WP 01 : The new state of Exception: The political and social implications of globalized insecurities

Articles

• Foucault on Politics, Security and War

  6 October 2008, by Dillon Michael, Neal Andrew
  This diverse collection of essays is the first to specifically engage Michel Foucault on questions of politics, security and war. It is also the first to take up the provocations found in Michel Foucault’s recently published Collège de France lectures, particularly Society Must Be Defended, Security, Territory, Population and The Birth of Biopolitics. The contributors reassess the way Foucault worked experimentally and in collaboration and dialogue with others.

• Conference Report : The social, legal and political challenges of counter-terrorism

  23 July 2007, by Neal Andrew
  Workpackage 1 organised a one-day workshop in London to bring together practitioners and academics from multiple disciplines including law, government, international relations, political science, sociology and media studies. The aim was to discuss recent transformations in the field of counter-terrorism and their social, legal and political implications. It was attended by 40 people from universities and institutions across the UK and Europe. The day was organised around three thematic panels on the legal implications of counter-terrorism and extraordinary rendition for the EU; the political-theoretical implications of recent transformations in counter-terrorism and practices of exceptionalism; and finally on the social implications of counter-terrorism with regard to the media, globalisation and human rights.

• Workshop programm : The social, legal and political challenges of counter-terrorism

  23 July 2007, by Neal Andrew
  Recent years have seen rapid innovations in the practices, principles and critiques of counter-terrorism. This workshop will bring academics and practitioners together to discuss the social, legal and political implications of the changing field.

• Challenge Conference Minutes : «Freedom, Equality and Exception in Market Economies»

  15 January 2007, by Scandamis Nicholas
  On the 9th of November 2006, the University of Athens (WP 12) organized a conference titled «Freedom, Equality and Exception in Market Economies» with the participation of the University of Rouen (WP 11), the University of Keele and King’s College London (WP 1), and the Sciences-Po Paris (WP 2). The Conference was held at the «Ioannis Drakopoulos Hall» on the premises of the University of Athens.

• Challenge Conference Report : «Freedom, equality and exception in market economies»

  15 January 2007, by Scandamis Nicholas
  The papers presented at the Challenge conference «Freedom, equality and exception in market economies» held in Athens, 9th and 10th November, 2006

• Pentagon Breaks with Bush on Detentions

  12 July 2006, by The Guardian
  In a memo yesterday, the Pentagon said that Article 3 of the Geneva Convention would apply to the Guantanamo detainees. The memo was the result of the US Supreme Court Decision which ruled that military tribunals for the Guantanamo detainees are illegal. However, the White House spokesperson, Tony Snow, indicated that any policy changes would need to be consistent with national security.

• Beyond and Before the Law at Guantanamo

  12 July 2006, by Cutler Schershow Scott , Michaelson Scott
  The article explores the status of the Guantanamo detainees and argues that the category of ‘unlawful combatant’ has always been foundational to the laws of war, being applied to ‘spies’ or other irregular participants in an armed conflict. Thus, the predicament of the Guantanamo detainees is ‘the very manifestation of the existing state system and its corollary values’. Critics of Guantanmo cannot rely on international law or in the exercise of sovereignty. The authors’ suggestion is that sovereignty itself must be torqued in a strange reversal, and made to work against itself. Sovereignty must be ‘expended without reserve in the name, not of law, but of justice, to the point where the territory and its boundary tremble’.

• An Interview with Giorgio Agamben

  12 July 2006, by Raulff Ulrich
  In this interview, Agamben discusses his latest book, The State of Exception, in relation to the latest developments in the ‘war on terror’. Methodologically, he makes a distinction between the camp as a ‘paradigm’ compared to other forms of sociological investigation. A ‘paradigm’, he argues, can be used to understand large historical structures. He also indicates that the ‘absence of law’ entailed by the state of exception is not the absence of governance. A double structure of the system, governance through law and governance through management, needs therefore to be considered.

• Guantanamo Limbo

  12 July 2006, by Butler Judith
  Judith Butler discusses the ‘exception’ of naming the detainees at Guantanamo as ‘illegal combatants’ rather than POWs from a different perspective than Giorgio Agamben’s. For Butler, the exception is an exception to the universality of human rights. At the same time, Butler acknowledges that the Geneva Conventions display their own exceptions to the universal. The Geneva Conventions only refer to state-centred conflict taking place in ‘already established and recognizable forms’. According to Butler, the Conventions also concede that there are ‘uncivilized people’ who create ‘unique situations’ that require unique measures.

