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Manufacturing Militarism: U.S. Government Propaganda in the War on Terror
The U.S. government's prime enemy in the War on Terror is not a shadowy mastermind dispatching suicide bombers. It is the informed American citizen.
With Manufacturing Militarism, Christopher J. Coyne and Abigail R. Hall detail how military propaganda has targeted Americans since 9/11. From the darkened cinema to the football field to the airport screening line, the U.S. government has purposefully inflated the actual threat of terrorism and the necessity of a proactive military response. This biased, incomplete, and misleading information contributes to a broader culture of fear and militarism that, far from keeping Americans safe, ultimately threatens the foundations of a free society.
Applying a political economic approach to the incentives created by a democratic system with a massive national security state, Coyne and Hall delve into case studies from the War on Terror to show how propaganda operates in a democracy. As they vigilantly watch their carry-ons scanned at the airport despite nonexistent threats, or absorb glowing representations of the military from films, Americans are subject to propaganda that, Coyne and Hall argue, erodes government by citizen consent.
With Manufacturing Militarism, Christopher J. Coyne and Abigail R. Hall detail how military propaganda has targeted Americans since 9/11. From the darkened cinema to the football field to the airport screening line, the U.S. government has purposefully inflated the actual threat of terrorism and the necessity of a proactive military response. This biased, incomplete, and misleading information contributes to a broader culture of fear and militarism that, far from keeping Americans safe, ultimately threatens the foundations of a free society.
Applying a political economic approach to the incentives created by a democratic system with a massive national security state, Coyne and Hall delve into case studies from the War on Terror to show how propaganda operates in a democracy. As they vigilantly watch their carry-ons scanned at the airport despite nonexistent threats, or absorb glowing representations of the military from films, Americans are subject to propaganda that, Coyne and Hall argue, erodes government by citizen consent.
264 pages, Paperback
Published August 3, 2021
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About the author
Christopher J. Coyne
48 books16 followersChristopher J. Coyne is Associate Professor of Economics at George Mason University and Associate Director of the F. A. Hayek Program for Advanced Study in Philosophy, Politics, and Economics at the Mercatus Center. He is the author of Doing Bad by Doing Good: Why Humanitarian Action Fails (Stanford, 2013) and After War: The Political Economy of Exporting Democracy (Stanford, 2008).
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Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews
April 8, 2024
The “Afghanistan Papers” clearly show that US planners knew the Afghan war was unwinnable and deliberately kept that priceless conclusion from the US public. The US war in Afghanistan “has likely cost taxpayers hundreds of billions of dollars Congress might not have appropriated had it known the truth.” On top of that, “we have lost the blood, limbs and lives of tens of thousands of American Service Members with little to no gain to our country as a consequence of this deception.” A recent report by American Transparency found that “over a ten-year period from 2007 to 2014, the US government spent over $4.3 billion in public relations.” During that same time, just the US Army spent $255 million on PR. Be All You Can Be – a pawn for US empire. The Costs of War Project shows that just post 9/11 US warfare up to fiscal year 2020 cost us taxpayers $5.4 trillion and the US is still yet committed to spend yet another $1 trillion. Who says you can’t have free healthcare? Journalist Bob Woodward revealed a Pentagon secret study that showed that the US could save $125 billion simply through simply reducing waste. You’d think reducing waste would be patriotic. The US elite is obsessed with classifying information away info from the American public – even back in 1956, the Coolidge Committee concluded that “over-classification has reached serious proportions.” Imagine what would be said today.
“A January 2003 Gallup poll found that out of thirty-eight countries surveyed, none showed majority support for unilateral military action on the part of the United States.” “While some 72 percent of Americans favored the (Iraq) war in March of 2003, this number fell to 36% by January 2007.” In 2007, 49% of Americans surveyed in a Gallup poll “said the war with Iraq had made the United States less safe.” A 2004 poll of Iraqis found that “an astounding 92% of Iraqis viewed coalition forces as ‘occupiers’.” A 2016 survey found that more than 50 percent of Americans think “the United States made a mistake sending troops to Iraq.”
Propagandized Nation: “A study of more than 3,300 survey responses found that some 80 percent of Americans tended to get their news from television and radio – particularly Fox News, CNN, NBC, ABC, CBS, and PBS-NPR, while 19 percent reported print materials as their primary news source.” Page 79 discusses the US “paying major sports teams and other enterprises to engage in seemingly voluntary displays of patriotism” and “working to link ideas of patriotism and ‘Americanism’ with sports.” “The DOD paid at least $6 million to NFL teams for such [jingoistic] activities between 2012 and 2015. All the while, taxpayers, game attendees, and viewers were completely unaware that these patriotic displays were bought and paid for by the US government as a form of propaganda.” “The NFL purchased a million miniature American flags, which were distributed to all fans entering stadiums.” America – where sports and war intersect. Funny how no other country on earth, could make that comment.
Fun Fact No US Politician Will Tell You: “More people in the United States are killed by dog bites than by terrorists.” Yet the average American still lives in fear, wrought by politicians running for office; blatant fear mongering gets politicians elected every time. As Hitler, Goering and Goebbels would tell you, manufactured fear sells.
