Introduction

This introduction presents an overview of the key concepts discussed in the subsequent chapters. The chapter examines the masks of masquerade in the west and proceeds to the social masks and scripted roles conscientious objectors must take on if they hope to persuade military organizations they are truly against war. People came to the realization that masquerade, a term often associated either with theatrical performance or with outright lies and deception, was integral to many experiences of wars, whether they took place in the past or unfold around them right now. The masquerades of war was through the portal of government deceptions and masked information. Elizabeth Frazer and Kimberly Hutchings take up the opposed writings of Frantz Fanon and Mohandas Gandhi on violence and war, and find within them moments of instability, contradiction. They argue that writer on colonial violence, and appropriate responses to it, speaks to strategic violence and nonviolence as effective and deceptive practices and concepts.