[Air-L] SOCIOLOGY GROUP CALL REQUEST
Noel Packard
npac825 at aucklanduni.ac.nz
Tue Jul 29 01:38:54 PDT 2025
Call for Papers: American Behavioral Scientist Special Issue on
Pre-Internet Military Networks
July 16, 2025
The *American Behavioral Scientist* (ABS), a leading peer-reviewed journal
in the social and behavioral sciences, has announced a call for papers for
a special issue titled *“Survey of a Cluster of Pre-Internet
Networks.”* Sociology
Group is pleased to share this significant scholarly opportunity with our
community of researchers, writers, and readers.
This guest-edited issue of the American Behavioral Scientist is scheduled
for publication once enough articles have been accepted to cover a major
portion of the networks listed below, with next year as the target
timeframe for release. This special issue will explore how Cold War-era
military communication networks prefigured today’s globally networked
digital systems. These were experimental systems built primarily for
counterinsurgency, political control, and surveillance during the 1960s and
1970s – long before the internet became publicly available. Often
unclassified yet overlooked, these infrastructures laid the groundwork for
many of the tools and ideologies that govern digital life today..
The issue is guest edited by *Dr. Noel Packard* (University of Auckland,
New Zealand) and *Dr. Bradley Simpson* (University of Connecticut), two
scholars whose work engages deeply with questions of surveillance,
militarization, and historical memory.
------------------------------
*Cold War Networks Before the Internet*
The project surveys a specific group of Cold War communication and data
systems, each developed under U.S. military or intelligence direction and
implemented across multiple geopolitical regions. These include:
- *COINTELPRO* and *CHAOS* (United States)
- *CORDS* and the *Phoenix Program* (Vietnam)
- *Operation Condor* (Southern Cone of South America)
- *ORDEN* (El Salvador)
- *Jakarta Operations* (Indonesia)
- *OBAN / DOI-CODI* (Brazil)
These systems shared common features: they employed advanced communication
technologies, gathered and centralized sensitive intelligence, and assisted
military or paramilitary actors in neutralizing perceived political
threats. In many cases, they operated as two-part programs – facilitating
both economic restructuring along neoliberal lines and violent repression
of dissent.
This ABS issue seeks to examine these networks as historical, static “test
cases” of early networked societies that can be compared to today’s
dynamic, globally interconnected world. By having these historical
“test-case” networks to compare and contrast with today’s inter-networked
systems, we gain insight into how societies coped with surveillance states
in the past and what they can teach us about life in a global digital
society today. By revisiting these Cold War cases, the editors hope to
contribute new historical and theoretical insights to ongoing discussions
about surveillance, digital power, and media infrastructures in
contemporary society.
------------------------------
*Areas of Focus for Contributors*
The editors invite contributions from scholars working in sociology,
history, media studies, political science, and related disciplines.
Potential areas of focus include:
- The communication technologies and hardware that enabled these networks
- The visibility (or lack thereof) of these systems to the public
- Their institutional design and staffing
- The role these systems played in enforcing neoliberal economic agendas
- Their impact on inequality, political polarization, and civil liberties
- Methodological or theoretical frameworks used to study such historical
systems
This is an opportunity to contribute to a rare comparative analysis of
state-led networked communication systems from the pre-Internet era —
systems that have shaped the modern digital landscape in ways still not
fully understood.
------------------------------
*An Open Opportunity: ORDEN in El Salvador*
As part of the call, the editors have noted that the topic of *ORDEN
(Organización Democrática Nacionalista) in El Salvador* remains open for
contribution. Dr. Noel Packard had begun initial work on this subject but
shifted focus due to changes in the contributor pool. Importantly, she has
received permission from human rights scholar *Michael McClintock* to quote
from his influential book *The American Connection: State Terror and
Popular Resistance in El Salvador*.
This is not a personal request, but rather an open invitation for a
qualified contributor to develop an article using McClintock’s materials
and other historical sources. Researchers in Latin American studies,
political violence, or Cold War history may find this a valuable and timely
subject.
------------------------------
*Submission Guidelines*
Interested authors are invited to submit the following:
- A *500-word abstract* (in English)
- A
*brief bio-statement ( 200-300 words) *
Submissions and inquiries should be directed to lead editor *Dr. Noel
Packard*:
*npac825 at aucklanduni.ac.nz <npac825 at aucklanduni.ac.nz>*
*Deadline for abstract submissions: 1 October 2025*
Submissions will be considered on a rolling basis. The publication timeline
for accepted papers will begin in *December 2025* and extend into *2026*.
------------------------------
*About the Editors*
*Dr. Noel Packard*, affiliated with the University of Auckland, focuses on
media systems, communication history, and surveillance society. Her work
includes the presentation *Making Internet History More Visible* and a
timeline infographic titled *Demarcated Timeline of Military Pre-Internet
Test Networks*.
*Dr. Bradley Simpson* is Associate Professor of History and Asian American
Studies at the University of Connecticut. He is the author of *Economists
with Guns: Authoritarian Development and U.S.-Indonesian Relations,
1960–1968* and leads a declassification initiative at the National Security
Archive focused on Indonesia and East Timor under Suharto.