• Forum on « desecuritisation and emancipation »

  27 June 2006, by Alker Hayward R, Aradau Claudia, Behnke Andreas, Taureck Rita
  The forum raises questions about the relation between security and politics, the meaning of securitisation/desecuritisation and their political implications. The role of security analysis and analytical tools is considered in tension with political approaches based in social struggles. Schmitt’s influence on our understandings of security and the relation to political communities is also explored.

• Released Detainees Refute US Guantanamo Suicide Cover Up

  19 June 2006, by Begg Moazzam
  Former Guantanamo detainees, including the 9 British nationals released from the camp, have poured scorn on allegations that the three deaths at Guantanamo were suicides and claim that they are almost certainly accidental killings caused by excessive force used by US guards there.

• European Security and Defence Policy: Developments Since 2003

  13 June 2006, by Taylor Claire
  Since the Nice European Council in December 2000 significant progress has been made in furthering the defence capabilities of the EU. Institutional planning structures have been established and a number of measures introduced to promote the development of military and civilian crisis management assets, including the creation of the European Defence Agency. More recently the European Commission has also introduced measures to facilitate harmonisation of the defence market in Europe.

• House of Lords ruling on the Belmarsh detainees 16 Dec 2004

  30 May 2006, by House of Lords
  The judgment in which the highest court in the UK, the law lords, declare by a majority of 8-1 the indefinite detention of foreign ’terrorist suspects’ incompatible with the Human Rights Act and hence the European Convention on Human Rights. Lord Bingham said the rules were incompatible as they allowed detentions «in a way that discriminates on the ground of nationality or immigration status» by justifying detention without trial for foreign suspects but not British citizens.

• Statewatch launches a new «Observatory» on CIA «rendition»

  22 May 2006, by Statewatch
  Statewatch today launches a new «Observatory» on the enquiries taking place into «rendition» and the use of European countries by the CIA for the transport and illegal detention of prisoners.

• CIA Secret Prisons Exposed

  22 May 2006, by Hentoff Nat
  May is the month that the United States has been summoned to Geneva by the United Nations Committee Against Torture to, as Reuters reported on April 18, provide information about secret detention facilities and specifically whether the United States assumed responsibility for alleged acts of torture in them.

• Europe Shames U.S. Congress: CIA war crimes in Europe are now under official investigation there, but not here

  22 May 2006, by Hentoff Nat
  After 9-11, within the frame-work of the fight against terrorism, the violation of human and fundamental rights was not isolated, or an excessive measure confined to a short period of time, but rather a widespread regular practice by the CIA in which the majority of European countries are involved.

• Report of the Official Account of Bombings in London on 7 July

  16 May 2006, by UK Government
  One of the two official reports on the 7 July bombings in London, made public on 11 May 2006, inquires into the causes of the attack. The report offers a portrait of the four men involved in the bombings. They are rendered as ‘largely unexceptional’ and their motivation is due to the ‘perceived injustices carried by the West against Muslims’ as well as a ‘desire for martyrdom’. The group appears to have been self-financed and to have carried the attacks with minimal financial means.

• Examination of Witnesses 13 July 2005 (2)

  16 May 2006, by House of Lords Select Committee on European Union
  Our research activities fall mainly within the framework of a research project which is funded by DG Research of the European Commission and is named Challenge - Changing the landscape of European liberty and security. This is composed of a network of 21 universities analysing and assessing issues not only of justice and home affairs policies but, also, bringing the element of Common Foreign and Security Policy into the whole discussion on the current merging of internal and external security after the events of 11 September and the 11 March. At the moment, we are preparing our working document dealing specifically with the Green Paper on economic migration.

• Response to Intelligence and Security Committee Report into the London Terrorist Attacks on 7 July 2005

  16 May 2006, by UK Government
  The Government is grateful for the comprehensive and carefully researched report that the Intelligence and Security Committee has produced, which draws on the Committee’s access to a wide range of highly classified intelligence assessments. The report contains a number of conclusions and recommendations.

• Report into the London Terrorist Attacks on 7 July 2005

  16 May 2006, by Intelligence and Security Committee
  On 7 July 2006 fifty-two people were killed in the terrorist attacks in London. The Intelligence and Security Committee has examined the intelligence and security matters relevant to the attacks and I enclose with this letter a Report which covers our findings.

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