The fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989 came to symbolise the dawn of a new era of openness and connectivity. Yet today, the world is ever more divided, demarcated and - quite literally fortified. We are living in a guarded age.
Why and how has this happened? Where will it take us? In this book, David Betz explores the expansion of fortified physical infrastructure at every level of the global political economy. In cities, where security is increasingly 'designed in' to public buildings and spaces as they are reshaped to mitigate mass terror attacks. Within corporations, who are burying their electronic assets in deep underground caverns and behind the leaded walls of ex-nuclear war bunkers against a range of threats and feared contingencies. In many urban areas, where the default condition of civil life is walled, gated, watched, and guarded. Year after year hundreds of miles of linear obstacles-walls, ditches, and watchtowers-are added to national borders. Practically everywhere you look there are signs of innovative fortification, often designed to be overlooked. The Guarded Age reveals the barriers which most have observed but few - until reading this book - have truly seen.
The fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989 came to symbolise the dawn of a new era of openness and connectivity. Yet today, the world is ever more divided, demarcated and - quite literally fortified. We are living in a guarded age.
Why and how has this happened? Where will it take us? In this book, David Betz explores the expansion of fortified physical infrastructure at every level of the global political economy. In cities, where security is increasingly 'designed in' to public buildings and spaces as they are reshaped to mitigate mass terror attacks. Within corporations, who are burying their electronic assets in deep underground caverns and behind the leaded walls of ex-nuclear war bunkers against a range of threats and feared contingencies. In many urban areas, where the default condition of civil life is walled, gated, watched, and guarded. Year after year hundreds of miles of linear obstacles-walls, ditches, and watchtowers-are added to national borders. Practically everywhere you look there are signs of innovative fortification, often designed to be overlooked. <i>The Guarded Age</i> reveals the barriers which most have observed but few - until reading this book - have truly seen.
Auflage
Sprache
Verlagsort
Verlagsgruppe
Zielgruppe
Maße
Höhe: 228 mm
Breite: 154 mm
Dicke: 25 mm
Gewicht
ISBN-13
978-1-5095-4405-9 (9781509544059)
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Schweitzer Klassifikation
David Betz is Professor of War in the Modern World in the Department of War Studies, King's College London and a Senior Fellow of the Foreign Policy Research Centre. He has written four books, most recently Carnage and Connectivity: Landmarks in the Decline of Conventional Military Power (OUP), and dozens of chapters and articles on problems of contemporary strategy and warfare. He regularly advises governments and armies on a range of issues including cybersecurity, counterinsurgency doctrine, strategic communications, and future warfare.
<b>David Betz</b> is Professor of War in the Modern World in the Department of War Studies, King's College London and a Senior Fellow of the Foreign Policy Research Centre. He has written four books, most recently <i>Carnage and Connectivity: Landmarks in the Decline of Conventional Military Power</i> (OUP), and dozens of chapters and articles on problems of contemporary strategy and warfare. He regularly advises governments and armies on a range of issues including cybersecurity, counterinsurgency doctrine, strategic communications, and future warfare.
List of Figures
Preface
Introduction
1 The Rise of the Walls
2 Civilisation, War, and Guardedness
3 Contemporary Military Fortification
4 Storming the City
5 Securing the City
6 Hiding in Plain Sight
7 Luxury Forts to Data Bunkers
Conclusion
Further Reading
Notes
