From subjects to objects: honor flights and US ontological insecurity

IF 1.5 3区社会学 Q2 INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS

International Relations Pub Date : 2022-10-21 DOI:10.1177/00471178221133965

Brent J. Steele

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引用次数: 1

Abstract

Following the 2004 establishment of the World War II memorial in Washington DC, itself a product of the collective re-commemoration of the so-called ‘Greatest Generation’ of WWII veterans in the US, nonprofit organizations began the practice of ‘Honor flights’. These flights transported US veterans of the Second World War to Washington DC to visit that memorial and other commemorative sites, meet with Congressional members, and return to their local airports to great fanfare and celebration. The practice has evolved to incorporate Korean War and now Vietnam War veterans. As honor flights include much more than the veterans themselves, and as it has become an affectively charged festival for local communities to ‘honor’ their veterans during periods of unresolved wartimes, I articulate the Honor Flight as a treatment for – but also a symptom of – US ontological insecurity in the 21st Century. Honor flights are celebratory, judgmental, and political micro-practices that reflect and reproduce US militarism in ways that will likely outlast the wartimes of the 21st century United States. Along with other micro-practices of US ontological (in)security, Honor Flights threaten to destabilize the politics of military intervention hereafter, and encourage the extension of or inauguration of new times of war.

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从主体到客体:荣誉飞行与美国本体不安全感

2004年在华盛顿特区建立了二战纪念馆，这本身就是对美国所谓的“最伟大的一代”二战老兵集体重新纪念的产物，随后非营利组织开始了“荣誉飞行”的实践。这些航班将第二次世界大战的美国退伍军人运送到华盛顿特区，参观纪念碑和其他纪念地点，会见国会议员，然后返回当地机场，参加盛大的庆祝活动。这种做法已经发展到包括朝鲜战争和现在的越南战争的退伍军人。由于荣誉飞行不仅仅包括退伍军人本身，而且由于它已经成为当地社区在未解决的战争时期“纪念”他们的退伍军人的一个充满感情的节日，我将荣誉飞行作为21世纪美国本体不安全感的一种治疗方法，也是一种症状。荣誉飞行是一种庆祝、评判和政治上的微观做法，它反映和再现了美国军国主义，这种做法可能会比21世纪美国的战争时期更持久。与美国本体论(in)安全的其他微观实践一起，荣誉飞行威胁到今后军事干预的政治不稳定，并鼓励延长或开启新的战争时代。

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来源期刊

International Relations INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS-

CiteScore

3.20

自引率

6.20%

发文量

期刊介绍： International Relations is explicitly pluralist in outlook. Editorial policy favours variety in both subject-matter and method, at a time when so many academic journals are increasingly specialised in scope, and sectarian in approach. We welcome articles or proposals from all perspectives and on all subjects pertaining to international relations: law, economics, ethics, strategy, philosophy, culture, environment, and so on, in addition to more mainstream conceptual work and policy analysis. We believe that such pluralism is in great demand by the academic and policy communities and the interested public.