Rashmi Singh
- Published in print:
- 2015
- Published Online:
- May 2016
- ISBN:
- 9780197265901
- eISBN:
- 9780191772047
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- British Academy
- DOI:
- 10.5871/bacad/9780197265901.003.0003
- Subject:
- Political Science, International Relations and Politics
This chapter assesses the US-led counter-terrorism response to the September 2001 attacks on the American homeland in order to gauge the successes and failures of the Global War on Terror. It ...
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This chapter assesses the US-led counter-terrorism response to the September 2001 attacks on the American homeland in order to gauge the successes and failures of the Global War on Terror. It concludes that successes against transnational terrorist threats, as represented by al-Qaida and its affiliates, have been few and far between. Instead, the past decade has been marked by a failure to meet set goals for a number of reasons, including but not limited to: the shifting character of war, the unintended fallouts of the counter-terrorism policies adopted, and an inadvertent strengthening of al-Qaida’s material and ideological capabilities through the US macro-securitisation of the Global War on Terror–all of which point to the absence of a long-term strategic vision. However, our counter-terrorism failures hold crucial lessons for the future and the chapter concludes by outlining how they can enable us to translate our past failures into future successes.Less
This chapter assesses the US-led counter-terrorism response to the September 2001 attacks on the American homeland in order to gauge the successes and failures of the Global War on Terror. It concludes that successes against transnational terrorist threats, as represented by al-Qaida and its affiliates, have been few and far between. Instead, the past decade has been marked by a failure to meet set goals for a number of reasons, including but not limited to: the shifting character of war, the unintended fallouts of the counter-terrorism policies adopted, and an inadvertent strengthening of al-Qaida’s material and ideological capabilities through the US macro-securitisation of the Global War on Terror–all of which point to the absence of a long-term strategic vision. However, our counter-terrorism failures hold crucial lessons for the future and the chapter concludes by outlining how they can enable us to translate our past failures into future successes.
ASHUTOSH BHAGWAT
- Published in print:
- 2010
- Published Online:
- May 2010
- ISBN:
- 9780195377781
- eISBN:
- 9780199775842
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195377781.003.011
- Subject:
- Law, Constitutional and Administrative Law
The eight long years of the second Bush Administration and the War on Terror that it prosecuted have generated an extraordinary number of complex and divisive questions of constitutional law. ...
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The eight long years of the second Bush Administration and the War on Terror that it prosecuted have generated an extraordinary number of complex and divisive questions of constitutional law. Notably, however, most of the constitutional disputes arising out of the War on Terror have not primarily implicated the main topic of this book, the Bill of Rights and the Fourteenth Amendment. Instead, they have tended to relate to topics such as the separation of powers, the scope of and limits on executive power, and the role of international law. This is not to say that the Bill of Rights is completely irrelevant to these disputes; in particular, the detention of enemy combatants clearly implicates the Due Process Clause of the Fifth Amendment, and the National Security Agency's (NSA) program of warrantless wiretapping potentially violates the Search and Seizure Clause of the Fourth Amendment. On the whole, however, the role of the Bill of Rights has certainly been peripheral in recent disputes, and even when clearly implicated, their application to these disputes has been far from clear. Why that is so, but why the insights we have developed up to this point nonetheless shed important light on the constitutionality of certain aspects of the War on Terror, is the subject of this chapter.Less
The eight long years of the second Bush Administration and the War on Terror that it prosecuted have generated an extraordinary number of complex and divisive questions of constitutional law. Notably, however, most of the constitutional disputes arising out of the War on Terror have not primarily implicated the main topic of this book, the Bill of Rights and the Fourteenth Amendment. Instead, they have tended to relate to topics such as the separation of powers, the scope of and limits on executive power, and the role of international law. This is not to say that the Bill of Rights is completely irrelevant to these disputes; in particular, the detention of enemy combatants clearly implicates the Due Process Clause of the Fifth Amendment, and the National Security Agency's (NSA) program of warrantless wiretapping potentially violates the Search and Seizure Clause of the Fourth Amendment. On the whole, however, the role of the Bill of Rights has certainly been peripheral in recent disputes, and even when clearly implicated, their application to these disputes has been far from clear. Why that is so, but why the insights we have developed up to this point nonetheless shed important light on the constitutionality of certain aspects of the War on Terror, is the subject of this chapter.
Alia Brahimi
- Published in print:
- 2015
- Published Online:
- May 2016
- ISBN:
- 9780197265901
- eISBN:
- 9780191772047
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- British Academy
- DOI:
- 10.5871/bacad/9780197265901.003.0002
- Subject:
- Political Science, International Relations and Politics
The declaration of a Caliphate in June 2014 by an al-Qaida offshoot implied a strong sense of political–religious unity, but, in reality, the announcement reflected deep division at the heart of ...
