| Publication |
2010.
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| Summary/Abstract |
This article explores the phenomenon of military naming, that is, the act of giving a name to military practices such as military operations, weaponry, and military units. The basic theoretical supposition is that military naming is a simple and useful mechanism that might be employed to blur undesired aspects-such as the human and economical costs-associated with the respective practices. Inspired by John B. Thompson's ''strategies of operation of ideology,'' the research uses the construct of strategies of annihilative naming to analyze a corpus of 239 Israeli names of military operations and weaponry. By using names coming from nature and the Bible, the Israeli military uses three strategies-naturalization, euphemization, and legitimation-that mediate Israeli public opinion toward controversial military operations as well as weaponry development. Future research of other military names will support the construction of generalizations about this important phenomenon.
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