Guantanamo Matters
Materialising Post-9/11 Security
Elspeth Van Veeren(Author)
Routledge (Publisher)
1st Edition
Published on 1. January 2021
Book
Hardback
224 pages
978-0-415-84480-2 (ISBN)
Description
Materialising Post-9/11 Security is the first full-length study of the controversial U.S. military detention and interrogation facility which has been in the media spotlight for the past 10 years. While there has been no shortage of comment and some notable academic attention, howver this work seeks to explore areas not so far covered in depth, and provides readers with a timely and, at times, disturbing overview.
Through a study of material practices connected with Guantanamo both 'inside' and 'outside' the wire - including practices involving its objects and environments and their successive alterations, detention and interrogation practices, media practices such as photography and tours, and varied speech practices - Van Veeren documents the production of different ways that the site has been understood and represented. Building on studies that focus on linguistic constructions of security, she argues that materialities - practices involving bodies, objects and spaces that shape our way of being and knowing in the world - played a constitutive role in the production of the discourse about Guantanamo and therefore of the wider Global War on Terror. U.S. administrations used these practices to produce and reinforce political positions and so construct 'common sense'concerning the nature of security threats, on the one hand, and what constitutes legal and humane treatment, on the other. Those opposed to Guantanamo - including those detained inside as well as those protesting outside - were inevitably involved in counter-constructions, some of them very imaginative, and sometimes upsetting.
Overall, this book therefore presents a scholarly contemporary historical account of the site as well as an exploration of theories of materialisation and meaning-making with regard to war and security. Post-9/11 politics cannot be understood without due consideration of material practices involving the construction and representation of things. Guantanamo and its materialities, more than any other single site - even Abu Ghraib - remains central and intractable to the competition over what it means to be secure in a post-9/11 world.
Through a study of material practices connected with Guantanamo both 'inside' and 'outside' the wire - including practices involving its objects and environments and their successive alterations, detention and interrogation practices, media practices such as photography and tours, and varied speech practices - Van Veeren documents the production of different ways that the site has been understood and represented. Building on studies that focus on linguistic constructions of security, she argues that materialities - practices involving bodies, objects and spaces that shape our way of being and knowing in the world - played a constitutive role in the production of the discourse about Guantanamo and therefore of the wider Global War on Terror. U.S. administrations used these practices to produce and reinforce political positions and so construct 'common sense'concerning the nature of security threats, on the one hand, and what constitutes legal and humane treatment, on the other. Those opposed to Guantanamo - including those detained inside as well as those protesting outside - were inevitably involved in counter-constructions, some of them very imaginative, and sometimes upsetting.
Overall, this book therefore presents a scholarly contemporary historical account of the site as well as an exploration of theories of materialisation and meaning-making with regard to war and security. Post-9/11 politics cannot be understood without due consideration of material practices involving the construction and representation of things. Guantanamo and its materialities, more than any other single site - even Abu Ghraib - remains central and intractable to the competition over what it means to be secure in a post-9/11 world.
More details
Language
English
Place of publication
London
United Kingdom
Publishing group
Taylor & Francis Ltd
Target group
College/higher education
Dimensions
Height: 234 mm
Width: 156 mm
ISBN-13
978-0-415-84480-2 (9780415844802)
Copyright in bibliographic data is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or its licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Person
Elspeth Van Veeren is a Postdoctoral Research Fellow in International Relations at the University of Sussex.
Content
Introduction: Guantanamo Matters 1. Guantanamo's Spaces: Ordering Dangerous Bodies 2. Guantanamo's Mark: Dressing Dangerous Bodies 3. Guantanamo's Discipline: Producing Docile Bodies 4. Guantanamo's Battle: Materialising Resistant Bodies 5. Guantanamo's Law: Bodies on Trial 6. Guantanamo's Image: Framing The Security Assemblage 7. Guantanamo's Expo: The Security Assemblage on Show 8. Guantanamo's Icon: Transformative Matter Conclusion: Guantanamo's Legacy: Thinking Through Matter