Sebastian Kaempf
Biographic Data
| ID | 837031 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Sebastian Kaempf |
| GIVEN NAMES | Sebastian |
| FAMILY NAME | Kaempf |
| SIGNATURE | KAEMPF S |
| AFFILIATIONS | The University of Queensland |
| ORCID | 0000-0002-3036-1742 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 20 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 33 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 20 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2009 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2026 |
| H-INDEX | 3 |
Dressed to kill
What do the costumes that soldiers wear have to do with the ethics of war? This article tackles this question. It argues that military uniforms operate as a site and source of ethics of war discourse, reproducing codes of conduct as the dress code. It advances an account of the uniform as a material interface where the ethics shows itself in aesthetic form, and vice versa. It elaborates this position via a case study of the 2018 decision of the A…
Elimination Games
The past decade has seen the global growth of military-style reality television programming. These programmes, produced by militaries themselves or through collaboration with the entertainment sector, have proven to be an effective and increasingly powerful public relations conduit. Our article offers a theoretical treatment of reality television, both the aesthetic modes by which it invites the viewing subject as well as the political economy of…
Violence re-directed
In this article, we argue in favour of a conceptual expansion of the Just War idea of 'due care', to include the foreseeable, but indirect harm generated by Western force protection. This harm includes the phenomenon of 'casualty displacement warfare' - circumstances in which the prioritisation and relative success of Western force protection incentivises some Western adversaries to redirect more of their own violence away from Western soldiers a…
Modern Lawfare
The changing character of armed conflict, combined with the transformation of the global media landscape, has fundamentally altered the experience of war for Western audiences. Although physically distanced from its cost to a historically unprecedented degree, the virtual proximity of the average citizen to war has never been closer. Military first-person shooter (FPS) gaming is a critical component of this dynamic, functioning as the principle m…
Response to Bruce Cronin’s review of Saving Soldiers or Civilians? Casualty-Aversion versus Civilian Protection in Asymmetric Conflicts
An abstract is not available for this content so a preview has been provided. Please use the Get access link above for information on how to access this content
Teaching International Relations through the Format of a Massive Open Online Course (Mooc)
Since the early twenty-first century, tertiary education has witnessed a dramatic shift with the rise of massive open online courses (MOOCs). Celebrated by some as the ultimate “democratization” of education, this development has not been without controversy. The main purpose of this article is neither to confirm nor dispel the controversies rather it seeks to critically examine one MOOC to encourage more nuanced reflections about teaching intern…
Sousveilling the ‘Global War on Terror’
This article theorises what it means to challenge official regimes of surveillance in the War on Terror by further developing the notion of ‘sousveillance’. In particular, we focus on the performative dimension of surveillance by attending to its sites of struggle, particularly where alternative and counter-performances work to disrupt and dislodge official regimes of vision. These potent counter-performances have become important flashpoints for…
How western soldiers fight
Cornelius Friesendorf's book focuses on an interesting, important and timely phenomenon: similar military actors, when operating under the same mandate and within the same mission abroad, tend to respond differently to the same problems. Moreover, their responses have varying impact on the local population. The explanatory factor for these differences, Friesendorf demonstrates, is located in military actors' ability or inability to adapt their le…
A relationship of mutual exploitation
This article examines the close historical and contemporary ties between the Pentagon and Hollywood from the 1920s until today. Drawing on the US military as an in-depth case study, the article shows the extent to which key military actors view the conduct of war as an arena that stretches well beyond the actual battlefields and includes the production of war movies, film documentaries, computer simulations and first person shooter video games. T…
Crisis in the laws of war? Beyond compliance and effectiveness
How can we tell what state the laws of war are in today, and whether they face exceptional pressures? Standard accounts of the condition of this body of law focus on problems of compliance and effectiveness. In particular, there is a dominant international legal diagnosis that most non-compliance is accounted for by the prevalence of non-state belligerents in irregular or asymmetric conflicts. We propose that any such diagnosis is partial at best…
The potentiality and limits of understanding world politics in a transforming global media landscape
Editors' foreword
Reimagining Communities
There comes a time when transmitting the history of a national past fails the context of the political present. France and Germany have shared tortuous historical experiences, yet the two are at the forefront of an unprecedented pedagogical development: for the first time ever, two nation-states have created a common history textbook that is used in their senior secondary schools. As such, each country, to borrow Ernst Gellner’s formula, has aban…
The mediatisation of war in a transforming global media landscape
