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Employing a combination of qualitative and quantitative methods, this project examines the origins, development and consequences of a variety of widely accepted—albeit artificially created—national security-related social facts in the US, Britain and Germany, from the late nineteenth century until the present day. (Social facts are things that are “true” because they are widely believed to be true, even if they come from potentially dubious, or simply fictional, sources.) Issues examined will run the gamut from the strategic level to the tactical level, and will include: the source and nature of security “threats”; technology and extant weapons capabilities; attitudes regarding weapons of mass destruction; and the efficacy of torture as a method of interrogation. Mechanisms of attitudinal influence to be examined include literature and film, government propaganda, conspiracy theories and false flag operations, and the sources and conduits of transmission include the general public, opinion elites, and state-level actors and entities. |
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Strong background in international relations and security studies is a must; strong grounding in history and/or psychology, highly desirable as is facility and experience with quantitative data and methods |
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Assist professor with research for book project, while undertaking related/complementary student-driven research |