Defense Language

Features of these training environments included costumed role-players, elaborate Hollywood-inspired sets and staged tableaus hinting at the imagined lives of far-awaypeople. Those portrayed in the photographs include military personnel-often combat veteransplaying the role of enemy combatants-immigrants from Iraq or Afghanistan intended to make thetraining look and feel realistic, and local American civilians hired to populate the artificial villages. In Defense Language, Beckett examines the way Americans interact with other cultures while theimages draw attention to the often problematic depiction of 'cultural others' inthese trainings, challenging the implicit assumption of American cultural superiority.