The Means to Kill: Essays on the Interdependence of War and Technology from Ancient Rome to the Age of Drones PDF
Preview The Means to Kill: Essays on the Interdependence of War and Technology from Ancient Rome to the Age of Drones
The Means to Kill This page intentionally left blank The Means to Kill Essays on the Interdependence of War and Technology from Ancient Rome to the Age of Drones Edited by Gerrit Dworok and Frank Jacob McFarland & Company, Inc., Publishers Jefferson, North Carolina LIBRARYOFCONGRESSCATALOGUING-IN-PUBLICATIONDATA The means to kill : essays on the interdependence of war and technology from ancient Rome to the age of drones / edited by Gerrit Dworok and Frank Jacob. p. cm. Includes bibliographical references and index. ♾ ISBN 978-0-7864-9717-1 (softcover : acid free paper) ISBN 978-1-4766-2280-4 (ebook) 1. Military art and science—Technological innovations—History. 2. Military weapons—Technological innovations. 3. Military history. I. Dworok, Gerrit, 1983– editor of compilation. II. Jacob, Frank, 1984– editor of compilation. III. Title: Essays on the interdependence of war and technology from ancient Rome to the age of drones. U27.M39 2016 355'.0709—dc23 2015036161 BRITISHLIBRARYCATALOGUINGDATAAREAVAILABLE © 2016 Gerrit Dworok and Frank Jacob. All rights reserved No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying or recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publisher. Front cover: General Atomics MQ-1 Predator drone schematic and explosion (Department of Defense); medieval crossbow and background © 2016 Thinkstock Printed in the United States of America McFarland & Company, Inc., Publishers Box 611, Jefferson, North Carolina 28640 www.mcfarlandpub.com Table of Contents Preface Frank JacobandGerrit Dworok 1 Introduction Frank Jacob, Gerrit Dworok andJeffrey M. Shaw 3 Part I: Ancient Rome and the Medieval Ages Ancient Naval Artillery Support Jorit Wintjes 17 Stirrup, Composite Bow and Traction Trebuchet: Some Remarks on the Interdependence of War and Technology in the Early Middle Ages Christian Scholl 30 The Medieval Arms Race: The Confrontation of Orient and Occident in the Crusades and the Reconquista Thomas Schuetz 45 Gunpowder and Cannons: Gunnery in the Late Middle Ages Marc-André Karpienski 57 Mining and Warfare: An Overview of Centuries of Interdependence Olaf Wagener 71 Part II: The Age of the World Wars The German Navy League, Navalism and the Perception of the Imperial German Navy as a Technological Masterpiece, 1898–1914 Sebastian Diziol 85 v vi Table of Contents The Soviet Propaganda Film as an Instrument of Warfare: Sergey Eisenstein’s Montage Technique and the “Global Civil War of Ideologies” Gerrit Dworok 98 Four Technical Artifacts of the Great War Kurt Möser 111 The Special Operations Executive (SOE) and the Use and Abuse of Peacetime Technology, 1940–45: A Case Study of Unconventional Warfare Roderick Bailey 126 The Liberal Attraction to Technological Progress and the RAF Tomáš Kučera 137 Resource Policy and Technical Understanding: Aspects of Hitler’s Wartime Economy Eckehard Dworok 153 Part III: The Cold War A Weapon Changed the World: The AK-47 and the Consequences for Asymmetric Warfare Frank Jacob 169 Tous Azimuts: Yugoslavia’s Defense Policy in the Cold War James Horncastle 182 Technology, Warfare and Intra- Alliance Rivalry: The U.S.–West German Main Battle Tank Harmonization in the 1970s Benedict von Bremen 197 Equipping the Marine Corps for the 21st Century, 1975–1990 Nathan R. Packard 210 From AirLand Battle to Effects- Based Operations: United States Air Force and Army Doctrine Development from 1980 to 2001 Daniel Fuhrer 228 Part IV: The Age of “New Wars” Technology and War: Nanotechnology, Precision and Globalization Jeffrey M. Shaw 245 Table of Contents vii The Fallacy of Humane Killing: Interwar Debates About Air Power and Twenty- First Century “Killer Robots” Adam Page 260 Death from the Skies: A Just- War Perspective on the Rise of Unmanned Weapons Systems and the Reduction of Combatant and Noncombatant Casualties Timothy J. Demy 277 About the Contributors 293 Index 297 This page intentionally left blank Preface Frank Jacob and Gerrit Dworok The subject of war plays a decisive role for the work of historians and the commemorative cultures of societies. Recent controversies on World War I have set an illustrative example for this fact. Even after a hundred years of historical research and public commemoration, there are still questions that remain unanswered. On the occasion of the centenary of the outbreak of the Great War, for instance, experts and the media have passionately debated the issue of war guilt. The interdependence of warfare and technology, which is discussed in the present volume, also refers to this historical subject. Despite the fact that it has never attracted as much publicity as the emotional question of guilt, it is no less important since it puts a focus on a striking factor of global history. Frank Jacob, intending to analyze this structural interrelation, came up with the idea of an international conference in 2013. Only a few months later, fif- teen specialists from around the world met in Würzburg, Bavaria, where the Department of Modern History I (chaired by Prof. Wolfgang Altgeld) hosted the conference “On the Interdependence of War and Technology.” The lec- tures given at this conference as well as some additional essays are presented here. We are happy to present essays that deal with the topic from different and rewarding points of view and provide a broad chronological as well as regional perspective. The realization of this project would not have been possible if the editors had not been actively supported. A number of people and institutions con- tributed substantially to this volume, and we take the opportunity to thank them: First of all, we thank Wolfgang Altgeld, who has campaigned for a “young researchers’” project once again, for providing us with support in all possible ways. His support was especially crucial given the fact that, in Ger- man academic circles, the importance of the humanities in general, and history 1
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