Before the rise of digital new media technology in 2002, ‘old’ media at its heart displayed a fundamental division between sender and receiver, a division which for a long time had structurally, materially and politically conditioned the nature of the relationship between ‘old’ media and war. Within the recently emerging digital new media technology, however, this age-old separation between sender and receiver has been eroded. Thus, alongside tra…
Conversations in International Relations
This in-depth conversation with Professor Andrew Linklater engages with his academic biography, his intellectual contribution to the field of International Relations (IR) and his reflections on the current state of, and challenges facing, the discipline of (IR). It thereby traces his biography from his undergraduate days in Aberdeen, via his first lectureships in Australia, back to the United Kingdom and eventually to Aberystwyth University; it e…
US warfare in Somalia and the trade-off between casualty-aversion and civilian protection
This article examines the ways in which the two normative concerns of casualty-aversion and civilian protection influenced US military strategy in the particular context of the asymmetric conflict in Somalia in the early 1990s. The article critically evaluates US military operations through the prism of international humanitarian law and examines whether American forces started prioritizing casualty-aversion over the safeguarding of Somali civili…
Lost through non-translation
While Carl von Clausewitz has generally been respected as one of the most profound philosophers of war, his expertise has been regarded as somewhat limited if not even irrelevant to the so-called ‘new wars’ of the post-Cold War world. Many scholars in international relations have claimed that ‘new wars’ are essentially ‘post-Clausewitzian’ and ‘post-trinitarian’ in nature, meaning that they are no longer fathomable through a Clausewitzian framewo…
Russia
Outlining the century-old debates about 'What is Russia?', this article - by drawing on a variety of sources such as fiction, culture, cartoons and identity - shows how Russian and Western answers to this question have impacted on each other. To do so, the article first examines the extent to which Russian society - ever since the Mongolian Yoke - has been culturally torn between Westerniser and anti-Westerniser positions. It then complements the…
Double standards in US warfare
This article investigates how – by breaking with the historical double standards regarding civilian protection in conflicts – by the end of the twentieth century, US warfare has come to comply with International Humanitarian Law (IHL). Yet, civilians are still being killed. This has sparked controversies over what constitutes legitimate targeting practices and as to whether higher levels of civilian protection could be achieved. Through an engage…
Violence and Victory
This contribution critically investigates the ideas underpinning the armed struggle of colonial subjects against colonial states in the middle decades of the 20th century. It focuses in particular on two of the most influential texts that inspired and guided violent anti-colonial resistance, The Wretched of the Earth by Frantz Fanon and On Guerrilla Warfare by Mao Zedong. Both Fanon and Mao provided powerful analyses of the violent (psychological…
The mediatisation of war in a transforming global media landscape
Before the rise of digital new media technology in 2002, ‘old’ media at its heart displayed a fundamental division between sender and receiver, a division which for a long time had structurally, materially and politically conditioned the nature of the relationship between ‘old’ media and war. Within the recently emerging digital new media technology, however, this age-old separation between sender and receiver has been eroded. Thus, alongside tra…
Crisis in the laws of war? Beyond compliance and effectiveness
How can we tell what state the laws of war are in today, and whether they face exceptional pressures? Standard accounts of the condition of this body of law focus on problems of compliance and effectiveness. In particular, there is a dominant international legal diagnosis that most non-compliance is accounted for by the prevalence of non-state belligerents in irregular or asymmetric conflicts. We propose that any such diagnosis is partial at best…
Reimagining Communities
There comes a time when transmitting the history of a national past fails the context of the political present. France and Germany have shared tortuous historical experiences, yet the two are at the forefront of an unprecedented pedagogical development: for the first time ever, two nation-states have created a common history textbook that is used in their senior secondary schools. As such, each country, to borrow Ernst Gellner’s formula, has aban…
Double standards in US warfare
This article investigates how – by breaking with the historical double standards regarding civilian protection in conflicts – by the end of the twentieth century, US warfare has come to comply with International Humanitarian Law (IHL). Yet, civilians are still being killed. This has sparked controversies over what constitutes legitimate targeting practices and as to whether higher levels of civilian protection could be achieved. Through an engage…
Lost through non-translation
While Carl von Clausewitz has generally been respected as one of the most profound philosophers of war, his expertise has been regarded as somewhat limited if not even irrelevant to the so-called ‘new wars’ of the post-Cold War world. Many scholars in international relations have claimed that ‘new wars’ are essentially ‘post-Clausewitzian’ and ‘post-trinitarian’ in nature, meaning that they are no longer fathomable through a Clausewitzian framewo…
Elimination Games
The past decade has seen the global growth of military-style reality television programming. These programmes, produced by militaries themselves or through collaboration with the entertainment sector, have proven to be an effective and increasingly powerful public relations conduit. Our article offers a theoretical treatment of reality television, both the aesthetic modes by which it invites the viewing subject as well as the political economy of…
Modern Lawfare
The changing character of armed conflict, combined with the transformation of the global media landscape, has fundamentally altered the experience of war for Western audiences. Although physically distanced from its cost to a historically unprecedented degree, the virtual proximity of the average citizen to war has never been closer. Military first-person shooter (FPS) gaming is a critical component of this dynamic, functioning as the principle m…
Teaching International Relations through the Format of a Massive Open Online Course (Mooc)
Since the early twenty-first century, tertiary education has witnessed a dramatic shift with the rise of massive open online courses (MOOCs). Celebrated by some as the ultimate “democratization” of education, this development has not been without controversy. The main purpose of this article is neither to confirm nor dispel the controversies rather it seeks to critically examine one MOOC to encourage more nuanced reflections about teaching intern…
A relationship of mutual exploitation
This article examines the close historical and contemporary ties between the Pentagon and Hollywood from the 1920s until today. Drawing on the US military as an in-depth case study, the article shows the extent to which key military actors view the conduct of war as an arena that stretches well beyond the actual battlefields and includes the production of war movies, film documentaries, computer simulations and first person shooter video games. T…
Conversations in International Relations
This in-depth conversation with Professor Andrew Linklater engages with his academic biography, his intellectual contribution to the field of International Relations (IR) and his reflections on the current state of, and challenges facing, the discipline of (IR). It thereby traces his biography from his undergraduate days in Aberdeen, via his first lectureships in Australia, back to the United Kingdom and eventually to Aberystwyth University; it e…
Violence and Victory
This contribution critically investigates the ideas underpinning the armed struggle of colonial subjects against colonial states in the middle decades of the 20th century. It focuses in particular on two of the most influential texts that inspired and guided violent anti-colonial resistance, The Wretched of the Earth by Frantz Fanon and On Guerrilla Warfare by Mao Zedong. Both Fanon and Mao provided powerful analyses of the violent (psychological…
Double standards in US warfare
This article investigates how – by breaking with the historical double standards regarding civilian protection in conflicts – by the end of the twentieth century, US warfare has come to comply with International Humanitarian Law (IHL). Yet, civilians are still being killed. This has sparked controversies over what constitutes legitimate targeting practices and as to whether higher levels of civilian protection could be achieved. Through an engage…
Violence and Victory
This contribution critically investigates the ideas underpinning the armed struggle of colonial subjects against colonial states in the middle decades of the 20th century. It focuses in particular on two of the most influential texts that inspired and guided violent anti-colonial resistance, The Wretched of the Earth by Frantz Fanon and On Guerrilla Warfare by Mao Zedong. Both Fanon and Mao provided powerful analyses of the violent (psychological…
Russia
Outlining the century-old debates about 'What is Russia?', this article - by drawing on a variety of sources such as fiction, culture, cartoons and identity - shows how Russian and Western answers to this question have impacted on each other. To do so, the article first examines the extent to which Russian society - ever since the Mongolian Yoke - has been culturally torn between Westerniser and anti-Westerniser positions. It then complements the…
Lost through non-translation
While Carl von Clausewitz has generally been respected as one of the most profound philosophers of war, his expertise has been regarded as somewhat limited if not even irrelevant to the so-called ‘new wars’ of the post-Cold War world. Many scholars in international relations have claimed that ‘new wars’ are essentially ‘post-Clausewitzian’ and ‘post-trinitarian’ in nature, meaning that they are no longer fathomable through a Clausewitzian framewo…
US warfare in Somalia and the trade-off between casualty-aversion and civilian protection
This article examines the ways in which the two normative concerns of casualty-aversion and civilian protection influenced US military strategy in the particular context of the asymmetric conflict in Somalia in the early 1990s. The article critically evaluates US military operations through the prism of international humanitarian law and examines whether American forces started prioritizing casualty-aversion over the safeguarding of Somali civili…
The mediatisation of war in a transforming global media landscape
Before the rise of digital new media technology in 2002, ‘old’ media at its heart displayed a fundamental division between sender and receiver, a division which for a long time had structurally, materially and politically conditioned the nature of the relationship between ‘old’ media and war. Within the recently emerging digital new media technology, however, this age-old separation between sender and receiver has been eroded. Thus, alongside tra…
Conversations in International Relations
