Shaped by the State

Making the world open again. The US State Department's thwarted first steps towards global neoliberalization during the Great Depression and World War II

“…This conventional account presents several epistemological problems. First, it omits the existence of neoliberal policies prior to the 1970s, maintaining a mythical, even sometimes nostalgic, relationship with the post-war period, summarily reduced to the apogee of Keynesianism and the welfare state (Cebul et al, 2019). This narrative is, therefore, wrong about both the historical circumstances and also the causes of the origins and actual emergence of political neoliberalism.…”

“…This prevents us from seeing how neoliberalism is a broader and deeper political phenomenon, initially resulting from the will of part of the Western liberal elite to address the global crisis of the 1930s through a project of geopolitical refoundation based on the economic opening of state spaces and their reciprocal integration within a fluid and globalized market (Brennetot, 2015, Masini, 2012, Masala and Mingardi, 2021, Slobodian, 2018. Far from being confined to a small group of economists, neoliberal ideas were indeed the subjects of policy agendas implemented by various institutions prior to the 1970s, particularly in Europe and the United States (Brennetot, 2022, Cebul et al, 2019Denord and Schwartz, 2009, Dardot and Laval, 2014, Foucault, 1978, François-Poncet, 1969, Mellink, 2021, Moretti, 2014, Nicholls, 1994, Peacock and Willgerodt, 1989, Posner, 1977, Sassoon, 1986. These facts in and of themselves challenge the conventional history of political neoliberalism and incite a better understanding of the complexity of its origins.…”

Brain-Computer Interfaces: U.S. Military Applications and Implications, An Initial Assessment

“…45 Another DARPA program, the Next-Generation Nonsurgical Neurotechnology (N 3 ) program involves a noninvasive system capable of reading from and writing to multiple points in the brain at once. 46 A natural extension from research that aims to read brain signals and to send or implant information in the brain is brain-to-brain communication. With funding from the ARL, researchers at the University of Washington conducted a pilot study for a noninvasive system that uses EEG to read basic brain signals, transmit them over the internet, and then transfer motor responses to a second user using transcranial magnetic stimulation.…”

“…62 DARPA's N 3 program is currently seeking to address some of these challenges by developing a portable noninvasive system capable of reading from and writing to multiple points in the brain at once. 63 Invasive systems, which provide higher-fidelity signals, carry risks associated with any surgery, including hemorrhaging, infection, or brain damage. Electrodes can also induce infections and can degrade with time.…”

Resilience of racialized segregation is an ecological factor: Baltimore case study

“…Segregation has been the purview of social and economic sciences, which have produced deep literatures on its complex causes, socio-economic consequences, and impressive persistence over time (Cebul et al 2019;Cutler et al 1999;Nishime & Hester Williams 2018;Pietila 2010;Smelser et al 2001). But segregation has been until very recently neglected by urban ecology (Grove et al 2018;Pickett & Grove 2020;Schell et al 2020).…”