With two complementary books*, Andrée Michel, head of research at the CNRS (French National Centre for Scientific Research) and a feminist, makes it possible for us to decode the economic reasoning that reinforces and legitimises the culture of war. She also exposes the patriarchal structure of societies that are built on the cult of violence and virility.

According to Andrée Michel and all feminist thinkers on the subject, de-glorifying the myth of war and the warrior represents the first necessary step towards building a culture of peace. To acquire their human rights (education, work, political identity, family planning and abortion), women had to firstly demystify the ideologies and stereotypes invoked by patriarchal society.

Confronting the question of militarisation, Andrée Michel breaks a taboo, and demonstrates with extremely precise and well-documented research work how the arms race is not only proceeding with greater vigour but how it is the surest means for Western countries to maintain their hegemony over countries of the South. Following the break-up of the East bloc countries, she explains how a strategy for the manipulation of the masses was set up with the permanent invention of an enemy (incarnated at present by Iraq, Iran, Libya, Syria and North Korea) and by maintaining fear and hate for the other to justify perpetuating the IMC (Industrial Military Consortiums) and the sale of arms. It should be recalled that the Big Five of the United Nations Organisation who have the right of veto are responsible for 85% of arms sales on the planet.

Many historical facts have nevertheless proven that peoples' well-being and security are not linked to the level of armament. The United States - whose total debt is eight times higher than that of all the countries of the Third World, and where extreme violence is rampant in the cities - yearly increase their military budget to the detriment of social security and education while Pakistan marks 26% of its annual budget for military spending as against 0.8% for education. If research and commerce in the field of armament and nuclear research favours the enrichening of the profiteers of this industry, it also entails the impoverishment of the unprivileged social classes, particularly women (83% of the poor in the world).

Manipulation of the masses by the Media

Nuclear firms and the IMC understood, well before the intellectuals and the alternative thinkers, the necessity for controlling information and communication systems to protect their interests. They have invested enormous sums into the audiovisual media. Thus censorship, the lack of information or control of it are normal practices when it is a question of justifying budgets allocated to militarisation or exercising real transparency about the damage caused by nuclear technology or the impact on the environment and planet security. Citizens, including politicians, are dispossessed of the right to information and are excluded from the debate which nevertheless concerns them above all. Bowing before the famous pretext of State security reasons, even intellectuals have ended up by exercising self-censorship when the debate should be opened out to the public. Taking the example of women, Andrée Michel cites a number of initiatives and feminist movements across the world that fight against social exclusion, poverty and the reasoning for war. These movements denounce the aberrations of the patriarchal system and its extension to war but also propose alternatives that unfortunately remain in obscurity because of censorship by the media and their marginalisation in the political sphere. She reiterates that we should not be astonished if, in these last forty years, in industrialised countries like England, France, Japan or the United States, where the representatives of the CMI are in power, women, instead of obtaining parity, have never gone past the percentage of 5-6% of the total number of Parliament members.

During this time, the channels controlled by the IMC are flooded with television series that justify violence and virility. Thus, the bomb culture, essentially patriarchal, ends up spreading to all civilians. The television, second means of socialisation after school, becomes an instrument for teaching violence and sexism.

Changing policies of war

Equal participation of women in politics can change the course of war policies and taking recourse to violence to settle conflicts. The author shows that there is a great difference of opinion between Western men and women on the subject of violence with regard to taking recourse to violence to resolve discord, with women being much more often bitterly opposed to it than men.

Feminists have always demanded the reduction of military expenditure to the benefit of social and health programmes. They ask that parents get more free time and that greater importance be given to education because if the behavior of violence is learnt, there is still hope that it can be unlearnt or never taught.

The replacement of war by negotiation, the creation and respect for an effective International Law, the installation of a law enfor-cement office by granting independent powers to a Permanent International Penal Court are other means for heading towards a peaceful resolution of conflicts.

While mentioning just these few propositions here, the author offers many more objectives which could appear utopic and which might nevertheless be the result if there was sufficient political will-power to take measures which would before all else aim at the well-being of human beings and the development of effective, active citizenship.

To conclude, she reiterates that there will be no future for Humanity for as long as men and women abandon the definition of their security to Governments and do not act as citizens to define it themselves in unity and equity, conceived at the level of the planet and no longer just a single nation.

N.L.A.

* Surarmement, Pouvoir, Democratie (Over-armament, Power, Democracy), Andrée Michel, L'Harmattan, Paris, 1999.

* Citoyennes militairement incorrectes (Militarily incorrect women citizens), Andrée Michel, Illustrations by Floh, L'Harmattan, Paris, 1999.

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Militarisation and environment The force of the Military takes a heavy toll on the environment. Some examples given by Andrée Michel are amply telling: The total volume of military nuclear reactors is responsible for about 97% of all high radiation level nuclear waste and 78% of all low radiation level nuclear waste. In less than an hour, an F16 military jet aircraft, taking off for a routine training exercise, uses nearly two times as much fuel than an average American car driver in an entire year. In fact, the Pentagon is the largest consumer of energy in the country, and very probably in the world. In 12 months, it uses as much energy as is needed to run the entire urban mass transport system in the United States in 14 years. According to Greenpeace, the Mediterranean sea is in danger of death by pollution that has as much the military as industry to blame. It is constantly scoured by NATO's strategic submarine patrols, that carry nuclear weapons, while at the same time being crossed by the 6th North American fleet, the 5th Russian squadron and the French submarines and aircraft-carriers equipped with fighter and bomber aircraft.

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