Illiberal Practices of Liberal Regimes, the (In)Security Games

GENERAL PRESENTATION

The promise of the traditional liberal state was to preserve the liberal order inside, while the realm of the outside was thought to be condemned to be dominated by resolutely illiberal state practices. What was normal within the national state borders was exceptional outside and vice versa. The police was to preserve civil peace inside, while the military waged war outside.

However, we are today witnessing a merging, a de-differentiation of the internal and the external. The difference between the liberal and the illiberal, the norm and the exception, is not longer fixed by state borders. The limits between the internal and the external are moving. How can contemporary security dynamics be analysed in this context? Are the defining features of the traditional field of internal security being projected beyond national state borders through international police-missions? Are we on the contrary witnessing, through the »global war on terror», a resurgence within national boundaries of practices generally thought to be confined to the traditional field of external security? In other words, the question of the illiberal practices of liberal regimes lies at the core of the contemporary transformations of the field of security.

In this book, the researchers of the Centre d’Etudes sur les Conflits - revue Cultures & Conflits (Centre for the Study of Conflicts, Paris) analyse the diverse aspects of contemporary security dynamics. They approach the transnational practices of securitisation through their national, European, Transatlantic and international dimensions. Contemporary security practices are here analysed through a very diverse and heterogeneous set of actors: police-forces, intelligence services, the media, politicians as well as the military. The authors focus both on the social practices, the discourses and the institutions involved. However, as is shown throughout this book, the relations interlinking the latter are inseparable from the development of both a transnational field of professionals of politics and of professionals of (in)security. Through these fields, counterterrorism is assimilated into the weft and warp of contemporary politics. These developments challenge our understanding of the liberal state and shed new light on the illiberal practices of liberal regimes.

This book presents some of the contributions of the French Team of the European Commission-funded Challenge project (6th Framework Programme) examining the implication of new security practices for civil liberties, human rights and social cohesion within an enlarged Europe. This book is therefore also the result of an ongoing political and intellectual European-wide debate. It is the first of a series of books that will be proposed in English (as well as in other languages) by the Centre d’Etudes sur les Conflits through its new collection (Collection Cultures & Conflits). The hope is that this collection will further facilitate intellectual exchange between the French-speaking world and the Anglo-Saxon world.

This book is published by l’Harmattan in the French-speaking world and can be ordered on its website: http://www.editions-harmattan.fr

The Staff of the Centre d’Etudes sur les Conflits

Presentation of the Publisher :

In the name of protection and national security, we witness the development of both a transnational field of professionals of politics and of professionals of security (police, intelligence, military). This development might provide a feeling of safety, but it also induces illiberal practices that lead to resistance from judges, human rights groups and part of the public.

Drawing on research from several European countries, this volume brings together essays on the way counterterrorism is embedded into the very logic of the fields of politics and of security, both in their internal and international dimensions. This book will be of interest to students and scholars in criminology, sociology, political science, security studies, international relations and to all those concerned with questions of politics and human rights.

Abstracts

Didier Bigo : «Globalized (in)security : the Field and the Ban-opticon»

This first chapter questions the dominant reading of global (in)security as a « natural » consequence of the recent attacks in the US and Europe and as calling for a single solution: the globalisation of the (in)security professionals and their international cooperation against terrorism. Drawing on the works of Pierre Bourdieu and Michel Foucault, the author tries to understand when and how this discourse on the « globalisation of (in)security » developed. This is done through an approach in terms of a field of the professionals of unease management. It involves the analysis of the current transnationalisation of (in)securisation processes. A particular attention is given to the way in which these processes are linked to the European and Transatlantic developments affecting the police, the military, and the intelligence agencies. Indeed, the latter are all interlinked through the structuration of a transversal field. The effects produced by the latter on our societies of risk, doubt, and uncertainty is here described through the conceptualisation of the ban-opticon, a «dispositif» combining features of the panopticon of Foucault and the «ban» analysed by Nancy.

Anastassia Tsoukala : «Defining the terrorist threat in the post-September 11th era»

This chapter on the British political discourses on the terrorist threat (2001-2005) uncovers that the definition of the terrorist threat has been primarily determined by various domestic political issues. Indeed, politicians and security officials have frequently used fear-fuelling strategies to: a) improve their position in the domestic political and security fields; b) obtain substantial electoral gains. These strategies have rested upon a reframing of the notion of freedom and of the place of human rights in contemporary democracies. Indeed, the findings of the research carried out by the author reveal that the definition of the terrorist threat in the post-September 11th era often rests upon a fear-fuelling strategy contributing to the redefinition of these very notions. The author also shows that bureaucratic struggles play a significant role in these dynamics. Indeed, she insists on the fact that the Home Office is becoming an increasingly powerful definer of the themes related to the terrorist threat.

Laurent Bonelli : «Intelligence, Exception and Suspicion after September 11th 2001»

Following the September 11th 2001 attacks in the US, the March 11th 2004 attacks in Madrid and the July 7th bombings in London, the western intelligence services have seen their role and weight increase in the fight against radical Islam. This chapter based on a fieldwork on French, Spanish and British intelligence services aims at studying the transformation of their missions as well as of their analysis of the threat related to transnational political violence. Breaking with an overly-mechanical approach analysing the transformation of these missions as the result of an « adaptation » to new threats, this text shows that these transformations result both from the evolution of the clandestine groups’ activities and perceptions, the effects of the analysis grids that have been developed on other fields as well as from the perpetual work of re-legitimisation that these services carry out within the State apparatus. Hence, this chapter contributes to shedding light on specific aspects of the modes of regulation of political violence in western democracies.

Emmanuel-Pierre Guittet :«Military Activities Inside National Territory: The French Case»

What are the arguments used in order to justify the idea that the resort to Armed forces inside national territory in the fight against terrorism is both politically «appropriate» and «efficient»? It is clear that the questions raised by the military involvement in the fight against «terrorism» became more acute after September 11th. Indeed, the attacks on the WTC re-opened the debate on the participation of soldiers in internal security-missions, an issue that had been foreclosed in most liberal countries. Consequently, militarization seems now to be an important trend in the fight against «terrorism». This contribution is an attempt to map the practices of the French Armed forces related to the involvement in internal security and counter-terrorism. It also deals with the justifications given for these practices through procedures of derogation to the rule of law that are either allowed by the Constitution or carried out outside of the latter’s framework. This chapter also tries to elaborate on the articulations between the professionals of politics and the professionals of security through the question of the involvement of the military inside.

Christian Olsson : «Military Interventions and the Concept of the Political : Bringing the Political Back into the Interactions between External Forces and Local Societies»

This chapter analyses some of the military practices related to the interventions in Afghanistan and Iraq through the concept of the political. The author shows that the non-Clausewitzian character of these wars has paradoxically led to an interest in the political representations of the potential enemy, while simultaneously depoliticising the relation to any form of military resistance. This paradox is all the more interesting to highlight as the importance of the interactions between intervening forces and «local» populations has been emphasized by the shift from «wars between states» to «wars inside states». In order to illustrate this general argument, this contribution focuses on the politicisation and de-politicisation processes induced by the confrontation between external forces and «local» societies. These processes are becoming more complex because of the network-centric dimension of war as shown here through the example of Private Military Companies (PMCs) and humanitarian actors.

Illiberal Practices of Liberal Regimes, the (In)Security Games

(in the French-speaking world : Paris, L’Harmattan, 2006)

Illiberal Practices of Liberal Regimes, the (In)Security Games