Attachments to War: Biomedical Logics and Violence in Twenty-First-Century America (Next Wave: New Directions in Women's Studies)

"In Attachments to War Jennifer Terry traces how biomedical logics entangle Americans in a perpetual state of war. Focusing on the Afghanistan and Iraq wars between 2002 and 2014. Terry identifies the presence of a biomedicine-war nexus in which new forms of wounding provoke the continual development of complex treatment, rehabilitation, and prosthetic technologies. At the same time, the U.S. military rationalizes violence and military occupation as necessary conditions for advancing medical knowledge and saving lives. Terry examines the treatment of war-generated polytrauma, postinjury bionic prosthetics design and the development of defenses against infectious pathogens, showing how the interdependence between war and biomedicine is interwoven with neoliberal ideals of freedom, democracy, and prosperity. She also outlines the ways in which military-sponsored biomedicine relies on racialized logics that devalue the lives of Afghan and Iraqi citizens and U.S. veterans of color. Uncovering the mechanisms that attach all Americans to war and highlighting their embeddedness and institutionalization in everyday life via the government, media, biotechnology, finance, and higher education, Terry helps lay the foundation for a more meaningful opposition to war."--book cover "In Attachments to War" Jennifer Terry traces how biomedical logics entangle Americans in a perpetual state of war. Focusing on the Afghanistan and Iraq wars between 2002 and 2014, Terry identifies the presence of a biomedicine-war nexus in which new forms of wounding provoke the continual development of complex treatment, rehabilitation, and prosthetic technologies. At the same time, the U.S. military rationalizes violence and military occupation as necessary conditions for advancing medical knowledge and saving lives. Terry examines the treatment of war-generated polytrauma, postinjury bionic prosthetics design, and the development of defenses against infectious pathogens, showing how the interdependence between war and biomedicine is interwoven with neoliberal ideals of freedom, democracy, and prosperity. She also outlines the ways in which military-sponsored biomedicine relies on racialized logics that devalue the lives of Afghan and Iraqi citizens and U.S. veterans of color. Uncovering the mechanisms that attach all Americans to war and highlighting their embeddedness and institutionalization in everyday life via the government, media, biotechnology, finance, and higher education, Terry helps lay the foundation for a more meaningful opposition to war"--Provided by publisher Cover 1 Contents 8 Abbreviations 10 Acknowledgments 12 Introduction 16 One. The Biomedicine-War Nexus 42 Two. Promises of Polytrauma: On Regenerative Medicine 68 Three. We Can Enhance You: On Bionic Prosthetics 104 Four. Pathogenic Threats: On Pharmaceutical War Profiteering 155 Epilogue 195 Notes 204 Bibliography 232 Index 254 A 254 B 255 C 256 D 256 E 257 F 257 G 257 H 258 I 258 J 259 K 259 L 259 M 259 N 260 O 260 P 260 R 261 S 261 T 262 U 262 V 263 W 263 X 263 Y 263 Z 263 Abbreviations ix Acknowledgments xi Introduction 1 1. The Biomedicine-War Nexus 27 2. Promises of Polytrauma: On Regenerative Medicine 53 3. We Can Enhance You: On Bionic Prosthetics 89 4. Pathogenic Threats: On Pharmaceutical War Profiteering 140 Epilogue 180 Notes 189 Bibliography 217 Index 239