The Deadly Life of Logistics

Mapping Violence in Global Trade

Nonfiction, Social & Cultural Studies, Social Science, Human Services, Political Science, International, International Relations
Cover of the book The Deadly Life of Logistics by Deborah Cowen, University of Minnesota Press
View on Amazon View on AbeBooks View on Kobo View on B.Depository View on eBay View on Walmart
Author: Deborah Cowen ISBN: 9781452943190
Publisher: University of Minnesota Press Publication: September 1, 2014
Imprint: Univ Of Minnesota Press Language: English
Author: Deborah Cowen
ISBN: 9781452943190
Publisher: University of Minnesota Press
Publication: September 1, 2014
Imprint: Univ Of Minnesota Press
Language: English

In a world in which global trade is at risk, where warehouses and airports, shipping lanes and seaports try to guard against the likes of Al Qaeda and Somali pirates, and natural disaster can disrupt the flow of goods, even our “stuff” has a political life. The high stakes of logistics are not surprising, Deborah Cowen reveals, if we understand its genesis in war.

In The Deadly Life of Logistics, Cowen traces the art and science of logistics over the last sixty years, from the battlefield to the boardroom and back again. Focusing on choke points such as national borders, zones of piracy, blockades, and cities, she tracks contemporary efforts to keep goods circulating and brings to light the collective violence these efforts produce. She investigates how the old military art of logistics played a critical role in the making of the global economic order—not simply the globalization of production, but the invention of the supply chain and the reorganization of national economies into transnational systems. While reshaping the world of production and distribution, logistics is also actively reconfiguring global maps of security and citizenship, a phenomenon Cowen charts through the rise of supply chain security, with its challenge to long-standing notions of state sovereignty and border management.

Though the object of corporate and governmental logistical efforts is commodity supply, The Deadly Life of Logistics demonstrates that they are deeply political—and, considered in the context of the long history of logistics, deeply indebted to the practice of war.

In a world in which global trade is at risk, where warehouses and airports, shipping lanes and seaports try to guard against the likes of Al Qaeda and Somali pirates, and natural disaster can disrupt the flow of goods, even our “stuff” has a political life. The high stakes of logistics are not surprising, Deborah Cowen reveals, if we understand its genesis in war.

In The Deadly Life of Logistics, Cowen traces the art and science of logistics over the last sixty years, from the battlefield to the boardroom and back again. Focusing on choke points such as national borders, zones of piracy, blockades, and cities, she tracks contemporary efforts to keep goods circulating and brings to light the collective violence these efforts produce. She investigates how the old military art of logistics played a critical role in the making of the global economic order—not simply the globalization of production, but the invention of the supply chain and the reorganization of national economies into transnational systems. While reshaping the world of production and distribution, logistics is also actively reconfiguring global maps of security and citizenship, a phenomenon Cowen charts through the rise of supply chain security, with its challenge to long-standing notions of state sovereignty and border management.

Though the object of corporate and governmental logistical efforts is commodity supply, The Deadly Life of Logistics demonstrates that they are deeply political—and, considered in the context of the long history of logistics, deeply indebted to the practice of war.

More books from University of Minnesota Press

Cover of the book Artist Animal by Deborah Cowen
Cover of the book The Language of Nature by Deborah Cowen
Cover of the book Against Purity by Deborah Cowen
Cover of the book Japanese Counterculture by Deborah Cowen
Cover of the book The Construction of Equality by Deborah Cowen
Cover of the book The White Possessive by Deborah Cowen
Cover of the book Civil Resistance by Deborah Cowen
Cover of the book Slaves of the State by Deborah Cowen
Cover of the book When Species Meet by Deborah Cowen
Cover of the book Learning versus the Common Core by Deborah Cowen
Cover of the book Out of the Blue by Deborah Cowen
Cover of the book Renew Orleans? by Deborah Cowen
Cover of the book HIV Exceptionalism by Deborah Cowen
Cover of the book Affirmation of Poetry by Deborah Cowen
Cover of the book Once in a Blue Moon Lodge by Deborah Cowen
We use our own "cookies" and third party cookies to improve services and to see statistical information. By using this website, you agree to our Privacy Policy