Strategy of Deception

by Paul Virilio

A trenchant critique of new techniques of waging war, and its reduction to images on a screen

Written with his characteristic flair, Virilio’s latest book is a trenchant denunciation of the Kosovo warv in which he successfully unites theory with a riveting study of the conflict. Tearing aside the veil of hypocrisy in which the USA and its allies wrapped the war, Virilio demonstrates that the nature of the bombing was set by strategic rather than ethical considerations.

Beneath the humanitarian rhetoric, Virilio sees a sinister innovation in the methods of waging territorial space is being replaced by orbital space in which a system of global telesurveillance is linked to the destructive power of bombers and missiles. Governments, the military and the media are becoming part of a seamless and self-justifying process linked by new information and arms technologies.

Passionate and political, Strategy of Deception is a vital examination not only of the war in Yugoslavia but also what Virilio calls our “fin-de-siécle infantilization” in which the reality of battle is reduced to flickering images on a screen.

Genres: Philosophy, Politics, Theory, Nonfiction, War

96 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1999

About the author

Paul Virilio was a cultural theorist and urbanist. He is best known for his writings about technology as it has developed in relation to speed and power, with diverse references to architecture, the arts, the city and the military.

Reviews

[Charlie Kruse]

Paul kinda goes off... what's so funny is Virilio's style of writing, filled with italics, bolded slogans, kind of in a weird early 2000's paranoid frenzy. Similar almost to Gilles Chatelet in that stylistic manner, but without as much of the rhetorical flare, I found myself seeing the same points being brought up again and again. Maybe that's to do with the Verso imprint (it was originally published as a series of articles) but still, I think Slavoj Zizek also made similar points about Kosovo as well.

[Terence]

This is a book that is a bit challenging to read in the current environment because the events seem so displaced and diminished in the scope of history and media. What does stand out is the focus on media and narratives to perform war and its capabilities. Not my favorite Virilio but an easy read.

[Ondřej Trhoň]

Hodně divny jazyk (může za to imho překlad), ale pořád aktuální analýza vedení války jinými prostředky (informační/technologické). Jen místo Ameriky je to Rusko a Amerika a místo Kosova Sýrie.

[Michael David]

In this book, Virilio writes that improving technology burgeoning all over the world has changed the way that wars have been executed. Media has become pivotal in the transformation of public opinion, as was in the case of the Kosovo skirmishes during the late 1990s. Through its constant bombardment of imagery, media have desensitized people to violence, and this has fostered a sort of stoicism due to the viewers' familiarity with images of war.

In light of the issues of "fake news" created and utilized by strongmen, the reader is invited by this work to think about the issues that should actually be addressed.

The current political climate, for example, praises Marcos as a cynosure of the past. However, books like these provide the proper vista regarding his achievements. After all,

Dictators have always felt the need to give a semblance of legitimacy to their darkest schemes.

Further,

On the Web, where, as everyone knows, the terrorist temptation is constant and where the depredations of hackers are committed with impunity in a strange state of legal indeterminacy, the difference between (true) information and (false) deception fades a little more each day. (p. 78)

What can I say? Virilio seems to be right.

[Jack Reed]

Funny how when you look up ‘Strategy of Deception’ on this app a book claiming to defend “western values” comes up first lol… any supposed leftist who supports NATO or the West in Ukraine right now needs to read this.

[Dalton Babcock]

At times insightful but too often incoherent.

[Differengenera]

v 90s Baudrillardian take on Balkans

[6655321]

Virilio is probably *right* about a lot of things (since this is an older book about the deployment of the unilateral deployment of "humanitarian war" against the body that is supposed to define that deployment (the UN) via a singular power (NATO, but basically the U$A). He just sort of misses the fact that while precision bombing things is the preferred method of war for global superpowers the need to actually deploy troops for "humanitarian purposes" is really where like *new problems in warfare emerge* and since Virilio is writing this in response to Kosovo obviously he is more mapping a new thing rather than talking about what comes after but like, Verso selling this book for (i'm going to guess around 14.95) is like, one of the many proofs that Verso is a horrifyingly self indulgent press with a bloodhound like instinct for cash.

[goodreads]

To be honest this feels more like a rant than a book, but hey, why not?

Reading more easily than Virilio's usual mind bending philosophy, SOD offers a different take on Kosovo, Iraq and american power with a mix of opinion and insight if lacking V's usual imagination.

Over before you know it, the most interesting stuff here is expanding on the themes opened up in Baurdillard's 'The gulf war did not take place', of military and virtual reality intertwining.

Not a great primer on V's thought or the history of the wars mentioned but maybe worth the hour or so just to hear something different on the wars mentioned.

[Scot]

A great expose and deep think on the run-up, faulty reasoning, and implications of the Balkans bombing and war in the late 1990's. That war clearly set the stage for a weakening of power for both the UN and NATO and allowed the US to set a course forward. The path that was carved would eventually lead to the UN approval of US attacking Iraq again early the next decade. As per usual, Virilio's analysis is interesting and thought-provoking and something anyone interested in the modern rush to war and how those types of things are jammed down the general public's throat should read.