Twenty-First-Century Torture

2021 ◽  
pp. 125-158
Author(s):  
William L. d'Ambruoso
Keyword(s):  
Bush Administration ◽  
September 11 ◽  
First Century ◽  
Terrorist Attacks ◽  
Al Qaeda ◽  
Legal Counsel ◽  
Geneva Conventions ◽  
Twenty First Century ◽  
Enhanced Interrogation ◽  
The Military

Immediately following the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, members of the George W. Bush administration signaled that current rules regarding intelligence, detention, and interrogation were too confining. With approval from the Justice Department’s Office of Legal Counsel (OLC), the president declared that the Geneva Conventions’ detention and interrogation guidelines would not apply to Al Qaeda and Taliban detainees. The problem with Geneva, administration lawyers argued, was that it would tie interrogators’ hands. The CIA and the military wanted an explicit legal blessing for their interrogation programs. They got it in the form of a series of memos by the OLC and military lawyers, who defined torture in exceedingly narrow terms. The result was “enhanced interrogation,” which the administration claimed did not amount to torture but was still a sufficiently “tough” program to break hardened terrorists.

Imagining Terror in an Era of Globalization: U.S. Foreign Policy and the Construction of Terrorism after 9/11

2009 ◽  
Vol 7 (3) ◽  
pp. 579-590 ◽  
Author(s):  
Catherine V. Scott
Keyword(s):  
Foreign Policy ◽  
September 11 ◽  
First Century ◽  
Virtual Network ◽  
Terrorist Attacks ◽  
Al Qaeda ◽  
Nation State ◽  
Ways Of Thinking ◽  
Twenty First Century ◽  
The U.S

Many analyses of U.S. foreign policy after September 11 have rested upon readings of the U.S. as a traditional imperialist power. In so doing, the constructions of Al Qaeda as a decentralized corporation and a virtual network are often ignored. Corporate and network constructions place less stress on conventional threats to the nation-state and instead portray terrorism in distinctively post-Fordist terms. This in turn helps explain the short-lived and partial patriotic responses to the terrorist attacks, as well as the contradictory place of race in portrayals of the threat facing the U.S. Together these discourses point to new ways of thinking about U.S. nationalism and terrorism in the twenty-first century.

How War Makes (and Unmakes) the Democratic State

2021 ◽  
pp. 278-295
Author(s):  
Aziz Z. Huq
Keyword(s):  
Civil War ◽  
National Culture ◽  
September 11 ◽  
First Century ◽  
Right Wing ◽  
Marin County ◽  
Democratic State ◽  
September 11 Attacks ◽  
Twenty First Century ◽  
Greek Island

Focusing on the figures of the terrorist and the migrant, Huq suggests that war in the twenty-first century, in partial contrast to its precursors, may prove costly to democracy. Whereas war once served to develop bureaucratic capacity, shrink wealth gaps, and expand the franchise, it is less likely to perform these functions in a period when war is increasingly cabined to distant zones of violence, mechanized, and privatized. Huq considers a pair of novels by Mohsin Hamid, The Reluctant Fundamentalist and Exit West. The former documents the transformation, and potential radicalization, of a young Pakistani professional in the wake of the September 11 attacks; the latter follows a couple from an unspecified city on the brink of civil war to the Greek island of Mykonos, then to London, and finally to Marin County, California, where their relationship dissolves. Whereas right-wing populists cast the terrorist and the migrant as racialized threats to civilization and national culture, Hamid’s protagonists instead embody a commitment to pluralism, inclusion, and democratic openness.

The Myth of “Torture Lite”

2009 ◽  
Vol 23 (1) ◽  
pp. 47-61 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jessica Wolfendale
Keyword(s):  
Sleep Deprivation ◽  
Moral Psychology ◽  
Public Discourse ◽  
September 11 ◽  
Terrorist Attacks ◽  
Military Intelligence ◽  
Liberal Democracies ◽  
Liberal Ideology ◽  
Definition Of ◽  
Enhanced Interrogation

