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Risk and the War on Terror

Edited by Louise Amoore, Marieke de Goede

Published May 30th 2008 by Routledge – 280 pages

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Description

This book offers the first comprehensive and critical investigation of the specific modes of risk calculation that are emerging in the so-called War on Terror.

Risk and the War on Terror offers an interdisciplinary set of contributions which debate and analyze both the empirical manifestations of risk in the War on Terror and their theoretical implications. From border controls and biometrics to financial targeting and policing practice, the imperative to deploy public and private data in order to ‘connect the dots’ of terrorism risk raises important questions for social scientists and practitioners alike.

  • How are risk technologies redeployed from commercial, environmental and policing domains to the domain of the War on Terror?
  • How can the invocation of risk in the War on Terror be understood conceptually?
  • Do these moves embody transformations from sovereignty to governmentality; from discipline to risk; from geopolitics to biopolitics?
  • What are the implications of such moves for the populations that come to be designated as ‘risky’ or ‘at risk’?
  • Where are the gaps, ambiguities and potential resistances to these practices?

In contrast with previous historical moments of risk measurement, governing by risk in the War on Terror has taken on a distinctive orientation to an uncertain future. This book will be of strong interest to students and researchers of international studies, political science, geography, legal studies, criminology and sociology.

Reviews

'This anthology's broad coverage of the relationship of risk to the war on terror's proliferation of surveillance is extraordinary. The work of this excellent group of scholars is innovative and compelling.' - Michael Shapiro, University of Hawaii, USA

'Risk and the War on Terror is filled with theoretically and empirically fascinating new contributions to our understanding of this crucially important topic.' - Tony Porter, McMaster University, Canada

Contents

Foreword: Rusing Risk Bill Maurer. Introduction: Governing by Risk in the War on Terror Louise Amoore and Marieke de Goede Part 1: Risk, Precaution, Governance 1. Taming the Future: The Dispositif of Risk in the War on Terror Claudia Aradau and Rens van Munster 2. Spatial Imaginaries: Economic Globalisation and the War on Terror Wendy Larner 3. The State of Preemption: Managing Terrorism Risk through Counter-Law Richard V. Ericson Part 2: Crime, Deviance, Exception 4. Choosing our Wars, Transforming Governance: Cancer, Crime, and Terror Jonathan Simon 5. Risk, Preemption and Exception in the War on Terrorist Financing Marieke de Goede 6. Consulting, Culture, the Camp: On the Economies of the Exception Louise Amoore Part 3: Biopolitics, Biometrics, Borders 7. Fast Capitalism/Slow Terror: Cushy Cosmopolitanism and its Extraordinary Others Matthew Sparke 8.Putting the Migration-Security Complex in its Place William Walters 9. Embodying Risk: Using Biometrics to Protect the Borders Charlotte Epstein Part 4: Risk, Tactics, Resistances 10. Border Hacks: The Risks of Tactical Media Rita Raley 11. Subverting Discourses of Risk in the War on Terror Susan Bibler Coutin 12. Conclusion: Risk and Imagination in the War on Terror Mark B. Salter

Author Bio

Louise Amoore is Lecturer in Political Geography in the Department of Geography at Durham University, UK.

Marieke de Goede is Senior Lecturer at the Department of European Studies of the University of Amsterdam, The Netherlands.

Name: Risk and the War on Terror (Paperback) – Routledge 
Description: Edited by Louise Amoore, Marieke de Goede. This book offers the first comprehensive and critical investigation of the specific modes of risk calculation that are emerging in the so-called War on Terror. Risk and the War on Terror offers an interdisciplinary set of contributions which debate and...
Categories: Political Economy, Political Sociology, Social Theory, Theory & Political Sociology, Political Geography, Contemporary Social Theory, International Law - Law, Socio-Legal Studies, Criminology and Criminal Justice, International Law, Terrorism, Security Studies - Military & Strategic, International Political Economy, International Politics, International Relations, Security Studies - Pol & Intl Relns, Critical Security, Terrorism & Political Violence