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The declaration of a Caliphate in June 2014 by an al-Qaida offshoot implied a strong sense of political–religious unity, but, in reality, the announcement reflected deep division at the heart of radical Islam. This article critically assesses al-Qaida’s progress on its four main objectives over the course of the 9/11 decade, and suggests that its principal setbacks were due to the fragmentation of Islamic authority. In particular, Osama bin Laden’s inability to reverse the misguided focus, by some affiliated groups, on the ‘nearer enemy’, began to portend al-Qaida’s downfall. However, after the Arab Spring, in the chokeholds of strong states and the chaos of weak states al-Qaida found advantage. Furthermore, with the rise of groups like the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant, a new pattern of radicalism emerged, in which the threat to ‘far enemy’, ‘near enemy’ and ‘nearer enemy’ were combined.Less
The declaration of a Caliphate in June 2014 by an al-Qaida offshoot implied a strong sense of political–religious unity, but, in reality, the announcement reflected deep division at the heart of radical Islam. This article critically assesses al-Qaida’s progress on its four main objectives over the course of the 9/11 decade, and suggests that its principal setbacks were due to the fragmentation of Islamic authority. In particular, Osama bin Laden’s inability to reverse the misguided focus, by some affiliated groups, on the ‘nearer enemy’, began to portend al-Qaida’s downfall. However, after the Arab Spring, in the chokeholds of strong states and the chaos of weak states al-Qaida found advantage. Furthermore, with the rise of groups like the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant, a new pattern of radicalism emerged, in which the threat to ‘far enemy’, ‘near enemy’ and ‘nearer enemy’ were combined.
Julian Reid
- Published in print:
- 2006
- Published Online:
- July 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780719074059
- eISBN:
- 9781781701676
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Manchester University Press
- DOI:
- 10.7228/manchester/9780719074059.001.0001
- Subject:
- Political Science, Political Theory
This is a book which aims to overturn existing understandings of the origins and futures of the War on Terror for the purposes of International Relations theory. As the book shows, this is not a war ...
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This is a book which aims to overturn existing understandings of the origins and futures of the War on Terror for the purposes of International Relations theory. As the book shows, this is not a war in defence of the integrity of human life against an enemy defined simply by a contradictory will for the destruction of human life as commonly supposed by its liberal advocates. It is a war over the political constitution of life in which the limitations of liberal accounts of humanity are being put to the test if not rejected outright.Less
This is a book which aims to overturn existing understandings of the origins and futures of the War on Terror for the purposes of International Relations theory. As the book shows, this is not a war in defence of the integrity of human life against an enemy defined simply by a contradictory will for the destruction of human life as commonly supposed by its liberal advocates. It is a war over the political constitution of life in which the limitations of liberal accounts of humanity are being put to the test if not rejected outright.
Jasmine Farrier
- Published in print:
- 2010
- Published Online:
- September 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780813192628
- eISBN:
- 9780813135496
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University Press of Kentucky
- DOI:
- 10.5810/kentucky/9780813192628.003.0005
- Subject:
- Political Science, American Politics
This chapter examines the seemingly unique post-9/11 political landscape, which also showcases the cycle of ambivalence in a very different and more condensed context. In the early months and years ...
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This chapter examines the seemingly unique post-9/11 political landscape, which also showcases the cycle of ambivalence in a very different and more condensed context. In the early months and years after the attacks, especially seen in the USA Patriot Act and the Iraq War resolution, Congress delegated extraordinary powers not only through the bills' text but also through the unorthodox speed and limited deliberations preceding their passage. Congressional rhetoric in the year after 9/11 echoed the Bush administration's argument that only it saw the nation's interest, while members who advocated the House and the Senate's traditional prerogative to review the administration's requests were branded as obstructionists or worse. Congress had its chances to question the nation's intelligence problems related to 9/11, the Iraq war, and the administration's management of the War on Terror in general during congressional reviews and confirmation hearings, but these did not result in extraordinary changes in policy or major cuts in Bush's spending requests.Less
This chapter examines the seemingly unique post-9/11 political landscape, which also showcases the cycle of ambivalence in a very different and more condensed context. In the early months and years after the attacks, especially seen in the USA Patriot Act and the Iraq War resolution, Congress delegated extraordinary powers not only through the bills' text but also through the unorthodox speed and limited deliberations preceding their passage. Congressional rhetoric in the year after 9/11 echoed the Bush administration's argument that only it saw the nation's interest, while members who advocated the House and the Senate's traditional prerogative to review the administration's requests were branded as obstructionists or worse. Congress had its chances to question the nation's intelligence problems related to 9/11, the Iraq war, and the administration's management of the War on Terror in general during congressional reviews and confirmation hearings, but these did not result in extraordinary changes in policy or major cuts in Bush's spending requests.
G. Simon Harak
- Published in print:
- 2012
- Published Online:
- September 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780823239825
- eISBN:
- 9780823239863
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Fordham University Press
- DOI:
- 10.5422/fordham/9780823239825.003.0015
- Subject:
- Religion, Religion and Society
This chapter grounds itself in Berrigan’s political, economic, and moral reading of the American war-making state, and in the civil disobedience of Berrigan at a Catonsville draft board center. Harak ...
