The Means to Kill: Essays on the Interdependence of War and Technology from Ancient Rome to the Age of Drones

313 Pages·2015·9.976 MB·English

by  Gerrit Dworok (editor), Frank Jacob (editor)

The Means to Kill
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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
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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