Project on Security, Military, and U.S. Society
Organization
- William McAllister and Allan Silver, Co-Directors
Overview
The Project on Security, Military, and U.S. Society fosters research and discussion about sociological, historical and political intersections of civil society and military, security and related concerns. This new initiative seeks to encourage the social sciences, largely oriented towards civil society, to incorporate war and other forms of state violence more fully into social theory and research rather than treat these as exceptional and exogenous. The Project is broadly conceived: substantively diverse, methodologically and theoretically interdisciplinary, and contributing to public discussion.
The Project seeks to engage people both inside and outside academia so that social scientists, historians, lawyers, journalists, military experts, policy analysts, and others can address each other on issues cutting across their specialties. As a start, and to build a community of interested persons, the Project will sponsor a monthly talk series in which people from Columbia and elsewhere present research, raise insufficiently addressed issues, and reflect on their practical experience.
Current research explores a number of topics, including how the political formula in the United States for sustaining military enterprises since World War II has meant changing understandings of war and peace, re-conceptualizing government-citizen relations, and re-thinking norms of citizenship; how the U.S. political and military systems impact social and political processes in other countries; and how the kinds of trust essential for democratic societies are affected by the post 9/11 military and policing actions of the state. While the Project has a specific interest in the United States, it also aims to incorporate those doing similar work on war and violence in other settings.
For information on the Center's sponsored events, please see The Project on Security, Military, and U.S. Society Seminar Series.
