The Hall of Mirrors

Abstract

Abstract Chapter 7 examines the distorted information or knowledge environment that has been constructed around all our wars and fights. In this “hall of mirrors,” nothing is quite what it seems. Almost any failure can be reflected back as a success. The stronger the fixation on a particular threat, the more pronounced the distortion—and the easier it becomes to mislead the voters who pay for the intervention. The chapter goes on to suggest that what is to some extent “new” about “failure as success” stems partly from post–Cold War changes to the security environment and partly from increasing market pressures on competing bureaucracies, media organizations, and other key actors. Both these factors are deeply political and deeply tied up with a (post)modern obsession over optics. On a positive note, the chapter suggests that one key dimension through which to start dismantling disastrous systems of intervention would be via changes to the knowledge environment. Such changes are crucial when it comes to establishing clear lines of responsibility for the wreckage.