Books by Sebastian Kaempf
Concerns for the lives of soldiers and innocent civilians have come to underpin Western, and part... more Concerns for the lives of soldiers and innocent civilians have come to underpin Western, and particularly American, warfare. Yet this new mode of conflict faces a dilemma: these two norms have opened new areas of vulnerability that have been systematically exploited by non-state adversaries. This strategic behaviour creates a trade-off, forcing decision-makers to have to choose between saving soldiers and civilians in target states. Sebastian Kaempf examines the origin and nature of this dilemma, and in a detailed analysis of the US conflicts in Somalia, Afghanistan and Iraq, investigates the ways the US has responded, assessing the legal, moral, and strategic consequences. Scholars and students of military and strategic studies, international relations and peace and conflict studies will be interested to read Kaempf's analysis of whether the US or its adversaries have succeeded in responding to this central dilemma of contemporary warfare.
Papers by Sebastian Kaempf
How can we tell what state the laws of war are in today, and whether they face exceptional pressu... more 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. A focus on compliance and effectiveness tells us nothing about the reasons for actor behaviour, or about its impact on the regime. We advance a different conceptual framework, exploring the complex connections between compliance, effectiveness and legitimacy. We propose an alternative diagnostic model that places legitimacy at the heart of the analysis, treating it as causal, not simply symptomatic. This highlights when violations result in legitimacy costs for the individual actor, as opposed to reaching a tipping point when violations cumulatively impose legitimacy costs on the regime itself. We argue for the need to move beyond discussions framed by compliance and effectiveness, and towards the forms, reasons and reception of non-compliant behaviour, as this provides a truly social measure of the state of the law. In order to illustrate this, we examine three distinct types of challengers — Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant, the US and Russia — and present them as, respectively, revisionist, rejectionist and denialist threats to the regime. Unusually, the laws of war today face challenges on all three fronts simultaneously.
Millennium: Journal of International Studies, Jan 2014
There comes a time when transmitting the history of a national past fails the context of the poli... more 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 abandoned – qua this textbook – its monopoly of legitimate education. Histoire/Geschichte detaches history from its exclusive national past and introduces the learners to a post-national present. It speaks in a tone that is demanded by a different time and by the new conditions of peoples who are living in a common political space. This article reflects on the meaning and reach of this precedent by first analysing the explicit political and pedagogical explanations inherent to the book. It then identifies and investigates some of the less evident effects of the textbook relating to rethinking war and history, rethinking the monopoly of education, rethinking national identity, and to offering another path to rapprochement.
International Relations, Dec 1, 2013
This in-depth conversation with Professor Andrew Linklater engages with his academic biography, h... more 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 engages with his main oeuvres from the 1982 book Men and Citizens in the Theory of International Relations to his most recent work on The Problem of Harm in World Politics, and covers the development of IR as a global discipline from the 1970s until today.
Australian Journal of International Affairs, Sep 19, 2013
Before the rise of digital new media technology in 2002, ‘old’ media at its heart displayed a fun... more 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 traditional media platforms, an entirely new form of media technology has arisen. This development has transformed the hitherto multipolar nature of the old media landscape and has led to a heteropolar global media landscape, in which the relationship between media and war has been altered. By exploring how digital new media poles are forming and old media poles are evolving, this article examines how this seismic shift in the global media landscape requires a redefinition of the understanding of the nature of the relationship between media and conflict today.
Review of International Studies, 2009
... US military reaction against the latter turned into a long range strategy of annihilation.21 ... more ... US military reaction against the latter turned into a long range strategy of annihilation.21 In the Zeitgeist of the colonial age there was at least from the perspective of the coloniser nothing wrong with launching indiscriminate warfare against 'savages'. ...
Third World Quarterly, 2009
This contribution critically investigates the ideas underpinning the armed struggle of colonial s... more 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 and military) underpinnings of colonialism and articulated strategies of resistance. This contribution argues that the persuasiveness of Mao's and Fanon's thought stemmed from their deep dialectical (ie Hegelian) understanding of war and colonialism. By demonstrating the dialectical foundations of Mao's and Fanon's thought—inspired intellectually by their readings of Carl von Clausewitz and Jean-Paul Sartre—the contribution illustrates how their understanding allowed them not only to fathom the interactive dynamics at the core of war and colonialism, but also to devise successful ways of unseating colonial power. Yet, while they shared a common belief in violent anti-colonial struggles, they nevertheless diverged fundamentally in their respective conceptions of violence. Mao (through Clausewitz) held an instrumental view of violence, whereas Fanon (through Sartre) understood violence in existential terms. This meant, as is argued here, that their respective conceptions of violence would not necessarily, on their own, have been sufficient to bring colonialism to an end. Taken together, however, their instrumental and intrinsic conceptions of violence complemented each other and helped armed anti-colonial struggles succeed around the globe.
Small Wars & Insurgencies, 2011
International Relations, 2010
Small Wars & Insurgencies, 2012
Book Chapters by Sebastian Kaempf
'Digital New Media' in Roland Bleiker (ed), Global Visual Politics (Routledge, 2018), pp. 99-103.
In Richard Devetak, Jim George and Sarah Percy (Ed.), An introduction to international relations ... more In Richard Devetak, Jim George and Sarah Percy (Ed.), An introduction to international relations 3rd ed. (pp. 238-240) Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
in Gross, Michael and Meisels, Tamar (eds.), Soft War: The Ethics of Unarmed Conflict (Cambridge ... more in Gross, Michael and Meisels, Tamar (eds.), Soft War: The Ethics of Unarmed Conflict (Cambridge University Press), 2017, pp. 104-118.
In Laura J. Shepherd and Caitlin Hamilton (Ed.), Understanding popular culture and world politic... more In Laura J. Shepherd and Caitlin Hamilton (Ed.), Understanding popular culture and world politics in the digital age (pp. 14-31) Abingdon, Oxon, United Kingdom: Routledge.
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Books by Sebastian Kaempf
Papers by Sebastian Kaempf
Book Chapters by Sebastian Kaempf