------------------------------
*About the Journal*
*American Behavioral Scientist* has been publishing cutting-edge work in
the social sciences since 1957. Each of its fourteen annual issues is guest
edited and thematically focused. The journal provides a platform for
in-depth, interdisciplinary research and is published by *SAGE*. For more
information, visit:
🔗 https://journals.sagepub.com/home/abs
<https://journals.sagepub.com/home/abs>
------------------------------
*At Sociology Group, we are committed to spotlighting emerging research
opportunities that challenge conventional narratives and help scholars
re-examine the systems that shape our world. This call for papers invites
meaningful historical reflection and contemporary critique — and we
encourage interested researchers to consider submitting.*
------------------------------
[image: Sociology Group]
Sociology Group <https://www.sociologygroup.com/author/rajan/>
We believe in sharing knowledge with everyone and making a positive change
in society through our work and contributions. If you are interested in
joining us, please check our ‘About’ page for more information
Academic Writing <https://www.sociologygroup.com/category/academic-writing/>,
Call for Papers <https://www.sociologygroup.com/category/call-for-papers/>
Search and Learn Something New
Search
CategoriesSelect CategoryAcademic Writing (98)Ambedkar (26)Andre
beteille (1)Annihilation of caste (15)Anthropology (30)Applied
Sociology (19)Archaeology (1)AS & A Level (8)AS & A Level Sociology (6)
Assignment (17)Auguste Comte (1)Author (2)Basic Concepts (404)
Biography (42)Book Review (79)Book Views vs Field View (1)Books
(21)Branches
of sociology (57)Bureaucracy (3)Business (2)Call for Papers (1)
Career (9)Caste (19)Charles Wright Mills (1)Citizenship (1)Civil
Services (197)Class System (4)Climate Change (13)College (2)
Communism (1)Conflict Perspective (1)Conflict Theories (5)Contributions
to Sociology (47)Conversations with Professors (4)Criminology (8)
Culture (13)Current Affairs (4)Current Issues (11)Dalit (8)
Definitions (2)Democracy (2)Development Studies (6)Digital Sociology (1)
Documentry (4)Economic Sociology (30)Economics (27)Education (30)Education
Problems (10)Emile Durkheim (13)Entertainment (1)Entrepreneurship (2)
Environment (22)Environmental Sociology (24)Equality and Liberty (3)Essay
Competition (19)Essays (52)Ethnography (2)Exam Preparations (11)
Family (5)Famous Dalits (1)Feminism (19)Film Studies (1)Foreign
Policy (2)Foucault’s Theory (4)Functional Perspective (1)
Functionalism (4)Gender Sociology (69)General Knowledge (14)
Geography (3)George Herbert Mead (1)Glossary (3)Health and Society (3)
History (24)IAS marks (1)Immigration (10)Importance of Studying
Sociology (3)Indian Society (39)Industrial sociology (6)Inspiration
(1)Institutions
& Associations (4)Inter Caste Marriage (3)Interesting facts (3)International
Relations (11)Interview (84)Introduction to sociology (71)iPhone (1)Irawati
Karve (2)Journalism (15)Karl Marx (47)Kinship (1)Linguistics (6)Louis
Dumont (1)M.N.Srinivas (9)MANUAL SCAVENGING (1)Marxism (9)Marxist
Perspective (1)Max weber (11)Meet the Professor (10)Memes (1)
Migration (14)Military Sociology (1)Mind (1)Minorities (3)
Motivation (2)Movements (9)Movies (19)My Stories (1)NGO’s (3)
Opinion (1)Perspectives (3)Philosophy (8)Podcast (1)Political
science (95)Political Sociology (90)Political System (6)Politics (2)
Poverty (4)Professors Interview (1)Psychology (61)Publications (1)Publish
Articles (1)Question Papers (13)Quotes (1)R.K Merton (2)Race and
ethnicity (2)Relationship of sociology with other social sciences (4)
religion (8)Report (1)Research Methods (42)Research papers (127)
Reservations (1)Rural Development (2)Rural Sociology (12)
Sanskritization (1)Science (1)Science and Technology (14)Secularism
(3)Short
Notes (32)Social Change (11)Social Issues (137)Social Media (8)Social
Science (9)Social Science Research (8)Social Stories (6)Social
Stratification (6)Social Work (1)Sociological Imagination (1)Sociological
Thinkers (70)Sociologists (10)Sociology (12)Sociology and Law (11)Sociology
and Media (19)Sociology Concepts (51)Sociology Dictionary (216)Sociology
Exam: Questions & Answers (66)Sociology in the News (1)Sociology of
Change (1)Sociology of Education (4)Sociology of Family (3)Sociology of
Fashion (1)Sociology of Food (2)Sociology of Globalization (1)Sociology
of India (98)Sociology of Kinship (15)Sociology of Music (1)Sociology Of
Religion (35)Sociology of Sports (1)Sociology of the Internet (1)Sociology
Optional (207)Sociology thinkers (3)Stratification (11)Student
Leader (1)Suicide Prevention Awareness (14)T.H.Marshall (1)Talcott
Parsons (2)Trade Unions (1)Tuitions (2)Uncategorized (6)
Universities (3)Urban Sociology (30)Visual Culture (8)Yogendra
Singh (1)“Subaltern
Perspective of Indian Sociology” (1)
- An Interview with Chandra Lynn: Author of Root-to-Rise: How to Love
Life
<https://www.sociologygroup.com/an-interview-with-chandra-lynn-author-of-root-to-rise-how-to-love-life/>
- Call for Papers: American Behavioral Scientist Special Issue on
Pre-Internet Military Networks
<https://www.sociologygroup.com/call-for-papers-american-behavioral-scientist-special-issue-on-pre-internet-military-networks/>
- Book Review: The Nine Lives of BIG JP: A Metabiography by Ben Stoltzfus
<https://www.sociologygroup.com/book-review-the-nine-lives-of-big-jp-a-metabiography-by-ben-stoltzfus/>
- An Interview with Author Gilbert Arthur on Muunokhoi’s Awakening
<https://www.sociologygroup.com/gilbert-arthur-interview/>
- Interview with Judith Patino-Rodrigue: Steer and Maneuver – Navigating
Life’s Speed Bumps with a Wink and a Wiggle
<https://www.sociologygroup.com/judith-patino-rodrigue/>
More information about the Air-L
mailing list