Ender's Game: Advancement of Warfare
Halie Hinchey
Fayaz Kabani
Ender’s Game and the Advancement of Warfare
25 November 2012 During the 19th century the nature of warfare was reaching a turning point. It all began in the 1940s with the nuclear revolution and began advancing as quickly as the seasons ever since. By the time World War II approached, America had a whole new outlook on how to fight their battles. While the generals and commanders of the United States army were preparing for future warfare, Orson Scott Card was busy predicting the future of warfare in his award winning novel Ender’s Game. In this novel, a young boy of the name Ender Wiggins is to attend a special battle school where he will be trained to save his planet from the horrid buggers, their enemy of the past 100 years. Though Ender knows what he is in training for, he does not know the importance nor how fully involved he is in Operation Terminate the Buggers. Though Orson Scott Card thought his novel portrayed only a possibility for future warfare, he was incredibly accurate. From 1985, the year the book was published, to present day Ender’s Game has become a more realistic world for future generations to reside. The technology advances, nature of warfare, and the way future military officers and soldiers are chosen in Ender’s Game are all in the imminent future. When the gunpowder revolution struck Europe in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries all areas of warfare were fundamentally changed (McKitrick). On account of constant competition, every state and country was on a mission to catch up and surpass Europe’s new advancement in their technology. Smaller states in Asia made significant changes to pressing military requirements while Japan strove for dominance. These advances lead to Korea’s advancement of ironclad, cannon-armed galleys that were essential in Korea defeating Japan during Japan’s three invasion attempts. The problem with each of these advances in technology used in warfare is that all of the major
Fayaz Kabani
Ender’s Game and the Advancement of Warfare
25 November 2012 During the 19th century the nature of warfare was reaching a turning point. It all began in the 1940s with the nuclear revolution and began advancing as quickly as the seasons ever since. By the time World War II approached, America had a whole new outlook on how to fight their battles. While the generals and commanders of the United States army were preparing for future warfare, Orson Scott Card was busy predicting the future of warfare in his award winning novel Ender’s Game. In this novel, a young boy of the name Ender Wiggins is to attend a special battle school where he will be trained to save his planet from the horrid buggers, their enemy of the past 100 years. Though Ender knows what he is in training for, he does not know the importance nor how fully involved he is in Operation Terminate the Buggers. Though Orson Scott Card thought his novel portrayed only a possibility for future warfare, he was incredibly accurate. From 1985, the year the book was published, to present day Ender’s Game has become a more realistic world for future generations to reside. The technology advances, nature of warfare, and the way future military officers and soldiers are chosen in Ender’s Game are all in the imminent future. When the gunpowder revolution struck Europe in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries all areas of warfare were fundamentally changed (McKitrick). On account of constant competition, every state and country was on a mission to catch up and surpass Europe’s new advancement in their technology. Smaller states in Asia made significant changes to pressing military requirements while Japan strove for dominance. These advances lead to Korea’s advancement of ironclad, cannon-armed galleys that were essential in Korea defeating Japan during Japan’s three invasion attempts. The problem with each of these advances in technology used in warfare is that all of the major
Cited: Baker, Deane. "Asymmetrical Morality In Contemporary Warfare." Theoria: A Journal Of Social & Political Theory 106 (2005): 128-140. Academic Search Complete. Web. 12 Nov. 2012. Blackwell, James, et al. "The Revolution in Military Affairs." Battlefield of the Future: 21st Century Warfare Issues (1995). Kunstler, Barton. "Extreme Asymmetric Warfare Of The Future." World Future Review 3.3 (2011): 5-16. Academic Search Complete. Web. 12 Nov. 2012. McKitrick, Jeffrey, et al. "The Revolution in Military Affairs." Air War College Studies in National Security: Battlefield of the Future 3 (1995): 65-97.