CLASS ELEVEN. International Cleavajes Shaping the Future: Follow the money, follow the guns

In this session we will have a look upon military expenses in different countries. We will also look at soldier equipment programs, including the U.S. Land Warrior, Russia´s Ratnik, Germany's IdZ, Britain's FIST, Spain's COMFUT, Sweden's IMESS, and France's FELIN. Then we will reflect on the tittle of this entrance: "Follow the money, follow the guns" after having collected and analyzed the information on military expenditures by country [see Wikipedia].

¿New to military gear? Start with this infographic about the legendary Kalashnickov assault riffle, then dive into this map and explore the wiki sources and others.

Here we start with the Russian programm. You work collecting the informacion on the rest of the programs and we share it in class for further debate.

We finish this class with a video of Zainab Salbi on "backline" stories of women who keep everyday life going during conflicts, and calls for women to have a place at the negotiating table once fighting is over. Iraqi-born Zainab Salbi founded and runs Women for Women International, and has dedicated her life to helping women in war-torn regions rebuild their lives and communities. Access video here.

Aditional readings 


Intervenciones: una vida en la guerra y la paz
Kofi Annan y Nader Mousavizadeh
Taurus, Madrid, 2013

Dirty Wars: The World Is a Battlefield
Jeremy Scahill
Nation Books, Nueva York, 2013


From a Spanish perspective:

El nuevo concepto estadounidense para el empleo de la fuerza militar. 2009. Guillem Colom Piella

Análisis del Real Instituto Elcano ( ARI ), ISSN-e 1696-3466, Nº. 70.

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