It examines the US Army and Marine Corps Counterinsurgency Manual as setting out how, in practice, culture matters and how it can be made useful to operations. Cultural knowledge therefore had to be made available to the militar…
Global Politics: A New Introduction
War and the Politics of Ethics
Contemporary Western war is represented as enacting the West's ability and responsibility to help make the world a better place for others, in particular to protect them from oppression and serious human rights abuses. That is, war has become permissible again, indeed even required, as ethical war. At the same time, however, Western war kills and destroys. This creates a paradox: Western war risks killing those it proposes to protect. This book e…
Critical Theory, Poststructuralism, and Postcolonialism
Global politics: A New Introduction
Culturally sensitive war? The Human Terrain System and the seduction of ethics
Since around 2005, efforts have been made within the US military to highlight the significance of culture or the ‘human terrain’ for counterinsurgency operations. The US Army responded to the asserted ‘cultural knowledge gap’ by establishing an experimental programme called the Human Terrain System (HTS), which involves deploying social scientists alongside combat forces. While HTS was received favourably in the US mainstream media, it has been f…
Wounds of Memory: The Politics of War in Germany
German memories of the Second World War are controversial, and they are used to justify different positions on the use of military force. In this book, Maja Zehfuss studies the articulation of memories in novels in order to discuss and challenge arguments deployed in political and public debate. She explores memories that have generated considerable controversy, such as the flight and expulsion of Germans from the East, the bombing of German citi…
The Tragedy of Violent Justice: The Danger of Elshtain's Just War Against Terror
In Just War Against Terror Elshtain articulates emotions whilst ridiculing others who allegedly privilege emotion over reason. This critique focuses on her use of the notion of `tragedy'. Distinctions are crucial to Elshtain's argument, especially that between combatants and civilians; they are based on the significance of intention. Elshtain seems uneasy, however, about a particular consequence of waging war: civilian deaths. She seeks refuge in…
Generalising the international
Ironically, since 11 September 2001, world politics seems to have taken a turn towards certainty. This article is an intervention that demonstrates how the illusion of the sovereign state in an insecure and anarchic international system is sustained and how it might be challenged. It does so through a Derridean analysis of Hedley Bull's The Anarchical Society . The article examines how International Relations (IR) thinking works; it teases out th…
Remembering to Forgive? The 'War on Terror' in a 'Dialogue' between German and US Intellectuals
Forget September 11
September 11 has been etched on our memories. This article explores the uses and problems of memory in relation to responses to September 11, focusing largely on material from the USA and the Federal Republic of Germany as illustration, and argues that we might be better off forgetting September 11. The exhortation to remember is used to justify responding militarily abroad and, significantly, curtailing civil liberties at home. Criticism of thes…
Constructivism in International Relations: The Politics of Reality
Maja Zehfuss' book offers a fundamental critique of constructivism, focusing on the work of Wendt, Onuf and Kratochwil. Using Germany's shift towards participation in international military operations as an illustration, she demonstrates why each version of constructivism fails in its own project and comes apart on the basis of its own assumptions. Inspired by Derridean thought, this book highlights the political consequences of constructivist re…
Constructivism and Identity: A Dangerous Liaison
Constructivism is regarded as increasingly important in International Relations. More often than not the approach is related to the issue of identity. constructivism and identity are, however, in a dangerous liaison. This article argues that Alexander Wendt's constructivism needs identity as a central concept but that this very concept threatens to undermine the possibility of his constructivism. It is further suggested that this problem has some…
Constructivism and Identity: A Dangerous Liaison
Constructivism is regarded as increasingly important in International Relations. More often than not the approach is related to the issue of identity. constructivism and identity are, however, in a dangerous liaison. This article argues that Alexander Wendt's constructivism needs identity as a central concept but that this very concept threatens to undermine the possibility of his constructivism. It is further suggested that this problem has some…
Culturally sensitive war? The Human Terrain System and the seduction of ethics
Since around 2005, efforts have been made within the US military to highlight the significance of culture or the ‘human terrain’ for counterinsurgency operations. The US Army responded to the asserted ‘cultural knowledge gap’ by establishing an experimental programme called the Human Terrain System (HTS), which involves deploying social scientists alongside combat forces. While HTS was received favourably in the US mainstream media, it has been f…
Forget September 11
September 11 has been etched on our memories. This article explores the uses and problems of memory in relation to responses to September 11, focusing largely on material from the USA and the Federal Republic of Germany as illustration, and argues that we might be better off forgetting September 11. The exhortation to remember is used to justify responding militarily abroad and, significantly, curtailing civil liberties at home. Criticism of thes…
The Tragedy of Violent Justice: The Danger of Elshtain's Just War Against Terror
In Just War Against Terror Elshtain articulates emotions whilst ridiculing others who allegedly privilege emotion over reason. This critique focuses on her use of the notion of `tragedy'. Distinctions are crucial to Elshtain's argument, especially that between combatants and civilians; they are based on the significance of intention. Elshtain seems uneasy, however, about a particular consequence of waging war: civilian deaths. She seeks refuge in…