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This chapter grounds itself in Berrigan’s political, economic, and moral reading of the American war-making state, and in the civil disobedience of Berrigan at a Catonsville draft board center. Harak claims that Berrigan’s understanding of American’s “permanent war economy,” one in which anything or anyone may be up for sale or sacrificed, remains fundamentally true. He suggests, however, that there’s been a paradigm shift in the ways that America generates and produces its wars since the time of Catonsville. Namely, there’s been a movement from wars being a profitable venture to the making of war for the sake of profit. Harak’s reading of the “war question,” along with his acute sensitivity to the suffering of those ravaged by war, insists that we question the viability of Catholic just war theory, just as Berrigan did years earlier.Less
This chapter grounds itself in Berrigan’s political, economic, and moral reading of the American war-making state, and in the civil disobedience of Berrigan at a Catonsville draft board center. Harak claims that Berrigan’s understanding of American’s “permanent war economy,” one in which anything or anyone may be up for sale or sacrificed, remains fundamentally true. He suggests, however, that there’s been a paradigm shift in the ways that America generates and produces its wars since the time of Catonsville. Namely, there’s been a movement from wars being a profitable venture to the making of war for the sake of profit. Harak’s reading of the “war question,” along with his acute sensitivity to the suffering of those ravaged by war, insists that we question the viability of Catholic just war theory, just as Berrigan did years earlier.
Philip B. Heymann
- Published in print:
- 2008
- Published Online:
- October 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780195335385
- eISBN:
- 9780199851690
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195335385.003.0014
- Subject:
- Political Science, American Politics
The case of defining torture in the “War on Terror”, the political processes chosen, and the people chosen to carry them out, produces results that nobody wants while targeting outcomes that only a ...
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The case of defining torture in the “War on Terror”, the political processes chosen, and the people chosen to carry them out, produces results that nobody wants while targeting outcomes that only a fraction of the citizens would find morally acceptable. In the case of “Defining Torture”, the decision maker may choose such a “blinded” process for political reasons. President George Bush did conclude that the provisions of Common Article 3 did not apply to either Al Qaeda or the Taliban and that, further, the Taliban detainees were “unlawful combatants” and, like the Al Qaeda captives, did not qualify as prisoners of wars (POWs) under the Third Geneva Convention.Less
The case of defining torture in the “War on Terror”, the political processes chosen, and the people chosen to carry them out, produces results that nobody wants while targeting outcomes that only a fraction of the citizens would find morally acceptable. In the case of “Defining Torture”, the decision maker may choose such a “blinded” process for political reasons. President George Bush did conclude that the provisions of Common Article 3 did not apply to either Al Qaeda or the Taliban and that, further, the Taliban detainees were “unlawful combatants” and, like the Al Qaeda captives, did not qualify as prisoners of wars (POWs) under the Third Geneva Convention.
Bruce Bennett
- Published in print:
- 2013
- Published Online:
- November 2015
- ISBN:
- 9780231167376
- eISBN:
- 9780231850537
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Columbia University Press
- DOI:
- 10.7312/columbia/9780231167376.003.0005
- Subject:
- Film, Television and Radio, Film
This chapter looks at the depiction of the War on Terror in Michael Winterbottom’s The Shock Doctrine (2009), In this World (2002), A Mighty Heart (2007), and The Road to Guantánamo (2006). These ...
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This chapter looks at the depiction of the War on Terror in Michael Winterbottom’s The Shock Doctrine (2009), In this World (2002), A Mighty Heart (2007), and The Road to Guantánamo (2006). These films eschew the martial spectacle, seductive carnage, and oppositional moral framing of the conventional war film. Instead, they focus on combat and the ideologically and narratively restrictive perspective of the soldier’s experience in order to concentrate on marginal figures caught up in the wave of violence, racism, and paranoia that travelled across the globe in the wake of the 2001 attacks. In their orientation around marginal figures, Winterbottom’s films recognise the impossibility of producing a comprehensive, fully coherent account of the war, and instead they make visible bodies and make audible voices that have been absent from, obliterated by, or terrorised and abjected by dominant accounts of war.Less
This chapter looks at the depiction of the War on Terror in Michael Winterbottom’s The Shock Doctrine (2009), In this World (2002), A Mighty Heart (2007), and The Road to Guantánamo (2006). These films eschew the martial spectacle, seductive carnage, and oppositional moral framing of the conventional war film. Instead, they focus on combat and the ideologically and narratively restrictive perspective of the soldier’s experience in order to concentrate on marginal figures caught up in the wave of violence, racism, and paranoia that travelled across the globe in the wake of the 2001 attacks. In their orientation around marginal figures, Winterbottom’s films recognise the impossibility of producing a comprehensive, fully coherent account of the war, and instead they make visible bodies and make audible voices that have been absent from, obliterated by, or terrorised and abjected by dominant accounts of war.
Rebecca A. Adelman
- Published in print:
- 2018
- Published Online:
- May 2019
- ISBN:
- 9780823281671
- eISBN:
- 9780823284788
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Fordham University Press
- DOI:
- 10.5422/fordham/9780823281671.003.0001
- Subject:
- Society and Culture, Media Studies
Framed by an account of the author’s visit to Guantánamo Bay, the Introduction to Figuring Violence queries the limits of what outsiders know about the six beings around which the book is organized: ...
