[ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]
.In addition, as war can be regarded as a means toincrease one s power or at least to preserve it, influential groups are playing a tremendous rolein this respect.But who are those and how can we identify them?Power Structure Research (PSR)85 offers a very useful approach to identify those individuals,groups, States, or other networks, which are decisive for considering the international use offorce.Through the tools of network-analyses, insider interviews, research of archives and otherdocuments, as well as case studies of political decision processes (cf.KRYSMANSKI 2006: 42-43), acomprehensive picture of powerful networks can be put together.Thus the question of actors iscontextualized into a broader realm of transnational power structures.KRYSMANSKI considersPSR as the best means to describe today s ruling classes, or power élites (2004).All this enablesus, briefly put, to identify those who do not want to be identified, at least not in a larger contextof power networks affiliated to them.For this power mapping could finally lead to the disman-tling of those networks in the sense of their transparency and democratization.DOMHOFF pro-poses four networks of power to be explored: ideological, economic, military, and political as85Main representatives of PSR are G.William Domhoff (Research Professor in psychology and sociology at theUniversity of California, Santa Cruz) and Val Burris (Professor at the University of Oregon s Department of Soci-ology).The Power Elite (1956, New York: Oxford University Press) by the American sociologist C.Wright Mills iswidely seen as PSR s foundational work.The website TheyRule offers the opportunity to create graphical lin-kages between board members of major U.S.corporations so-called interlocking directories for 2004.TheUniversité de Tangente is another project dedicated to the exploration of power structures, publishing com-prehensive network tableaus, or cartographies, of the interconnections of powerful bodies at both national andinternational levels; see its carte du governement mondial for 2004 (submitted in Feb.2005).82 this IEMP model as he calls it would be the most useful organizational bases for generatingpower. (2004b) He moreover classifies five substantive areas of interest being (1) the socialupper class, (2) corporations, (3) non-profit organizations such as foundations, think tanks, andpolicy-discussion groups, (4) political parties and elections, and (5) the state or government(2004a).As to the post-9/11 wars, it can be ascertained that all those areas are very important.However, I will limit my brief discussion to the last three ones.The apostles of the afore-mentioned forward strategy to shape the U.S.government s for-eign policy and military decisions are political lobbies closely associated with the military s in-dustrial establishments.The U.S.media landscape is furthermore dominated by neoconservativethink-tanks, not seldom advocating a military response to global crises.Thus, the case for war isoffered a vast platform to take hold of public opinion.Regarding Iran, neoconservative élites inthe U.S.are ever since strong advocates for a confrontational course.Foremost the very influen-tial U.S.think tank The American Enterprise Institute (AEI) considered the first step in America s long war against radical Islamists led by President Bush (KRISTOL 2006b) i.e.the invasion ofSaddam s Iraq as a failure.They argued that Iran is the country which is the most essential toAmerican interests and ever since form a collecting basin for all kinds of anti-Iran groups.Be-sides ominous organizations such as the MEK as well as Iranian monarchs guised in democraticrobe, there are lobbies supporting Israel s aggressive policies in the ME, which altogether formthe war-front against Iran.At the latter core of the pro-Israel lobby is the American Israel PublicAffairs Committee (AIPAC)86 known as the United States most effective political and fundrais-ing lobby group, which ever since forcefully propagates a military assault on Iran
[ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]