Bøger af Christopher Coker

One of our most original and compelling thinkers on conflict reflects on the Hobbesian impulse of 'war of all against all'.

An accessible and entertainingly written primer to the most influential book in the history of Western warfare

Since Achilles first stormed into our imagination, literature has introduced its readers to truly unforgettable martial characters. In Men at War, Christopher Coker discusses some of the most famous of these fictional creations and their impact on our understanding of war and masculinity. Grouped into five archetypes-warriors, heroes, villains, survivors and victims-these characters range across 3000 years of history, through epic poems, the modern novel and one of the twentieth century's most famous film scripts. Great authors like Homer and Tolstoy show us aspects of reality invisible except through a literary lens, while fictional characters such as Achilles and Falstaff, Robert Jordan and Jack Aubrey, are not just larger than life; they are life's largeness-and this is why we seek them out. Although the Greeks knew that the lovers, wives and mothers of soldiers are the chief victims of battle, for the combatants, war is a masculine pursuit. Each of Coker's chapters explores what fiction tells us about war's appeal to young men and the way it makes- and breaks-them. The existential appeal of war too is perhaps best conveyed in fictional accounts, and these too are scrutinized by the author.

- A prescient analysis of the likelihood of a US - China conflict and how it might be avoided

As their roles become more demanding, specialised and far removed from their own inborn predispositions, will the military require ever more years of 'programming'?

A compact introduction to the nature of war designed to explain today's conflicts through the lense of classical theory.

In this volume leading scholars in the arts and sciences discuss how knowledge and information have been preserved and transferred throughout history, bringing us up to today s digital age and the multiple challenges it presents, not least with regard to our personal data.

The essays in this anthology derive from the Engelsberg Seminar in 2019 that dealt with these questions. From perspectives as varied as the History of Ideas, Evolutionary Psychology, and Ideologies amongst others the writers apply history to today s concerns such as International Relations, Geopolitics, Economics, and the role of the individual and human nature in history.

"It would have been inconceivable," wrote Henry Kissinger in his best-selling book Diplomacy, "that the architects of NATO would have seen as the end result of victory in the Cold War greater diversit"

What are humanity''s biological origins? What are the mechanisms, including culture, that continue to drive it? What is the history that has allowed it to evolve over time? And what are its functions--how does it survive and thrive by exploiting the features that define it as a species? These are the four questions of the Tinbergen Method for explaining animal behaviour, developed by the Nobel Prizewinning Dutch ethologist Niko Tinbergen. This book contends that applying this method to war--which is unique to humans--can help us better understand why conflict is so resilient. Christopher Coker explores these four questions of our past and present, and looks at our post-human future, assessing how far scientific advances in gene-editing, robotics and AI systems will de-centre human agency. He concludes that we won''t witness war''s end until it has exhausted its evolutionary possibilities--meaning that, well into the future, war is likely to remain what Thucydides first called it: ''the human thing''. From the Ancients to Artificial Intelligence, Why War? is an exhilarating tour d''horizon of humankind''s propensity to warfare and its behavioural underpinnings, offering new ways of thinking about our species'' unique and deadly preoccupation.

* The first book in Polity s exciting new Global Futures series, which focuses on the key questions set to determine the kind of world we re shaping for generations to come. * This short, punchy book makes a bold and compelling case for the continuation of war through the 21st century and beyond.

This latest incisive work from Christopher Coker is a prescient analysis of the likelihood of a US-China conflict and how it might be avoided.

This highly controversial and cutting-edge book asks whether the attempts to make war 'virtual' or 'virtuous' can succeed and whether the West is deluding itself (not its enemies) in thinking that war can ever be made more humane.

Presents an original and controversial thesis about the future of war. This book argues that the biotechnology revolution has given war a fresh lease of life. It draws on thinkers from Hegel and Nietzsche to the postmodernists. It refers to modern fiction and films.

Wars throughout history have been fought in the name of ideology, religion and the pursuit of peace. Our thinking about war - when it is justified, how it should be fought and how it is perceived - has changed dramatically over time.

This book looks at South Africa's military future. It specifically examines the military problems which South Africa will face over the next decade. He concludes that choices between roles have been avoided for far too long and some hard decisions will have to be made. This new book looks at South Africa's military future.

An accessible and entertainingly written primer to the most influential book in the history of Western warfare.

This is the story of the fictional warriors, heroes, villains, survivors and victims whose exploits thrill and appal us, capturing the existential appeal to men of war

As their roles become more demanding, specialised and far removed from their own inborn predispositions, will the military require ever more years of 'programming'?

* Compact introduction to the nature of war designed to explain today's conflicts

This study highlights the importance of seeing globalisation in political terms, while providing a new security perspective on globalisation and discussing NATO as a risk community.