Policing Narratives and the State of Terror

Examines the recent "War on Terror" and the increasing privatization of international policing through the lens of detective fiction and security and espionage narratives.

Since the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, world politics have increasingly mirrored plots of detective novels, with high-profile criminal investigations that cross multiple borders and the internationalized law enforcement practices associated with the "War on Terror." Policing Narratives and the State of Terror examines the relationship between domestic policing and international policy through an analysis of contemporary popular detective fiction, police procedurals, police autobiography, security reports, and chronicles of domestic spying. Robin Truth Goodman connects these accounts of policing to the changing shape of the contemporary nation-state, marked by the denationalization of labor; commercial and criminal laws that jump borders more quickly than civil law protections; and the replacement of legal precedent by unrepeatable, exceptional executive decisions. Working at the intersection of literature, international law, and globalized commerce, Goodman astutely pinpoints how policing has become an increasingly troublesome instrument of empire, particularly in terms of national sovereignty and the growing numbers of mercenary private security forces.