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Framed by an account of the author’s visit to Guantánamo Bay, the Introduction to Figuring Violence queries the limits of what outsiders know about the six beings around which the book is organized: civilian children, military children, military spouses, veterans with PTSD and TBI, detainees, and military dogs. Reflecting on the common status of these beings as political subjects that are partially or fully unknowable, the Introduction outlines the various affective and imaginative practices that transform them into repositories for sentiment. It also explores the mechanisms and politics of the ‘figuring’ that gives the book its title, namely the abstraction of the actual beings with whom these practices are ostensibly concerned. The Introduction makes the case for the centrality of apprehension, affection, admiration, gratitude, pity, and anger in contemporary American militarism. In addition to providing an overview of the book as a whole, the Introduction also elaborates a methodology for the study of affect as it materializes in practices of representation and through wartime public culture.Less
Framed by an account of the author’s visit to Guantánamo Bay, the Introduction to Figuring Violence queries the limits of what outsiders know about the six beings around which the book is organized: civilian children, military children, military spouses, veterans with PTSD and TBI, detainees, and military dogs. Reflecting on the common status of these beings as political subjects that are partially or fully unknowable, the Introduction outlines the various affective and imaginative practices that transform them into repositories for sentiment. It also explores the mechanisms and politics of the ‘figuring’ that gives the book its title, namely the abstraction of the actual beings with whom these practices are ostensibly concerned. The Introduction makes the case for the centrality of apprehension, affection, admiration, gratitude, pity, and anger in contemporary American militarism. In addition to providing an overview of the book as a whole, the Introduction also elaborates a methodology for the study of affect as it materializes in practices of representation and through wartime public culture.
Julian Reid
- Published in print:
- 2006
- Published Online:
- July 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780719074059
- eISBN:
- 9781781701676
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Manchester University Press
- DOI:
- 10.7228/manchester/9780719074059.003.0003
- Subject:
- Political Science, Political Theory
This chapter argues that it is a mistake to construe the War on Terror, the invasions of Afghanistan and Iraq that have followed it, and the broader reassertion of American military and strategic ...
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This chapter argues that it is a mistake to construe the War on Terror, the invasions of Afghanistan and Iraq that have followed it, and the broader reassertion of American military and strategic power globally, in the simplistic terms of the ‘return’ of a state-fermented form of imperialism. For sure, the 2001 attack on the World Trade Centre did initiate some changes in the organisation of power internationally, but it did not forge a regression. Central to the argument is the continuing and essential role of biopolitical forms of discourse and agency in the twenty-first century. In essence, while the reassertion of the military power of this one particular state, the United States, ought to make us aware of the continuing importance of traditional forms of sovereign power, it remains as, if not more, necessary, to concentrate on the imperial function of biopolitics here in the post-9/11 era. If we want to understand how it is that the United States is able to wage war in the terms that it is doing today, to reassert its capacities as a sovereign state, it is necessary to focus upon the roles of non-state biopolitical forms of agency in constituting and legitimising such violence. Bereft of its biopolitical context, such violence would be meaningless and impossible to sustain. In this sense it is the biopolitical which is the constitutive force within the imperial machine which we see today expanding and intensifying its controls over life globally.Less
This chapter argues that it is a mistake to construe the War on Terror, the invasions of Afghanistan and Iraq that have followed it, and the broader reassertion of American military and strategic power globally, in the simplistic terms of the ‘return’ of a state-fermented form of imperialism. For sure, the 2001 attack on the World Trade Centre did initiate some changes in the organisation of power internationally, but it did not forge a regression. Central to the argument is the continuing and essential role of biopolitical forms of discourse and agency in the twenty-first century. In essence, while the reassertion of the military power of this one particular state, the United States, ought to make us aware of the continuing importance of traditional forms of sovereign power, it remains as, if not more, necessary, to concentrate on the imperial function of biopolitics here in the post-9/11 era. If we want to understand how it is that the United States is able to wage war in the terms that it is doing today, to reassert its capacities as a sovereign state, it is necessary to focus upon the roles of non-state biopolitical forms of agency in constituting and legitimising such violence. Bereft of its biopolitical context, such violence would be meaningless and impossible to sustain. In this sense it is the biopolitical which is the constitutive force within the imperial machine which we see today expanding and intensifying its controls over life globally.
Robert G. Kaufman
- Published in print:
- 2007
- Published Online:
- September 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780813124346
- eISBN:
- 9780813134987
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- University Press of Kentucky
- DOI:
- 10.5810/kentucky/9780813124346.001.0001
- Subject:
- Political Science, American Politics
The terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, shattered the prevalent optimism in the United States that had blossomed during the tranquil and prosperous 1990s, when democracy seemed triumphant and ...
