scholarly journals Blurred lines and false dichotomies: Integrating counterinsurgency into the UK’s domestic ‘war on terror’

2017 ◽  
Vol 37 (2) ◽  
pp. 202-224 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rizwaan Sabir
Keyword(s):  
War On Terror ◽  
Theory And Practice ◽  
Military Doctrine ◽  
Counter Terrorism ◽  
The People ◽  
Uk Government ◽  
State Actors ◽  
The Uk ◽  
Policies And Practices

The UK’s counter-terrorism strategy (CONTEST) seeks to pursue individuals involved in suspected terrorism (‘Pursue’) and seeks to minimise the risk of people becoming ‘future’ terrorists by employing policies and practices structured to pre-emptively incapacitate and socially exclude them (‘Prevent’). This article demonstrates that this two-pronged approach is based on a framework of counterinsurgency; a military doctrine used against non-state actors that encourages, amongst other things, the blanket surveillance of populations and the targeting of propaganda at them. The use of counterinsurgency theory and practice in the UK’s ‘war on terror’ blurs the distinction between Pursue and Prevent, coercion and consent, and, ultimately, civilian and combatant. This challenges the liberal claim that counter-terrorism policies, especially Prevent, are about social inclusivity or ‘safeguarding’ and that the UK government is accountable to the people.

scholarly journals Religion, Identity and Radicalisation

2017 ◽  
Vol 6 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-21
Author(s):  
Imran Awan
Keyword(s):  
Young People ◽  
Policy Makers ◽  
Counter Terrorism ◽  
Current Rise ◽  
Key Stakeholders ◽  
British Muslims ◽  
Uk Government ◽  
The Uk

The current rise in the numbers of young British Muslims travelling from the UK to Syria has raised a number of questions about the UK Government’s counter-terrorism strategy and policy. Within the current discourse on radicalisation and Syria, listening to the voices of young British Muslims is crucial, if the UK Government, the police and other key stakeholders are serious about preventing the escalation of young people going out to fight in Syria. This article makes an important contribution to helping us better understand young British Muslims’ perceptions of the crisis in Syria and offers policy makers some thoughts on how best to engage young people in the debate on Syria without demonising them or stereotyping them as ‘suspects’.

Policing Kashmiri Brooklyn

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Junaid Rana
Keyword(s):  
War On Terror ◽  
Political Organization ◽  
American Muslims ◽  
Special Significance ◽  
Counter Terrorism ◽  
Political Activist ◽  
State Actors ◽  
Religion And Immigration

This chapter explains the arrest and incarceration of Kashmiri political activist Ghulam Nabi Fai and his connections to the Pakistani neighborhoods of Brooklyn. In so doing, the author accounts for the special significance of the so called War on Terror and its impact on American Muslims. The chapter explains how this expanded scale of policing stifles everyday forms of political organization and dissent. Because this involves non-state actors who are involved in liberationist nationalist activity, the notion of ‘terror’ itself is blurred and becomes a convenient scapegoat in a complex of criminalization and illegality of political acts of critique, debate, and the organization of funds. Thus, the FBI program of counter-terrorism builds upon legacies of surveillance, infiltration, and profiling based on intermingling notions of race, religion, and immigration.

Policy and People

Bluster ◽  
2020 ◽  
pp. 43-56
Author(s):  
Peter R. Neumann
Keyword(s):  
War On Terror ◽  
Election Campaign ◽  
Counter Terrorism ◽  
Political Ideas ◽  
The People

This chapter demonstrates why, despite Trump's doctrine and the wide-ranging promises he made during the election campaign, many of his counter-terrorism policies remained fairly mainstream. It shows that, coming into office as a complete outsider, he had neither the policies nor the people to turn his doctrine into reality. Many of the decisions affecting the War on Terror were consequently taken not by "true believers", who subscribed to his doctrine and the wider ideology of populist nationalism, but by career officials and mainstream Republicans -- which the book labels "generals" -- whose personal loyalty and commitment to his political ideas were strictly limited. Trump's problem was that he may have won an election, but lacked the policies and people that would have allowed him to turn his doctrine into reality.

scholarly journals Protecting Whiteness: Counter-Terrorism, and British Identity in the BBC’s Bodyguard

2022 ◽  
pp. 030582982110563
Author(s):  
Louise Pears
Keyword(s):  
Popular Culture ◽  
War On Terror ◽  
White Identity ◽  
British Identity ◽  
Counter Terrorism ◽  
Tv Shows ◽  
Complex Relationships ◽  
The Uk ◽  
A Site ◽  
Scholarly Attention

This article uses Bodyguard to trace the ways that whiteness is represented in counter-terrorism TV and so draw the links between whiteness, counter-terrorism and culture. It argues that Bodyguard offers a redemptive narrative for British whiteness that recuperates and rearticulates a British white identity after/through the War on Terror. As such it belongs to a later genre of counter-terrorism TV shows that move on from, but nonetheless still propagate, the discursive foundations of the ongoing War on Terror. This reading of Bodyguard is itself important, as popular culture is a site where much of the British population made and continues to make sense of their relationship to the UK during the War on Terror, forging often unspoken ideas about whiteness. It affords the opportunity to draw out the connections between whiteness and counter-terrorism, connections that need further scholarly attention to fully understand the complex relationships between security and race.