Since the terrorist attacks on September 11, 2001, the phrase “torture lite” has appeared in public discourse about torture, used by journalists, military intelligence personnel, and academics to distinguish between two kinds of torture: torture, which is violent, physically mutilating, cruel and brutal, and torture lite, which refers to interrogation methods that are, it is claimed, more restrained and less severe than real torture. Techniques in the latter category, which are also described as “enhanced interrogation techniques” or “stress and duress methods,” include extended sleep deprivation, noise bombardment, and forced standing. In this paper I argue that the distinction between torture and torture lite is attractive to liberal democracies because it bolsters what David Luban has called the “liberal ideology of torture,” the myth that torture can be compatible with the basic commitments of liberal states. However, as I shall demonstrate, torture lite techniques are torture, for they are sufficiently cruel and severe to meet any plausible definition of torture. Furthermore, the use of terms like “torture lite” and the nature of such techniques encourage a moral psychology in which the violence and cruelty of torture is denied, the victim's suffering is hidden, minimized and doubted, and the torturer's responsibility is diminished. As such, the use of torture lite techniques is likely to encourage the normalization of torture.

scholarly journals The Emperor Needs New Clothes: Securitizing Threats in the Twenty-First Century

2002 ◽  
Author(s):  
Volker Franke
Keyword(s):  
Cold War ◽  
International Relations ◽  
Conceptual Model ◽  
September 11 ◽  
First Century ◽  
Security Policies ◽  
Terrorist Attacks ◽  
Policy Issues ◽  
Complex Theory ◽  
The Cold War

The terrorist attacks of September 11 brought to a head change that had been underway since the end of the Cold War in how we think about security: (1) there is no longer consensus about who or what constitutes the “enemy”; (2) Realism as the dominating paradigm for studying international relations is collapsing; (3) domestic factors are gaining importance for devising security policies; and (4) with increasing globalization these domestic factors attain impact beyond national borders. In this article, I examine the nature of these developments and illustrate that the concept of security is often misapplied for political gain and/or to justify extraordinary measures for countering impending or perceived threats. Comparing various conceptions of security, I analyze the dangers resulting from oversecuritization, which is the propensity to treat traditional policy issues as existential threats to security, and demonstrate the need to more clearly define the distinction betw-een nonexistential and existential threats that justify extraordinary measures. Expanding on classical security complex theory, I propose a conceptual model that links security sectors and can be applied to develop measurable criteria for distinguishing between those issues that should be securitized and those that can be addressed through existing policy channels.

The Beauty of the Houri

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nerina Rustomji
Keyword(s):  
French Literature ◽  
September 11 ◽  
First Century ◽  
September 11Th ◽  
Multiple Functions ◽  
Gender Parity ◽  
Feminine Beauty ◽  
Digital Material ◽  
Twenty First Century

The fascination with the houri, the pure female of Islamic paradise, began long before September 11, 2001. The Beauty of the Houri demonstrates how the ambiguous reward of the houri, mentioned in the Qurʾan and developed in Islamic theological writings, has gained a distinctive place in English and French literature from the sixteenth to the twenty-first century and in digital material in the twenty-first century. The houri had multiple functions in Islamic texts that ranged from caretaker to pure companion to entertainment. French, English, and American writers used the houri to critique Islam and Muslim societies while also adopting the houri as a model of feminine beauty. Unlike earlier texts that presented different forms of the houri or universalized the houri for all women, writings about the houri after September 11th offer contradictory messages about Islam. In the twenty-first century, the image of the houri symbolizes a reward for violence and the possibility of gender parity. As a cosmic figure that inspires enduring questions about the promise of paradise and the idealized feminine form, the houri has a singular past and potential for future interpretation.

Letting the Exception Prove the Rule

2003 ◽  
Vol 17 (1) ◽  
pp. 9-16 ◽  
Author(s):  
Michael Byers
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
International Law ◽  
The United States ◽  
September 11 ◽  
Terrorist Attacks ◽  
Military Force ◽  
Department Of State ◽  
Military Campaigns ◽  
The Military ◽  
The U.S

It is unlikely that George W. Bush feels constrained by international law when deciding whether to use military force abroad. Nevertheless, many of the United States' allies are reluctant to cooperate with and participate in military actions that cannot reasonably be justified under international law. And supportive allies, while perhaps not strictly necessary to the United States in its recent and foreseeable military campaigns, do make the military option easier to pursue. A war against Iraq would be difficult without access to bases and airspace in countries as diverse as Turkey, Saudi Arabia, Germany, and Canada. For this reason, at least, it would seem to be worth the president's while to adhere to international law where possible and, where this is not possible, to seek to change the rules.International lawyers in the Department of State, together with lawyers in other parts of the U.S. government, have excelled in shaping the law to accommodate the interests of the United States. One example, though by no means the only one, concerns the response to the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.

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