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The terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, shattered the prevalent optimism in the United States that had blossomed during the tranquil and prosperous 1990s, when democracy seemed triumphant and catastrophic wars were a relic of the past. President George W. Bush responded with a bold and controversial grand strategy for waging a preemptive Global War on Terror, which has ignited passionate debate about the purposes of American power and the nation's proper role in the world. This book offers a vigorous argument for the principles of moral democratic realism that inspired the Bush administration's policy of regime change in Iraq. The Bush Doctrine rests on two main pillars—the inadequacy of deterrence and containment strategies when dealing with terrorists and rogue regimes, and the culture of tyranny in the Middle East, which spawns aggressive secular and religious despotisms. Two key premises shape the book's case for the Bush Doctrine's conformity with moral democratic realism. The first is the fundamental purpose of American foreign policy since its inception: to ensure the integrity and vitality of a free society “founded upon the dignity and worth of the individual.” The second premise is that the cardinal virtue of prudence (the right reason about things to be done) must be the standard for determining the best practicable American grand strategy. This book provides a broader historical context for the post-September 11 American foreign policy that will transform world politics well into the future. The book connects the Bush Doctrine and current issues in American foreign policy, such as how the U.S. should deal with China, to the deeper tradition of American diplomacy. Drawing from positive lessons as well as cautionary tales from the past, the book concludes that moral democratic realism offers the most compelling framework for American grand strategy, as it expands the democratic zone of peace and minimizes the number and gravity of threats the United States faces in the modern world.Less
The terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, shattered the prevalent optimism in the United States that had blossomed during the tranquil and prosperous 1990s, when democracy seemed triumphant and catastrophic wars were a relic of the past. President George W. Bush responded with a bold and controversial grand strategy for waging a preemptive Global War on Terror, which has ignited passionate debate about the purposes of American power and the nation's proper role in the world. This book offers a vigorous argument for the principles of moral democratic realism that inspired the Bush administration's policy of regime change in Iraq. The Bush Doctrine rests on two main pillars—the inadequacy of deterrence and containment strategies when dealing with terrorists and rogue regimes, and the culture of tyranny in the Middle East, which spawns aggressive secular and religious despotisms. Two key premises shape the book's case for the Bush Doctrine's conformity with moral democratic realism. The first is the fundamental purpose of American foreign policy since its inception: to ensure the integrity and vitality of a free society “founded upon the dignity and worth of the individual.” The second premise is that the cardinal virtue of prudence (the right reason about things to be done) must be the standard for determining the best practicable American grand strategy. This book provides a broader historical context for the post-September 11 American foreign policy that will transform world politics well into the future. The book connects the Bush Doctrine and current issues in American foreign policy, such as how the U.S. should deal with China, to the deeper tradition of American diplomacy. Drawing from positive lessons as well as cautionary tales from the past, the book concludes that moral democratic realism offers the most compelling framework for American grand strategy, as it expands the democratic zone of peace and minimizes the number and gravity of threats the United States faces in the modern world.
Richard T. Hughes
- Published in print:
- 2018
- Published Online:
- May 2019
- ISBN:
- 9780252042065
- eISBN:
- 9780252050800
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of Illinois Press
- DOI:
- 10.5622/illinois/9780252042065.003.0007
- Subject:
- Sociology, Race and Ethnicity
While the myth of the Innocent Nation weaves a tale that is objectively false with no redemptive qualities, it is one of the strongest of the American myths in terms of its hold over the American ...
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While the myth of the Innocent Nation weaves a tale that is objectively false with no redemptive qualities, it is one of the strongest of the American myths in terms of its hold over the American people. That myth, like the nation itself, hangs suspended between the golden age of an innocent past (Nature’s Nation) and a golden age of innocence yet to come (Millennial Nation). Suspended in that vacuous state, Americans imagine that history is irrelevant. How could it be otherwise? Nothing destroys a sense of innocence like the terrors of history taken seriously. Anchored by the pillars that stand at the beginning and end of time, the myth of the Innocent Nation flourished during every modern conflict beginning with World War I, but especially when the nation faced enemies like Nazi Germany in World War II or Isis during the War on Terror. The irony was obvious, for even as the nation proclaimed its innocence, black soldiers, for example, returned from World War II only to face brutality and segregation in their own nation. Countless blacks from Muhammed Ali to Toni Morrison to James Baldwin to Ta-Nehisi Coates have protested that irony in the American myth of Innocence.Less
While the myth of the Innocent Nation weaves a tale that is objectively false with no redemptive qualities, it is one of the strongest of the American myths in terms of its hold over the American people. That myth, like the nation itself, hangs suspended between the golden age of an innocent past (Nature’s Nation) and a golden age of innocence yet to come (Millennial Nation). Suspended in that vacuous state, Americans imagine that history is irrelevant. How could it be otherwise? Nothing destroys a sense of innocence like the terrors of history taken seriously. Anchored by the pillars that stand at the beginning and end of time, the myth of the Innocent Nation flourished during every modern conflict beginning with World War I, but especially when the nation faced enemies like Nazi Germany in World War II or Isis during the War on Terror. The irony was obvious, for even as the nation proclaimed its innocence, black soldiers, for example, returned from World War II only to face brutality and segregation in their own nation. Countless blacks from Muhammed Ali to Toni Morrison to James Baldwin to Ta-Nehisi Coates have protested that irony in the American myth of Innocence.
Eli Jelly-Schapiro
- Published in print:
- 2018
- Published Online:
- January 2019
- ISBN:
- 9780520295377
- eISBN:
- 9780520968158
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of California Press
- DOI:
- 10.1525/california/9780520295377.003.0008
- Subject:
- History, Imperialism and Colonialism
The assumption that September 11, 2001 constituted a historical rupture enabled the advent of the War on Terror and disabled its critical apprehension. Beginning to counter the trope of rupture, this ...
