Europäische Kulturtage 2014

 
 

Iain Overton

Von Gasattacken bis zu Drohnenangriffen. Die transformative Kraft neuer Technologien in der Kriegsführung.

 

Curriculum Vitae

Iain Overton is the Director of Policy and Investigations at Action on Armed Violence (AOAV). He oversees the research, advocacy and policy work that AOAV carries out. Prior to joining AOAV in 2013, Iain Overton worked as a journalist, notably for the BBC, ITN and latterly as editor of the London-based Bureau of Investigative Journalism. He has also worked with the Guardian, The Telegraph, The Independent, The Spectator and New Statesman and The Financial Times. For his journalism, Iain has been awarded two Amnesty Media Awards, a Peabody, a BAFTA Scotland, a One World Award and three RTS nominations. He had a particular focus on human rights reporting. 

He has been witness to the devastating impact of armed violence on numerous occasions and has made documentaries under fire in Somalia, Iraq, Colombia and the Solomon Islands, to name a few.

He is a guest lecturer in investigative journalism and holds an MPhil and BA from Cambridge University. He has spoken at the Oxford Union, the United Nations, Harvard, Cambridge, LSE and Chatham House, amongst others.

Overton's daily blog on the impact of armed violence can be viewed here: http://www.anatomyofviolence.co.uk/

 

Abstract

 

From Gas Attacks to Drone Strikes: The Transformative Power of New Technologies in Warfare

 

In this talk, Iain Overton will explore the ways in which the introduction of scientific or mechanical innovations in warf produces marked responses that can be best termed as intimate violence in war.  Using the harrowing example of a crucified soldier on the fields of Flanders in 1915, he traces how new technologies in warfare - such as the use of poison gas or drones - results in a vicious and personalised escalation of violence.  Such violence, Overton argues, occurs on two levels - the violence carried out by the new weapons and the violence that is as a response to such weapon use.  Looking at the use of new technologies in this light serves as a powerful call for us all to be wary of the innovations brought by warfare.