This in-depth conversation with Professor Andrew Linklater engages with his academic biography, his intellectual contribution to the field of International Relations (IR) and his reflections on the current state of, and challenges facing, the discipline of (IR). It thereby traces his biography from his undergraduate days in Aberdeen, via his first lectureships in Australia, back to the United Kingdom and eventually to Aberystwyth University; it e…
Editors' foreword
Reimagining Communities
There comes a time when transmitting the history of a national past fails the context of the political present. France and Germany have shared tortuous historical experiences, yet the two are at the forefront of an unprecedented pedagogical development: for the first time ever, two nation-states have created a common history textbook that is used in their senior secondary schools. As such, each country, to borrow Ernst Gellner’s formula, has aban…
The potentiality and limits of understanding world politics in a transforming global media landscape
Crisis in the laws of war? Beyond compliance and effectiveness
How can we tell what state the laws of war are in today, and whether they face exceptional pressures? Standard accounts of the condition of this body of law focus on problems of compliance and effectiveness. In particular, there is a dominant international legal diagnosis that most non-compliance is accounted for by the prevalence of non-state belligerents in irregular or asymmetric conflicts. We propose that any such diagnosis is partial at best…
Response to Bruce Cronin’s review of Saving Soldiers or Civilians? Casualty-Aversion versus Civilian Protection in Asymmetric Conflicts
An abstract is not available for this content so a preview has been provided. Please use the Get access link above for information on how to access this content
Teaching International Relations through the Format of a Massive Open Online Course (Mooc)
Since the early twenty-first century, tertiary education has witnessed a dramatic shift with the rise of massive open online courses (MOOCs). Celebrated by some as the ultimate “democratization” of education, this development has not been without controversy. The main purpose of this article is neither to confirm nor dispel the controversies rather it seeks to critically examine one MOOC to encourage more nuanced reflections about teaching intern…
Sousveilling the ‘Global War on Terror’
This article theorises what it means to challenge official regimes of surveillance in the War on Terror by further developing the notion of ‘sousveillance’. In particular, we focus on the performative dimension of surveillance by attending to its sites of struggle, particularly where alternative and counter-performances work to disrupt and dislodge official regimes of vision. These potent counter-performances have become important flashpoints for…
How western soldiers fight
Cornelius Friesendorf's book focuses on an interesting, important and timely phenomenon: similar military actors, when operating under the same mandate and within the same mission abroad, tend to respond differently to the same problems. Moreover, their responses have varying impact on the local population. The explanatory factor for these differences, Friesendorf demonstrates, is located in military actors' ability or inability to adapt their le…
A relationship of mutual exploitation
This article examines the close historical and contemporary ties between the Pentagon and Hollywood from the 1920s until today. Drawing on the US military as an in-depth case study, the article shows the extent to which key military actors view the conduct of war as an arena that stretches well beyond the actual battlefields and includes the production of war movies, film documentaries, computer simulations and first person shooter video games. T…
Modern Lawfare
The changing character of armed conflict, combined with the transformation of the global media landscape, has fundamentally altered the experience of war for Western audiences. Although physically distanced from its cost to a historically unprecedented degree, the virtual proximity of the average citizen to war has never been closer. Military first-person shooter (FPS) gaming is a critical component of this dynamic, functioning as the principle m…
Elimination Games
The past decade has seen the global growth of military-style reality television programming. These programmes, produced by militaries themselves or through collaboration with the entertainment sector, have proven to be an effective and increasingly powerful public relations conduit. Our article offers a theoretical treatment of reality television, both the aesthetic modes by which it invites the viewing subject as well as the political economy of…
Violence re-directed
In this article, we argue in favour of a conceptual expansion of the Just War idea of 'due care', to include the foreseeable, but indirect harm generated by Western force protection. This harm includes the phenomenon of 'casualty displacement warfare' - circumstances in which the prioritisation and relative success of Western force protection incentivises some Western adversaries to redirect more of their own violence away from Western soldiers a…
Dressed to kill
What do the costumes that soldiers wear have to do with the ethics of war? This article tackles this question. It argues that military uniforms operate as a site and source of ethics of war discourse, reproducing codes of conduct as the dress code. It advances an account of the uniform as a material interface where the ethics shows itself in aesthetic form, and vice versa. It elaborates this position via a case study of the 2018 decision of the A…
Political science (18 works) · Law (15 works) · Sociology (15 works) · Law (10 works) · Politics (8 works) · Aesthetics (6 works) · Art (5 works) · Epistemology (5 works) · Global Peace and Security Dynamics (5 works) · History (5 works)