Remote control: Geographies of contemporary warfare (GG3162) Course handbook (2019/20) NY 85 500 Course convenor: Dr Anna Jackman Lectures: Thursdays 11-1 in Bourneax-290 Email: Anna.Jackman@rhul.ac.uk Office: Queens 173 Office hours: Tuesdays 3-4, Thursdays 3-4 ** Twitter: #GG3162 * Please see schedule (pg.4) for locations and timings of all lectures and seminars. ** Please note I will be in Spain on the year 1 fieldtrip during the second week of term 2. 1
Module description This course explores the geographies of contemporary warfare. It examines the changing spaces, technologies, practices, and politics of contemporary warfare - that which is increasingly being conducted 'remotely'. The course will engage with geographical discussions (across political geography, military geography, and geographies of technology) exploring changing military and security practice, surveillance cultures and reaches, and the role of non-human technological and robotic actors therein. By tracing the changing spaces, infrastructural and personnel configurations, and geopolitical landscapes of contemporary warfare, the course will explore a series of conceptual questions and challenges that have accompanied the shift towards remote control warfare. Whilst predominantly focused on geographically interrogating contemporary battlefield developments, the course will also touch upon: the ways in which particular developments (such as the growing embrace of drones) are increasingly being re-imagined and deployed in alternative non-battlefield contexts, and the ways in which geographers might methodologically approach the study of such 'remote' technologies. As global military forces increasingly produce so-called 'Unmanned Roadmaps' to guide them, this course then instead seeks to develop a Critical Unmanned Roadmap, raising questions of the (non-) human actors, practices, and implications defining and enabling robotically-mediated warfare. Course Aims: · To introduce students to, and engage with, geographical discussions of contemporary warfare. · To introduce students to, and facilitate the examination of, the (contested) geographies and implications of contemporary warfare. · To develop understandings of, and the ability to engage critically with, shifts in human and non-human roles and agency, in the context of remote control warfare. Intended Learning Outcomes (ILOs): · 1. To understand a range of geographical debates around the changing geographies of contemporary warfare, drawing upon discussions in political geography, military geography, and geographies of technology. · 2. To understand the multiple and interconnected sites, spaces and scales through which remote control warfare is performed and produced. · 3. To gain an appreciation of the distinct and uneven spatialities of remote control warfare, and an understanding of the ongoing debates and contestations surrounding such practices. · 4. To gain an understanding about the ways in which developments in remote control warfare are effecting existing geopolitical relationships and landscapes, at different scales. . 5. To explore remote control culture more broadly through a brief examination of several non-battlefield spaces in which 'remoteness' alternatively manifests. · 6. To gain an understanding of the ways in which researchers might methodologically approach the study of contemporary warfare. 2
Module assessment Term 2 Term 3 Summative assessment Essay (3,000 words) Due 18 February 2020 Student to answer 1 of 3 essay questions Total 50% Examination