7. The structure of the United Kingdom and devolution

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Neil Parpworth
Keyword(s):  
United Kingdom ◽  
Northern Ireland ◽  
Constitutional History ◽  
The United Kingdom ◽  
The People ◽  
History Of ◽  
The Creation ◽  
Uk Government ◽  
The Uk

This chapter discusses the structure and devolution of the UK. It first sketches the constitutional history of the UK, presenting a brief outline of events that led to the creation of the UK, i.e. the union of England, Wales, Scotland, and Northern Ireland. The chapter then examines the issue of devolution, which has been particularly important to the people of Scotland and Wales. The key provisions of the devolution legislation enacted in 1998 and more recent legislative developments are reviewed. The chapter concludes by considering the ‘English Question’ and the agreements between the UK Government and the devolved administrations in Scotland, Wales, and Northern Ireland.

scholarly journals Protecting the Environment and People from Climate Change through Climate Change Litigation

2017 ◽  
Vol 10 (5) ◽  
pp. 66 ◽  
Author(s):  
Theodore Okonkwo
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Research Problem ◽  
Theory And Practice ◽  
Legal Rights ◽  
Sources Of Information ◽  
Secondary Sources ◽  
The People ◽  
The Us ◽  
Change Impact ◽  
The Uk

Climate change litigation seeks to apply legal rights in order to affect the outcomes that would either mitigate, reduce or can even result in improved alternation to climate change. This article intends to identify and analyse the ways through which the environment and the people are protected from rapid changes in climate through the means of climate change litigation. Protection of the environment as well as people by climate change litigation can be witnessed in various nations throughout the globe particularly Australia, the US, Canada and the UK. The research problem examined in this article shows that the courts are becoming a critical climate change front where climate change conflicts are resolved. The research objectives are to help understand how climate change has impacted human health and the environment and how the courts have stepped into the arena to restrain activities that cause climate change impact. The methodology adopted in this article is both doctrinal and theoretical drawing upon primary and secondary sources of information. The key findings and implications to theory and practice of this article is that it is a medium to foster the jurisprudence of the role of climate change regime through judicial intervention in protecting the environment and people from climate change through climate change litigation.

Freedom of Expression, Counter-Terrorism and the Internet in Light of the UK Terrorist Act 2006 and the Jurisprudence of the European Court of Human Rights

2009 ◽  
Vol 27 (3) ◽  
pp. 331-360 ◽  
Author(s):  
Daragh Murray
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
War On Terror ◽  
Freedom Of Expression ◽  
The Internet ◽  
Primary Interest ◽  
Counter Terrorism ◽  
European Court ◽  
The Uk ◽  
The Right

As a result of the ‘War on Terror’ domestic governments and the international community have paid increasing attention to counter-terrorism legislation. Given the meteoric rise in prominence of the Internet, and the ever-expanding ‘terrorist’ use of this entity, it is unsurprising that the Internet has now become the focus of legislative attention. However, what does this mean for one of the most fundamental of human rights, the right to freedom of expression? This article will analyse the concepts of incitement, glorification and dissemination as they relate to the Internet, and evaluate their place within the broader framework of the right to freedom of expression. Consequently, ‘context’, the quantifiable circulation of content, and other relevant issues are evaluated through the prism of the Internet. Similarly, the role of the ‘blogger’ is discussed as it relates to the dissemination of information, and the overarching concept of participatory democracy. For illustrative purposes, the United Kingdom's Terrorist Act 2006, and the jurisprudence of the European Court of Human Rights will be of primary interest.

scholarly journals Algorithmic autoimmunity in the NHS: Radicalisation and the clinic

2016 ◽  
Vol 48 (1) ◽  
pp. 29-45 ◽  
Author(s):  
Charlotte Heath-Kelly
Keyword(s):  
Big Data ◽  
National Health Service ◽  
Health Service ◽  
The Public ◽  
Counter Terrorism ◽  
Large N ◽  
Security Discourse ◽  
Policy Shift ◽  
Uk Government ◽  
The Uk

This article explores the extension of counter-radicalisation practice into the National Health Service (NHS). In the 2011 reformulation of the UK Prevent strategy, the NHS became a key sector for the identification and suppression of ‘radicalisation’. Optometrists, dentists, doctors and nurses have been incorporated into counter-terrorism and trained to report signs of radicalisation in patients and staff. This article explores how calculative modalities associated with big data and digital analytics have been translated into the non-digital realm. The surveillance of the whole of the population through the NHS indicates a dramatic policy shift away from linear profiling of those ‘suspect communities’ previously considered vulnerable to radicalisation. Fixed indicators of radicalisation and risk profiles no longer reduce the sample size for surveillance by distinguishing between risky and non-risky bodies. Instead, the UK government chose the NHS as a pre-eminent site for counter-terrorism because of the large amount of contact it has with the public. The UK government is developing a novel counter-terrorism policy in the NHS around large-N surveillance and inductive calculation, which demonstrates a translation of algorithmic modalities and calculative regimes. This article argues that this translation produces an autoimmune moment in British security discourse whereby the distinction between suspicious and non-suspicious bodies has collapsed. It explores the training provided to NHS staff, arguing that fixed profiles no longer guide surveillance: rather, surveillance inductively produces the terrorist profile.

The UK Government should withdraw from the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities

2019 ◽  
Vol 216 (6) ◽  
pp. 296-300 ◽  
Author(s):  
Paul Gosney ◽  
Peter Bartlett
Keyword(s):  
Mental Health ◽  
Mental Health Treatment ◽  
Current System ◽  
Health Treatment ◽  
Persons With Disabilities ◽  
Legal Instrument ◽  
The People ◽  
Uk Government ◽  
The Government ◽  
The Uk

SummaryMany psychiatrists in the UK may be surprised to find that the Government ratified a convention ten years ago that suggests compulsory mental health treatment be prohibited. The Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities is arguably the most important legal instrument that no one in psychiatry ever discusses, but if moved from ratification to enforcement it would have enormous effect on day-to-day practice. Here, Dr Paul Gosney argues that the convention if enforced would be damaging for the people it aims to protect, whereas Professor Peter Bartlett defends it as a necessary challenge to the inequalities in our current system.

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