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The assumption that September 11, 2001 constituted a historical rupture enabled the advent of the War on Terror and disabled its critical apprehension. Beginning to counter the trope of rupture, this Introduction locates the paradigms of security and terror—the core conceptual tropes of contemporary and American and global culture—within the long history of a specifically colonial modernity. After outlining this history—its rationalities of accumulation and governance—this Introduction poses the problem of representation, the question of how the colonial present is historicized and theorized in works of contemporary fiction and theory.Less
The assumption that September 11, 2001 constituted a historical rupture enabled the advent of the War on Terror and disabled its critical apprehension. Beginning to counter the trope of rupture, this Introduction locates the paradigms of security and terror—the core conceptual tropes of contemporary and American and global culture—within the long history of a specifically colonial modernity. After outlining this history—its rationalities of accumulation and governance—this Introduction poses the problem of representation, the question of how the colonial present is historicized and theorized in works of contemporary fiction and theory.
Long T. Bui
- Published in print:
- 2018
- Published Online:
- May 2019
- ISBN:
- 9781479817061
- eISBN:
- 9781479864065
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- NYU Press
- DOI:
- 10.18574/nyu/9781479817061.003.0004
- Subject:
- Society and Culture, Asian Studies
This chapter explores stories of Vietnamese Americans who came of age after the Vietnam War and currently serve in the U.S. armed forces during the War on Terror in countries like Afghanistan and ...
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This chapter explores stories of Vietnamese Americans who came of age after the Vietnam War and currently serve in the U.S. armed forces during the War on Terror in countries like Afghanistan and Iraq. These soldiers not only wanted to give back to their adopted country for their free lives as refugees fleeing the war but also to make up for America’s loss of Vietnam as well as the defeat of South Vietnam. From the oral histories, the chapter moves on to a major published literary memoir from U.S. Marine Quang X. Pham. Pham, a well-known public figure, talks about his confused life through losing his father, a South Vietnamese former pilot. From these oral and written texts, the chapter analyzes the thoughts of these “children of war” on wide-ranging issues such as migration, nation, family, and citizenship through the concept of “militarized freedom”—defined for these professionals as the sense of freedom (both political and personal) as shaped through their experiences and trauma with militarism. The Vietnamese American soldier encounters a moral dilemma that moves beyond a “Vietnam Syndrome,” an “American Syndrome,” where their professional obligations to American nation-building projects pulsate through their personal status as the living embodiment and physical reminders of America’s loss in South Vietnam.Less
This chapter explores stories of Vietnamese Americans who came of age after the Vietnam War and currently serve in the U.S. armed forces during the War on Terror in countries like Afghanistan and Iraq. These soldiers not only wanted to give back to their adopted country for their free lives as refugees fleeing the war but also to make up for America’s loss of Vietnam as well as the defeat of South Vietnam. From the oral histories, the chapter moves on to a major published literary memoir from U.S. Marine Quang X. Pham. Pham, a well-known public figure, talks about his confused life through losing his father, a South Vietnamese former pilot. From these oral and written texts, the chapter analyzes the thoughts of these “children of war” on wide-ranging issues such as migration, nation, family, and citizenship through the concept of “militarized freedom”—defined for these professionals as the sense of freedom (both political and personal) as shaped through their experiences and trauma with militarism. The Vietnamese American soldier encounters a moral dilemma that moves beyond a “Vietnam Syndrome,” an “American Syndrome,” where their professional obligations to American nation-building projects pulsate through their personal status as the living embodiment and physical reminders of America’s loss in South Vietnam.
Purnima Bose
- Published in print:
- 2015
- Published Online:
- April 2017
- ISBN:
- 9780252038860
- eISBN:
- 9780252096822
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of Illinois Press
- DOI:
- 10.5406/illinois/9780252038860.003.0008
- Subject:
- Society and Culture, Media Studies
Tere Bin Laden (2010), an Indian independent film in Hindi, written and directed by Abhishek Sharma, is a madcap comedy about an ambitious Pakistani journalist, Ali Hassan, who stages a fake video of ...
