War and the Allegory of Medical Intervention

Why Metaphors Matter

Bibliographic Data

ID2953907
AuthorsColleen Bell (0000-0002-4348-4776, Brock University, corresponding author)
Year2012
Volume6
Issue3
Pages325-328
Publication date2012-09-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueInternational Political Sociology (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 1749-5679 • E-ISSN: 1749-5687
PublisherOxford University Press (OUP) (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.1111/j.1749-5687.2012.00166_5.x
OpenAlexW2013411442
LanguageEN
Citations received11
References cited7

Metaphors help people make sense of their environment. They are particularly useful in reasoning about complex and unfamiliar situations (Chilton 1996:48). There is a long history of analogy between medicine and warfare. In the field of medicine, infectious and malignant diseases are a “threat” that people hope to “evade.” If the body is infected or overrun by the disease, medical experts wage a counter attack. If the patient survives, they are said to have “won the battle” (Sontag 1990; Mongoven 2006). In the context of international politics during the Cold War, communism was declared to be a “malignant parasite” (Kennan, quoted in Neocleous 2008:118). More recently, metaphors of illness, patient, and physician—constituting a strategic allegory of medical intervention—have appeared as characters in the narrative of modern counterinsurgency. Military doctrine, given its rather grim and instructional nature, may seem like an odd host for metaphorical prose. Yet, the point of doctrine is to produce common language and understanding for the conduct of military operations. Military doctrine “codifies how the institution thinks about its role in the world and how it accomplishes that role on the battlefield” (Nagl 2007:xiv). In the case of counterinsurgency, however, the battlefield is neither a meeting place between two armies, nor simply a realm of military activity. If one looks carefully at what counterinsurgency emphasizes, it is the close integration of military activity and civilian expertise, with a specific population-centric, rather than enemy-centric, focus. Though targeted violence is customary, what distinguishes counterinsurgency is its emphasis on cultural awareness, communication, security sector reform, humanitarian response, and reconstruction (Bell 2011). Hence, counterinsurgency is a dramatically integrated and holistic enterprise. Communicating counterinsurgency's holistic framework has, at least partly, been achieved through the allegory of

Allegory · Art history · Epistemology · Metaphor · Psychiatry · Sociology · Theology · Global Peace and Security Dynamics · Global Security and Public Health · Health and Conflict Studies · History · Philosophy · Psychology

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