Research, ideas, and leadership for a more secure, peaceful world

Past Event
Seminar

Fear Factor: Understanding the Origins and Consequences of Beliefs about National Security and the Threats We Face

Open to the Public

Evidence suggests that fiction and other socially constructed portrayals of political reality—including propaganda, false flag operations, and conspiracy theories—have long exercised demonstrable effects on political reality, albeit often in unforeseen and unintentional ways.

Through the lens of the invasion panic that gripped Great Britain in the late nineteenth century, Greenhill will explore how and why national security-related "social facts"—i.e., things that are deemed to be "true" simply because they are widely believed to be true—can become broadly adopted and disseminated and, by extension, thereby influence the development and conduct of national security policy. Greenhill will further explore what this historical case can tell us about the theoretical and policy implications such "social facts" may hold for the threats we face today, including terrorism and the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction.

Please join us! Coffee and tea provided. Everyone is welcome, but admittance will be on a first come-first served basis.

Date: Time: - Location: Littauer Building - Belfer Center Library, Room 369
Image from a book depicting the invasion of Britain by the French, with Cossack allies supported by the massed ranks of unemployed, idle and alien. The book is widely seen as having played a role in the "war scare" that preceded WWI.

About

The routine employment of torture on the popular television series 24 has given rise to the charge that the program lends false verisimilitude to the premise that torture is a legitimate and effective means of interrogation. A growing body of evidence suggests the critics' charge is correct. Indeed, the Dean of the U.S. Military Academy at West Point grew sufficiently concerned about the pernicious effects 24 was having on his cadets that he traveled to California to meet with the show's creators to ask them to tone down the use of torture on the program. The Intelligence Science Board has echoed the critics' concerns, arguing that similar reality-distorting attitudes towards torture can be seen in the public at large. But how and why can a wholly fictional program like 24 actually influence political reality? Is this case something of an exception, or more akin to the rule?  Unfortunately, evidence suggests that fiction and other socially constructed portrayals of political reality—including propaganda, false flag operations, and conspiracy theories—have long exercised demonstrable effects on political reality, albeit often in unforeseen and unintentional ways.

Through the lens of the invasion panic that gripped Great Britain in the late nineteenth century, Greenhill will explore how and why national security-related "social facts"—i.e., things that are deemed to be "true" simply because they are widely believed to be true—can become broadly adopted and disseminated and, by extension, thereby influence the development and conduct of national security policy. Greenhill will further explore what this historical case can tell us about the theoretical and policy implications such "social facts" may hold for the threats we face today, including terrorism and the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction.

Please join us! Coffee and tea provided. Everyone is welcome, but admittance will be on a first come-first served basis.