El-Khairy, Omar A.
(2012)
American statecraft for a global digital age: warfare,
diplomacy and culture in a segregated world.
PhD thesis, London School of Economics and Political Science.
Abstract
The aim of this thesis is to investigate how American power is adapting to a changing post-
Cold War global landscape. It is commonly accepted that many of the most visible cultural
expressions of globalisation are American. However, contemporary accounts have proven
inadequate in assessing how such forces have helped provide the infrastructure for
America’s global dominance. With growing debate over the decline of American
influence, the thesis intends to address how American statecraft is attempting to redefine
itself for a digital age.
With the accelerated transmission of information, images and sounds, nation-states are
gradually losing the ability to either dictate their official narrative or control their global
image. The new info-war that lies at the heart of contemporary American statecraft thus
involves the wholesale integration of struggles over information, technology,
communication and culture into the conflict itself. The thesis, therefore, investigates how
American military and diplomatic efforts are both shaping and being reshaped by modern
techno-culture.
The thesis pieces together a contemporary genealogy of American cultural diplomacy in
the Middle East from the Cold War through to the “war on terror”. This genealogy pays
particular attention to both the continued hold of civilisationist discourses and the shifting
question of race in American foreign policy – from the instrumentalisation of jazz at the
height of the ideological antagonism of the Cold War, to rap music as a soundtrack to
American Empire. The attention paid to African American culture aims to highlight the
ways in which the radical traditions of struggle for freedom from the underside of the
American Empire are transforming our world today for both better and worse.
The thesis concludes by contextualising the evolving relationship between consumption,
technology, communication and (national) security, and situating the Occupied Palestinian
Territories within these global capital and cultural flows. This takes the form of an analysis
of the multiple local and international socio-economic initiatives taking hold in the West
Bank – from governmental institutions and NGOs, to the business sector and consumer
industries – and their particular attempts at reshaping Palestinian public spheres.
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