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Tere Bin Laden (2010), an Indian independent film in Hindi, written and directed by Abhishek Sharma, is a madcap comedy about an ambitious Pakistani journalist, Ali Hassan, who stages a fake video of Osama bin Laden as his golden ticket to immigrate to the United States. The film provides a trenchant critique of global media, the War on Terror, and the capitalist aspirations of lower-middle and middle-class Pakistanis. This chapter focuses on how Tere Bin Laden articulates a critique of the War on Terror. It first considers how the opening segments of the film set up its dual concerns with the nature of the U.S. national security state as a racial formation and with an idealized version of the American dream that constitutes the desire for upward mobility in the imagination of elite Pakistanis such as Ali. It then turns to the film's representation of the War on Terror and U.S. foreign policy to analyze how it draws on the speeches of the actual Osama bin Laden and spoofs the U.S. military campaign in Afghanistan by literally rendering it into a cartoon. Evaluating the filmmaker's and lead actor's claims that the film provides a generalized South Asian perspective on the War on Terror, the chapter explores Tere Bin Laden's representation of Pakistani civil society as constituted by a range of classes and aspirations that can be persuaded to cooperate with one another only in limited ways and as existing in an uneasy equilibrium with the state.Less
Tere Bin Laden (2010), an Indian independent film in Hindi, written and directed by Abhishek Sharma, is a madcap comedy about an ambitious Pakistani journalist, Ali Hassan, who stages a fake video of Osama bin Laden as his golden ticket to immigrate to the United States. The film provides a trenchant critique of global media, the War on Terror, and the capitalist aspirations of lower-middle and middle-class Pakistanis. This chapter focuses on how Tere Bin Laden articulates a critique of the War on Terror. It first considers how the opening segments of the film set up its dual concerns with the nature of the U.S. national security state as a racial formation and with an idealized version of the American dream that constitutes the desire for upward mobility in the imagination of elite Pakistanis such as Ali. It then turns to the film's representation of the War on Terror and U.S. foreign policy to analyze how it draws on the speeches of the actual Osama bin Laden and spoofs the U.S. military campaign in Afghanistan by literally rendering it into a cartoon. Evaluating the filmmaker's and lead actor's claims that the film provides a generalized South Asian perspective on the War on Terror, the chapter explores Tere Bin Laden's representation of Pakistani civil society as constituted by a range of classes and aspirations that can be persuaded to cooperate with one another only in limited ways and as existing in an uneasy equilibrium with the state.
Sunaina Marr Maira
- Published in print:
- 2016
- Published Online:
- May 2017
- ISBN:
- 9781479817696
- eISBN:
- 9781479866069
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- NYU Press
- DOI:
- 10.18574/nyu/9781479817696.003.0001
- Subject:
- Society and Culture, Cultural Studies
The Introduction outlines the major questions regarding Muslim American youth and the turn to rights-based activism and cross-ethnic coalitions that are the focus of the book. It discusses why the ...
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The Introduction outlines the major questions regarding Muslim American youth and the turn to rights-based activism and cross-ethnic coalitions that are the focus of the book. It discusses why the concept of “youth,” and particularly Muslim and Middle Eastern youth, is so central to to the War on Terror and also often exceptionalized in the post-9/11 moment. It offers an overview of the context of the ethnographic research in Silicon Valley and Fremont/Hayward, situating the three communities (South Asian, Arab, and Afghan American) in the study against the backdrop of the longer history of contestations over race, class, and immigration in this region. It also provides a discussion of the research methods on which the project is based.Less
The Introduction outlines the major questions regarding Muslim American youth and the turn to rights-based activism and cross-ethnic coalitions that are the focus of the book. It discusses why the concept of “youth,” and particularly Muslim and Middle Eastern youth, is so central to to the War on Terror and also often exceptionalized in the post-9/11 moment. It offers an overview of the context of the ethnographic research in Silicon Valley and Fremont/Hayward, situating the three communities (South Asian, Arab, and Afghan American) in the study against the backdrop of the longer history of contestations over race, class, and immigration in this region. It also provides a discussion of the research methods on which the project is based.
Edwin Tanner
- Published in print:
- 2011
- Published Online:
- September 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780198074151
- eISBN:
- 9780199080830
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198074151.003.0004
- Subject:
- Law, Human Rights and Immigration
This chapter addresses a fundamental issue of debate — the mounting incidence of intolerance when it is not confronted in a pluralistic context. Adopting the premise that some States in the world, ...
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This chapter addresses a fundamental issue of debate — the mounting incidence of intolerance when it is not confronted in a pluralistic context. Adopting the premise that some States in the world, led by America, overreacted to the threat of global terrorism following the attacks on the United States on 11 September 2001, it views those responses as a setback to the promotion of human rights. It explores the impact of globalization on the responses of States, and examines the relationship between the notion of human rights and activities related to the use of violence. It also examines the role played by the International Criminal Court, the UN Security Council, and other international entities in this regard. The author concludes that an exaggerated response to terrorism led to a diminution of other security threats.Less
This chapter addresses a fundamental issue of debate — the mounting incidence of intolerance when it is not confronted in a pluralistic context. Adopting the premise that some States in the world, led by America, overreacted to the threat of global terrorism following the attacks on the United States on 11 September 2001, it views those responses as a setback to the promotion of human rights. It explores the impact of globalization on the responses of States, and examines the relationship between the notion of human rights and activities related to the use of violence. It also examines the role played by the International Criminal Court, the UN Security Council, and other international entities in this regard. The author concludes that an exaggerated response to terrorism led to a diminution of other security threats.
Karine V. Walther
- Published in print:
- 2015
- Published Online:
- May 2016
- ISBN:
- 9781469625393
- eISBN:
- 9781469625416
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of North Carolina Press
- DOI:
- 10.5149/northcarolina/9781469625393.003.0009
- Subject:
- History, American History: 20th Century
The conclusion summarizes how these arenas contributed to larger American narratives about the Islamic world and how they translated into specific policies. It then details the profound repercussions ...
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The conclusion summarizes how these arenas contributed to larger American narratives about the Islamic world and how they translated into specific policies. It then details the profound repercussions of these policies for the peoples of the Middle East, North Africa and Asia continuing into the twenty-first century. It analyzes how perceptions about Islam continued during the Cold War, when Israel and oil became the two pillars of American foreign policy. The chapter concludes by analyzing the resurgence of Islamophobia in the 21st century, focusing on the theory of the “Clash of Civilizations,” authored by Samuel Huntington in 1993, which resonated so deeply in the American psyche after 9/11, during the Global War on Terror, led by George W. Bush.Less
The conclusion summarizes how these arenas contributed to larger American narratives about the Islamic world and how they translated into specific policies. It then details the profound repercussions of these policies for the peoples of the Middle East, North Africa and Asia continuing into the twenty-first century. It analyzes how perceptions about Islam continued during the Cold War, when Israel and oil became the two pillars of American foreign policy. The chapter concludes by analyzing the resurgence of Islamophobia in the 21st century, focusing on the theory of the “Clash of Civilizations,” authored by Samuel Huntington in 1993, which resonated so deeply in the American psyche after 9/11, during the Global War on Terror, led by George W. Bush.
Eli Jelly-Schapiro
- Published in print:
- 2018
- Published Online:
- January 2019
- ISBN:
- 9780520295377
- eISBN:
- 9780520968158
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of California Press
- DOI:
- 10.1525/california/9780520295377.003.0006
- Subject:
- History, Imperialism and Colonialism
This Epilogue begins by highlighting the narratives and processes of historical distortion that imagine the War on Terror as a past-tense event and absolve the War on Terror of its manifestly ...
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This Epilogue begins by highlighting the narratives and processes of historical distortion that imagine the War on Terror as a past-tense event and absolve the War on Terror of its manifestly imperial substance. It then turns to a consideration of cultural texts that counter the cycle of historical erasure and imperial reproduction—in particular a growing body of War on Terror veterans’ narratives that illuminate the lingering effects of war’s traumas. In brief dialogue with two novels in particular—Ben Fountain’s Billy Lynn’s Long Halftime Walk and Atticus Lish’s Preparation for the Next Life—this Epilogue offers a summary reflection on the false beginning and false endings of the War on Terror.Less
This Epilogue begins by highlighting the narratives and processes of historical distortion that imagine the War on Terror as a past-tense event and absolve the War on Terror of its manifestly imperial substance. It then turns to a consideration of cultural texts that counter the cycle of historical erasure and imperial reproduction—in particular a growing body of War on Terror veterans’ narratives that illuminate the lingering effects of war’s traumas. In brief dialogue with two novels in particular—Ben Fountain’s Billy Lynn’s Long Halftime Walk and Atticus Lish’s Preparation for the Next Life—this Epilogue offers a summary reflection on the false beginning and false endings of the War on Terror.
Terence McSweeney
- Published in print:
- 2014
- Published Online:
- May 2017
- ISBN:
- 9780748693092
- eISBN:
- 9781474408547
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Edinburgh University Press
- DOI:
- 10.3366/edinburgh/9780748693092.001.0001
- Subject:
- Film, Television and Radio, Film
American film in the first decade of the 21st century became a cultural battleground on which a war of representation was waged, but did these films endorse the 'War on Terror' or challenge it? More ...
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American film in the first decade of the 21st century became a cultural battleground on which a war of representation was waged, but did these films endorse the 'War on Terror' or challenge it? More than just reproducing these fears and fantasies, The 'War on Terror' and American Film argues that American cinema has played a significant role in shaping them, restructuring how audiences have viewed this most tumultuous of decades in particularly influential ways. This compelling and theoretically informed exploration of contemporary American cinema charts the evolution of the impact of 9/11 on Hollywood film through a range of genres-war films, superhero movies, historical dramas, horror and even alien invasion films - each revealing a cinema not of escapism but one that engages profoundly with the turbulent era in which their films were made. Through a vibrant analysis of films as diverse as War of the Worlds (2005), United 93 (2006), 300 (2007), The Bourne Ultimatum (2007), Zero Dark Thirty (2012), Marvel Avengers Assemble (2012) and many others, The 'War on Terror' and American Film explores the influence of the cultural trauma of 9/11 and the subsequent 'War on Terror' on American cinema in the first decade of the new millennium and beyond.Less
American film in the first decade of the 21st century became a cultural battleground on which a war of representation was waged, but did these films endorse the 'War on Terror' or challenge it? More than just reproducing these fears and fantasies, The 'War on Terror' and American Film argues that American cinema has played a significant role in shaping them, restructuring how audiences have viewed this most tumultuous of decades in particularly influential ways. This compelling and theoretically informed exploration of contemporary American cinema charts the evolution of the impact of 9/11 on Hollywood film through a range of genres-war films, superhero movies, historical dramas, horror and even alien invasion films - each revealing a cinema not of escapism but one that engages profoundly with the turbulent era in which their films were made. Through a vibrant analysis of films as diverse as War of the Worlds (2005), United 93 (2006), 300 (2007), The Bourne Ultimatum (2007), Zero Dark Thirty (2012), Marvel Avengers Assemble (2012) and many others, The 'War on Terror' and American Film explores the influence of the cultural trauma of 9/11 and the subsequent 'War on Terror' on American cinema in the first decade of the new millennium and beyond.
