Fallout Talks 1 with Professor Matthew Ford
We talk with Matthew about war in Israel and Ukraine, Conservative Politics in the UK, and his new research-book: War in the Age of the Smartphone.
Fallout is at @dustinducane.bsky.social and @philipblood.bsky.social and the other platform @HistorianBlood
Philip’s guest for a special hot take episode which doesn’t do the hot take, was Dr Matthew Ford - Ex-West Point fellow, Historical Consultant . Saarf-Londoner. Co-author Radical War. Assoc Prof at the Swedish Defence University (from his Twitter profile). (from his SM profiles)
Matthew is the founding Editor of the British Journal for Military History, an Open Access, peer reviewed journal that offers a unique vehicle for distributing high-quality military history to an audience beyond academia.
Main points include:
- Ukraine and Israel
- Civilians and soldiers
- Smartphones and weapons
- Blurring of lines
Dr Ford can be found at @warmatters and @warmatters.bsky.social.
His books are:
This book examines the digital explosion that has ripped across the battlefield, weaponising our attention and making everyone a participant in wars without end.
'Smart' devices, apps, archives and algorithms remove the bystander from war, collapsing the distinctions between audience and actor, soldier and civilian, media and weapon. This has ruptured our capacity to make sense of war. Now we are all either victims or perpetrators.
In Radical War, Ford and Hoskins reveal how contemporary war is legitimised, planned, fought, experienced, remembered and forgotten in a continuous and connected way, through digitally saturated fields of perception.
Plotting the emerging relationship between data, attention and the power to control war, the authors chart the complex digital and human interdependencies that sustain political violence today. Through a unique, interdisciplinary lens, they map our disjointed experiences of conflict and illuminate this dystopian new ecology of war.
This book examines Western military technological innovation through the lens of developments in small arms during the twentieth century. These weapons have existed for centuries, appear to have matured only incrementally and might seem unlikely technologies for investigating the trajectory of military-technical change. Their relative simplicity, however, makes it easy to use them to map patterns of innovation within the military-industrial complex. Advanced technologies may have captured the military imagination, offering the possibility of clean and decisive outcomes, but it is the low technologies of the infantryman that can help us develop an appreciation for the dynamics of military-technical change. Tracing the path of innovation from battlefield to back office, and from industry to alliance partner, Ford develops insights into the way that small arms are socially constructed. He thereby exposes the mechanics of power across the military-industrial complex. This in turn reveals that shifting power relations between soldiers and scientists, bureaucrats and engineers, have allowed the private sector to exploit infantry status anxiety and shape soldier weapon preferences. Ford's analysis allows us to draw wider conclusions about how military innovation works and what social factors frame Western military purchasing policy, from small arms to more sophisticated and expensive weapons.
Amazon links above, but find the books wherever you want. We both have read both books!
Dustin’s note - Would linking to the Hamas Telegram page count as supporting terrorism? I think it might!
We were thinking of having another episode as our first but events overtook us.
Our book on sale.
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