LIBYA: Race, Empire, and the Invention of Humanitarian Emergency

Based on the author’s latest book, Slouching Towards Sirte: NATO’s War On Libya and Africa (Baraka Books, Montreal, 2012), and nearly two years of extensive documentary research, this film places the 2011 US/NATO war in Libya in a more meaningful context than that of a war to “protect civilians” driven by the urgent need to “save Benghazi”. Instead it counters such notions with the actual destruction of Sirte, and the consistent and determined persecution of black Libyans and African migrant workers by the armed opposition, supported by NATO, as it sought to violently overthrow Muammar Gaddafi and the Jamahiriyah. This film takes us through some of the stock justifications for the war, focusing on protecting civilians, the responsibility to protect (R2P), and “genocide prevention,” and examines the racial biases and political prejudice that underpinned them. The role of Western human rights organizations, as well as misinformation spread through “social media” with the intent of fostering fear of rampaging black people, are especially scrutinized.

President Eisenhower on the Military Industrial Complex

As We Meet for the First Time (in 2011)

Please take your time in covering materials on this website closely, carefully, and slowly. Try doing this as you think about the kinds of research topics you might consider exploring for this seminar. In addition, please note that there are differences between this website and the syllabus that you can download: the syllabus contains more on university and academic policies, and assistance for students in broad terms; the course website is more research oriented and contains resources not listed in the syllabus. You might also find that it is better to follow the schedule of readings and sessions using this website.

It will be great to welcome you on the first day of class: Monday, January 3rd.

We’ll Meet Again

We’ll meet again
Don’t know where
Don’t know when
But I know we’ll meet again
Some sunny day
Keep smiling through
Just like you always do
‘Till the blue skies
Drive the dark clouds far away

So, will you please say hello
To the folks that I know
Tell them I won’t be long
They’ll be happy to know
That as you saw me go
I was singing this song

We’ll meet again
Don’t know where
Don’t know when
But I know we’ll meet again
Some sunny day

“The Ethnography of an Air-Strike”: Cameron Fenton | The Dominion

Published in The Dominion on April 12, 2010, see Cameron Fenton’s

The Ethnography of an Air-Strike
Canada’s military academics in the Afghan war and at home