US liberals love Obama even though he charged eight people with violating the Espionage Act – more than all previous presidents combined [same with Obama’s drone usuage]. Did Obama’s charging Chelsea Manning and Edward Snowden with abetting terrorism (basically teaching us all the truth of what the US is secretly doing to make us less safe) make the US ANY safer?
Experts say that using airliners to commit terrorism in the future won’t work because it would now be “met by intense physical resistance from both passengers and the crew.” Compliance won’t happen again basically because of the previous “demo”.
This was a really good book. I learned a lot about how the US works hard at “Manufacturing Militarism” that DOESN’T make us safer, and how the US makes us all pay for it too; I am really glad I read it.
“A January 2003 Gallup poll found that out of thirty-eight countries surveyed, none showed majority support for unilateral military action on the part of the United States.” “While some 72 percent of Americans favored the (Iraq) war in March of 2003, this number fell to 36% by January 2007.” In 2007, 49% of Americans surveyed in a Gallup poll “said the war with Iraq had made the United States less safe.” A 2004 poll of Iraqis found that “an astounding 92% of Iraqis viewed coalition forces as ‘occupiers’.” A 2016 survey found that more than 50 percent of Americans think “the United States made a mistake sending troops to Iraq.”
Propagandized Nation: “A study of more than 3,300 survey responses found that some 80 percent of Americans tended to get their news from television and radio – particularly Fox News, CNN, NBC, ABC, CBS, and PBS-NPR, while 19 percent reported print materials as their primary news source.” Page 79 discusses the US “paying major sports teams and other enterprises to engage in seemingly voluntary displays of patriotism” and “working to link ideas of patriotism and ‘Americanism’ with sports.” “The DOD paid at least $6 million to NFL teams for such [jingoistic] activities between 2012 and 2015. All the while, taxpayers, game attendees, and viewers were completely unaware that these patriotic displays were bought and paid for by the US government as a form of propaganda.” “The NFL purchased a million miniature American flags, which were distributed to all fans entering stadiums.” America – where sports and war intersect. Funny how no other country on earth, could make that comment.
Fun Fact No US Politician Will Tell You: “More people in the United States are killed by dog bites than by terrorists.” Yet the average American still lives in fear, wrought by politicians running for office; blatant fear mongering gets politicians elected every time. As Hitler, Goering and Goebbels would tell you, manufactured fear sells.
US liberals love Obama even though he charged eight people with violating the Espionage Act – more than all previous presidents combined [same with Obama’s drone usuage]. Did Obama’s charging Chelsea Manning and Edward Snowden with abetting terrorism (basically teaching us all the truth of what the US is secretly doing to make us less safe) make the US ANY safer?
Experts say that using airliners to commit terrorism in the future won’t work because it would now be “met by intense physical resistance from both passengers and the crew.” Compliance won’t happen again basically because of the previous “demo”.
This was a really good book. I learned a lot about how the US works hard at “Manufacturing Militarism” that DOESN’T make us safer, and how the US makes us all pay for it too; I am really glad I read it.
September 28, 2021
An incredibly important book detailing the U.S. government’s war on terror propaganda from sports to film, from invasion to air travel. A timely reminder of how the government sold and continues to sell its war aspirations to the public despite laws officially prohibiting propaganda.
July 2, 2022
Fundamentally, this is a book about threat inflation, though it is framed around "government propaganda." This work was coauthored by economists (I'm not sure why the listing on this page doesn't include Abigail R. Hall, who lives in Louisville and teaches at Bellarmine), but a very similar book could just as easily have been written by political scientists. The coauthors seem to be anti-government in the way that libertarian and public choice economists often are -- seeing it as an intrusive presence in the market (in this case, perhaps, the "marketplace of ideas") and antithetical to individual liberty.
Basically, I found myself agreeing with them about most of the specific evidence they marshal identifying government exaggeration of alleged security threats, but disappointed in their particular diagnosis of the problem. I'm also not sure they offer workable solutions.
The sections on military entanglements with professional sports and the entertainment industry are interesting, but seem like quite different concerns than whether or not particular leaders exaggerated foreign threats to justify either huge defense budgets or specific military interventions that they favored.
Basically, I found myself agreeing with them about most of the specific evidence they marshal identifying government exaggeration of alleged security threats, but disappointed in their particular diagnosis of the problem. I'm also not sure they offer workable solutions.
The sections on military entanglements with professional sports and the entertainment industry are interesting, but seem like quite different concerns than whether or not particular leaders exaggerated foreign threats to justify either huge defense budgets or specific military interventions that they favored.
January 11, 2024
A fantastic book. This completely changed my opinion of US military culture and its goals, and exposed to me the deeply disturbing embedding of US military public affairs teams in media. I was particularly shocked to read about the scale of Department of Defence involvement in the US film industry and their role in promoting the US military’s message by subsidising films in exchange for the power to edit scripts and remove scenes. This book reminds us to be vigilant of ever present attempts to stifle democracy and limit freedom. The section on the history of the involvement of the US military in American sports institutions was less surprising to me but still very interesting.
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March 11, 2025Required reading for Fellowship program. Interesting perspectives.
Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews