1st Edition

The Geopolitics of American Insecurity Terror, Power and Foreign Policy

Edited By Francois Debrix, Mark Lacy Copyright 2009
    228 Pages 2 B/W Illustrations
    by Routledge

    232 Pages 2 B/W Illustrations
    by Routledge

    This edited volume examines the political, social, and cultural insecurities that the United States is faced with in the aftermath of its post-9/11 foreign policy and military ventures. The contributors critically detail the new strategies and ideologies of control, governance, and hegemony America has devised as a response to these new security threats.

    The essays explore three primary areas. First, they interrogate the responses to 9/11 that resulted in an attempt at geopolitical mastery by the United States. Second, they examine how the US response to 9/11 led to attempts to secure and control populations inside and outside the United States, resulting in situations that quickly started to escape its control, such as Abu Ghraib and Katrina.  Lastly, the chapters investigate links between contemporary regimes of state control and recently recognized threats, arguing that the conduct of everyday life is increasingly conditioned by state-mobilized discourses of security. These discourses are, it is argued, ushering in a geopolitical future characterized by new insecurities and inevitable measures of biopolitical control and governance.

     

     

    Acknowledgments  Introduction : US Foreign Policy after Hype(r)-Power Mark J. Lacy and François Debrix  1. Hyper-Power or Hype-Power? The USA after Kandahar, Karbala, and Katrina Timothy W. Luke  2. American Insecurities and the Ontopolitics of US Pharmacotic Wars Larry George  3. Power, Violence, and Torture: Making Sense of Insurgency and Legitimacy Crises in Past and Present Wars of Attrition Alexander D. Barder  4. Torturefest and the Passage to Pedagogy of Tortured Pasts Marie Thorsten  5. Designing Security: Control Society and MoMA's SAFE: Design Takes on Risk Mark J. Lacy  6. Deserting Sovereignty? The Securitization of Undocumented Migration in the United States Mathew Coleman  7. The Biopolitics of American Security Policy in the Twenty-First Century Julian Reid  8. Human Security, Governmentality, and Sovereignty: A Critical Examination of Contemporary Discourses on Universalizing Humanity Kosuke Shimizu 9. The Aesthetic Emergency of the Avian Flu Affect Geoffrey Whitehall  10. Over a Barrel: Cultural Political Economy and Oil Imperialism Simon Dalby and Matthew Paterson  11. Zombie Democracy Patricia Molloy  Contributors

    Biography

    François Debrix is Associate Professor of International Relations at Florida International University in Miami. He is the author and editor of several books, including Tabloid Terror (Routledge, 2007). Mark J. Lacy is Lecturer of International Relations at Lancaster University. His publications include Security and Climate Change: International Relations and the Limits of Realism (Routledge, 2006).