Dr. Steve Niva will be visiting the University of Alabama Political Science Department on Wednesday, April 17, 2019 from 1:00pm-2:30pm.

Talk title: “US Special Operations Forces, Drones and the New American Way of War in the Middle East”
1:00 pm – 2:30 pm in ten Hoor 113

Abstract: With the withdrawal of most US ground forces from the Middle East, there has been a growing reliance upon drone strikes and targeted operations outside conventional war zones. While many suggest these developments are driven by the rise new technologies, this talk will show how this new form of warfare is the result of the emergence of network forms of organization within and across the US military and related agencies after 2001. Drawing upon evidence from unclassified reports, academic studies, and the work of investigative journalists, this talk will outline the evolution of the Joint Special Operations Command (JSOC) from an elite strike force into a largely autonomous networked command that has been central to this process of global shadow warfare. This often-lethal networked warfare increasingly resembles a global and permanent policing operation in which targeted operations are used to manage populations and threats in lieu of addressing the social and political problems that produce the threats in the first place.

Steve Niva has taught International Politics and Middle East Studies at the Evergreen State College in Olympia, Washington for the past 18 years. His primary areas of research and writing include contemporary Middle East politics; U.S. foreign policy in the Middle East; asymmetric warfare and political violence; and the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. He is currently the Executive Director of the Middle East Research and Information Project (MERIP) and the Editor of Middle East Report magazine.

This event in the Spring 2019 Middle East Studies Speakers Series is organized by the Program for Middle East Studies and co-sponsored by the Department of Political Science.