Bobbitt, Philip (Chase) 1948-

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BOBBITT, Philip (Chase) 1948-

PERSONAL: Born July 22, 1948, in Temple, TX; son of Oscar and Rebekah (Johnson) Bobbitt. Education: Princeton University, A.B., 1971; Yale University, J.D., 1975; Oxford University, Ph.D., 1983, M.A., 1984.

ADDRESSES: Home—1505 Windsor Rd., Austin, TX 78703. Office—School of Law, University of Texas, 727 E. 26th St., Austin, TX 78705-3224. E-mail— [email protected].

CAREER: Attorney, educator, consultant, and author. Judge Henry Friendly, U.S. Court of Appeals, Second Circuit, law clerk, 1975-76; University of Texas, Austin, assistant professor, 1976-79, professor of law, 1979—, Cooper K. Ragan Regents professor, 1988-89, Baker & Botts Professor, 1989-96, A. W. Walker chair in law, 1996. Associate counsel to president of the United States, 1980-81; U.S. Senate Select Committee on Secret Military Assistance to Iran and Nicaraguan Opposition, legal counsel, 1987-88. Visiting research fellow at International Institute for Strategic Studies, 1981-82; research fellow at Nuffield College, Oxford, 1981—.

MEMBER: American Law Institute, International Institute of Strategic Studies, Austin Council on Foreign Affairs (president, 1983), Texas Philosophical Society, Yale Club, Century Association, Metropolitan Club (Washington, DC).

WRITINGS:

(With Guido Calabresi) Tragic Choices, Norton (New York, NY), 1978.

Constitutional Fate: Theory of the Constitution, Oxford University Press (New York, NY), 1982.

Democracy and Deterrence: The History and Future of Nuclear Strategy, St. Martin's Press (New York, NY), 1988.

(Editor, with Lawrence Freedman and Gregory F. Treverton) U.S. Nuclear Strategy: A Reader, New York University Press (New York, NY), 1989.

Constitutional Interpretation, B. Blackwell, 1991.

The Shield of Achilles: The Long War and the Market State, Knopf (New York, NY), 2002.

The Shield of Achilles: War, Peace, and the Course of History: A Discussion of the Book (sound recording), 2003.

War on Terror, Knopf (New York, NY), 2006.

Also narrator of sound recordings The Shield of Achilles: War, Peace, and the Course of History: A Discussion of the Book, and A Reading by Alice Fulton: Winner of the 2002 Rebekah Johnson Bobbitt National Prize for Poetry, both in 2003.

SIDELIGHTS: Philip Bobbitt, a law professor at the University of Texas, has served as an expert on international law and security. He has written and/or edited books about constitutional law and nuclear strategy.

Bobbitt's The Shield of Achilles: The Long War and the Market State was published in 2002. The book begins with four pages translated from the Iliad of Homer, the text featuring the famous character Achilles, for whom the gods are fashioning a shield. Bobbitt opens with this because, as he told Peter Jay of the Guardian, "war is a product as well as a shaper of culture … war is a creative act of civilized man with important consequences for the rest of human culture." The book focuses on the world's historic wars and the violent build-up of nation-states in the last five centuries. Bobbitt contends that at this point in history nation-states are now giving way to market-states, meaning that nations who used to develop power by promising their citizens security, a better life, and more material goods now offers to increase citizens' opportunities. The author explains that this shift is an effect of the "Long War of 1914-1990," a period of aggression encompassing World Wars I and II, the Spanish Civil War, the Russian Revolution, and several other wars that saw communism, fascism, and parliamentarism locked in a struggle. He then goes on to suggest ideas for new political and economical structures. A Kirkus Reviews critic called The Shield of Achilles "a brilliant, disquieting essay on geopolitics, warfare, and the future of our state." The same writer noted that "few historical studies are as daring and engaging as this."