Reimagining the National Security State Liberalism on the Brink

Reimagining the National Security State provides the first comprehensive picture of the toll that US government policies took on civil liberties, human rights, and the rule of law in the name of the war on terror. Looking through the lenses of theory, history, law, and policy, the essays in this volume illuminate the ways in which liberal democracy suffered at the hands of policymakers in the name of national security. The contributors, who are leading experts and practitioners in fields ranging from political theory to evolutionary biology, discuss the vast expansion of executive powers, the excessive reliance secrecy, and the exploration of questionable legal territory in matters of detention, criminal justice, targeted killings, and warfare. This book gives the reader an eye-opening window onto the historical precedents and lasting impact the security state has had on civil liberties, human rights and, the rule of law in the name of the war on terror.

Foreword Donald Glascoff; Part I. The National Security State: Power and Purpose in Perspective: 1. Who's checking whom? Michael J. Glennon; 2. The deep state vs the failed state: illusions and realities in the pursuit of security John Gray; 3. A tale of two countries: fundamental rights in the 'war on terror' Douglas Cassel; 4. The national security state gone awry: returning to first principles Loch K. Johnson; Part II. Tracking the Decline: 5. The illiberal experiment: how Guantanamo became a defining American institution Michel Paradis; 6. National security and court deference: ramifications and worrying trends Laura Pitter; 7. The zealotry of 'terrorism' Thomas A. Durkin; 8. Re-imagining the national security state: illusions and constraints – by the numbers Joshua L. Dratel; 9. Beyond counterinsurgency paradigm of governing: letting go of prediction and the illusion of an internal enemy Bernard E. Harcourt; 10. Re-establishing the rule of law as national security Mary Ellen O'Connell; Part III. Novel Paths Forward: 11. Rethinking the national security state from an evolutionary perspective: a reconnaissance David Sloan Wilson; 12. Concluding remarks John Berger; Select bibliography; Index.

Karen J. Greenberg is the Director of the Center on National Security at Fordham University School of Law. She received her B.A. from Cornell University, New York and her PhD from Yale University, Connecticut. Her books include The Least Worst Place: Guantanamo's First 100 Days (2009) and Rogue Justice: The Making of the Security State (2016). Greenberg edited The Torture Debate in America (2006), co-edited The Torture Papers: The Road to Abu Ghraib (2005) and is Editor-in-Chief of The Soufan Group Morning Brief. She is an International Studies Fellow at New America.