Generalising the international
Ironically, since 11 September 2001, world politics seems to have taken a turn towards certainty. This article is an intervention that demonstrates how the illusion of the sovereign state in an insecure and anarchic international system is sustained and how it might be challenged. It does so through a Derridean analysis of Hedley Bull's The Anarchical Society . The article examines how International Relations (IR) thinking works; it teases out th…
Constructivism and Identity: A Dangerous Liaison
Constructivism is regarded as increasingly important in International Relations. More often than not the approach is related to the issue of identity. constructivism and identity are, however, in a dangerous liaison. This article argues that Alexander Wendt's constructivism needs identity as a central concept but that this very concept threatens to undermine the possibility of his constructivism. It is further suggested that this problem has some…
Constructivism in International Relations: The Politics of Reality
Maja Zehfuss' book offers a fundamental critique of constructivism, focusing on the work of Wendt, Onuf and Kratochwil. Using Germany's shift towards participation in international military operations as an illustration, she demonstrates why each version of constructivism fails in its own project and comes apart on the basis of its own assumptions. Inspired by Derridean thought, this book highlights the political consequences of constructivist re…
Forget September 11
September 11 has been etched on our memories. This article explores the uses and problems of memory in relation to responses to September 11, focusing largely on material from the USA and the Federal Republic of Germany as illustration, and argues that we might be better off forgetting September 11. The exhortation to remember is used to justify responding militarily abroad and, significantly, curtailing civil liberties at home. Criticism of thes…
Generalising the international
Ironically, since 11 September 2001, world politics seems to have taken a turn towards certainty. This article is an intervention that demonstrates how the illusion of the sovereign state in an insecure and anarchic international system is sustained and how it might be challenged. It does so through a Derridean analysis of Hedley Bull's The Anarchical Society . The article examines how International Relations (IR) thinking works; it teases out th…
Remembering to Forgive? The 'War on Terror' in a 'Dialogue' between German and US Intellectuals
Wounds of Memory: The Politics of War in Germany
German memories of the Second World War are controversial, and they are used to justify different positions on the use of military force. In this book, Maja Zehfuss studies the articulation of memories in novels in order to discuss and challenge arguments deployed in political and public debate. She explores memories that have generated considerable controversy, such as the flight and expulsion of Germans from the East, the bombing of German citi…
The Tragedy of Violent Justice: The Danger of Elshtain's Just War Against Terror
In Just War Against Terror Elshtain articulates emotions whilst ridiculing others who allegedly privilege emotion over reason. This critique focuses on her use of the notion of `tragedy'. Distinctions are crucial to Elshtain's argument, especially that between combatants and civilians; they are based on the significance of intention. Elshtain seems uneasy, however, about a particular consequence of waging war: civilian deaths. She seeks refuge in…
Culturally sensitive war? The Human Terrain System and the seduction of ethics
Since around 2005, efforts have been made within the US military to highlight the significance of culture or the ‘human terrain’ for counterinsurgency operations. The US Army responded to the asserted ‘cultural knowledge gap’ by establishing an experimental programme called the Human Terrain System (HTS), which involves deploying social scientists alongside combat forces. While HTS was received favourably in the US mainstream media, it has been f…
Critical Theory, Poststructuralism, and Postcolonialism
Global politics: A New Introduction
Culture: Knowledge of the People as Technology of Ethics
This chapter explores how people came to be recognized as central to what the West calls counterinsurgency wars and how cultural knowledge came to be seen as central to war-fighting in line with the vision of ethical war. It examines the US Army and Marine Corps Counterinsurgency Manual as setting out how, in practice, culture matters and how it can be made useful to operations. Cultural knowledge therefore had to be made available to the militar…
Global Politics: A New Introduction
War and the Politics of Ethics
Contemporary Western war is represented as enacting the West's ability and responsibility to help make the world a better place for others, in particular to protect them from oppression and serious human rights abuses. That is, war has become permissible again, indeed even required, as ethical war. At the same time, however, Western war kills and destroys. This creates a paradox: Western war risks killing those it proposes to protect. This book e…
Conclusion: What can we do to change the world?
Jacques Derrida is one of the most important contemporary philosophers. His strategy of ‘deconstruction’ involves showing how arguments rely on assumptions that at the same time undermine them. This has profound political implications. In September 2011 Occupy Wall Street set up in Zuccotti Park, in New York’s financial district, in order to protest against economic inequality, greed, and the influence of corporations on government, in particular…
Global Politics: A New Introduction
Global Politics: A New Introduction
Political science (11 works) · Philosophy (10 works) · Law (9 works) · Sociology (9 works) · Politics (8 works) · Epistemology (7 works) · Environmental ethics (4 works) · Geopolitics (4 works) · Global Peace and Security Dynamics (4 works) · Psychology (4 works)