Military Orientalism: Eastern War Through Western Eyes

✍ Scribed by Patrick Porter

• Publisher: Columbia University Press
• Year: 2009
• Tongue: English
• Leaves: 274
• Series: Critical War Studies
• Category: Library

✦ Synopsis

Westerners have long fetishized the idea of "Oriental" warfare, hoping to either emulate the strategies of foreign armies or assimilate members of Eastern and "martial races," such as Sikhs or Gurkhas, into their ranks. Samurai warriors, obedient to an ancient code of chivalry and honor, and the Mongol hordes thundering across the steppe-these exotic visions have thrilled Western imaginations for centuries. Yet, at the same time, today's Eastern warriors, such as the Taliban and Hezbollah, are treated with skepticism, and their success is acknowledged only grudgingly in the West. These contradictory positions throw into question the romantic notion that race, culture, and tradition determines how armies fight.

Military Orientalism argues against the idea that culture dictates the strategy of war. Culture is powerful, Patrick Porter asserts, but it encompasses an ambiguous repertoire of ideas rather than a clear code of action. To divide the world into Western, Asiatic, or Islamic ways of war is a misconception, one that profoundly impacts our approach to present and future conflicts, especially the "War on Terror." Porter also emphasizes the danger of fetishizing the exotic, which complicates a more accurate understanding of the enemy. Launching a rare investigation into the history of this trend as it has appeared in the work of Herodotus and numerous other fictional and nonfictional narratives, Porter strikes at the heart of the fear, envy, and wonder inspired by the Oriental warrior.

✦ Table of Contents

Contents
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
INTRODUCTION
Pepsi Cola versus Death
The Cultural Turn
Definitions: Orientalism and Culture
The Argument
Some Caveats
Chapter Outline
1. THE EMBATTLED WEST
Western Confidence, Western Crisis
The Hybridity of War
Savage Wars of Peace: the Colonial Context
The Twentieth Century: ‘Yellow Peril’and ‘Ancient Hatreds’
2. RETHINKING WAR AND CULTURE
Why Culture Matters
Culture, Colonialism, and Myth
War and the Exotic
Tribal War and Primitive Fantasies
Eastern Wisdom? Texts and Contexts
Strength and Weakness
Culture and War: Rethinking the Relationship
3. WATCHING THE RISING SUN: Observing Japan at War
4. THE GHOST OF GENGHIS: Mongols and the Western imagination
Introduction
Monsters or Marvels?
Unveiling the Captains
The Mongols Romanticised
Conclusion: the West v. Itself
5. EXOTIC ENEMY?: America, the Taliban and the Fog of Culture
A War of Cultures
Busted Flush or Deathless Army?
The Taliban: Rise, Fall and Rise
The Fog of Culture
Breakers of Tradition
Conclusion
6. THE DIVINE VICTORY: Hizballa, Israel and the 2006 ‘July War’
The July War
Israelis and Arabs at War
Great Expectations, Tough Surprises
Great Expectations
Psywar and Self-Portraits: the Propaganda War
Making Culture Local
Conclusion
Conclusion
Beyond the Wild East
NOTES
INDEX