Global War on Terror

İnsancıl Müdahale: 1999 Kosova ve 2003 Irak Sonrası Durum

by Uluslararası İlişkiler

Funda Keskin, " İnsancıl Müdahale: 1999 Kosova ve 2003 Irak Sonrası Durum ", Uluslararası İlişkiler, Cilt 3, Sayı 12 (Kış), 2006-2007

1999′da Kosova müdahalesi ile gündeme bir kez daha giren insancıl müdahale uygulaması, BM Antlaşması’nın kuvvet... more 1999′da Kosova müdahalesi ile gündeme bir kez daha giren insancıl müdahale uygulaması, BM Antlaşması’nın kuvvet kullanma yasağına getirdiği istisnalardan değildir. Önce 1970′lerde, sonra 1990′larda insancıl müdahaleyi istisna olarak tanımlama yönündeki tüm çabalara karşın, ne devletlerin tutumları ne de yazarların çoğunun görüşleri, insancıl müdahaleyi bir istisna olarak kabul etmektedir. Kosova müdahalesini gerçekleştiren devletler dahi insancıl müdahaleyi hukuksal bir istisna olarak değerlendirmemektedir. 2003 yılında Irak’ın işgal edilmesinin ardından, insancıl müdahale kavramı önce gündemden düşmüş, sonra bu işgalin gerekçeleri çerçevesinde tekrar konu edilmeye başlanmıştır. Ancak işgali insancıl müdahale olarak değerlendiren çok küçük bir azınlık vardır ve onların düşünceleri de özellikle Irak’taki mevcut güvenliksiz ortam nedeniyle inandırıcı olamamaktadır.

The Curious Life of a Political Object

by Elspeth Van Veeren

Working draft of an article on the 'political life' of the orange prison jumpsuit, from its origin in the US prison system to its use at Guantanamo to its central role as part of the campaign to close the site.

Tracing the 'political life' of objects can be immensely instructive. Taking the orange prison jumpsuit made (more)... more Tracing the 'political life' of objects can be immensely instructive. Taking the orange prison jumpsuit made (more) notorious through its use at Guantanamo as an object, this article argues that the orange jumpsuit played a central role in the constitution of subjectivities within the competing discourses of the Global War on Terror. From its origin in the US prison system to its use at Guantanamo to its central role as part of the campaign to close the site, how the suit was used, disappeared and reappeared offers fresh insight into the ways in which material culture and materialities shape meaning, discourse and security.

Guantánamo’s Battle: Producing Resistant Bodies

by Elspeth Van Veeren

Draft chapter.

An exploration of the resistance strategies adopted by detainees not only to fight their detention but also to contest... more An exploration of the resistance strategies adopted by detainees not only to fight their detention but also to contest the subjectivities into which they were positioned. ‘Inside the wire’ detainees resisted through a variety of material practices involving the body, including hunger striking and ‘dirty’ protests.

Guantánamo Does Not Exist: Simulation and the Production of ‘the Real’ Global War on Terror

by Elspeth Van Veeren

Published in Journal of War and Culture Studies, 2011, 4:2.
Guantánamo, Baudrillard, simulation, War on Terrorism, mediation, spectacle

Joint Task Force Guantánamo, the high-profile U.S. military detention and interrogations facilities was established in... more Joint Task Force Guantánamo, the high-profile U.S. military detention and interrogations facilities was established in January 2002 in order to demonstrate the capture of the ‘worst of the worst’ of Al Qaeda and the Taliban. It nevertheless became a public spectacle that was essential for constituting the reality of the Global War on Terror. Through evolving media and VIP tours of the facilities and the Bush administration’s Military Analyst Program, a system of reverse embeds used to promote Pentagon messages within the U.S. media, Guantánamo became a simulation essential for producing the reality of the war. It became a key way to convince the public that the war was real and necessary, but also that its conduct was just and humane, and by extension, that the U.S. can be understood as ‘good’. Through a triple screen of the tours, the visitors and their mediation, the telegenic spectacle of Guantánamo was transmuted into a reality of Guantánamo as ‘safe, humane, legal, and transparent’. The importance of this for producing understandings of the GWoT bears closer examination. Without this triple screen, Guantánamo does not exist.

Captured by the camera's eye: Guantánamo and the shifting frame of the Global War on Terror

by Elspeth Van Veeren

Published in Review of International Studies 2011 37: 1721-1749. First published online November 2010.

In January 2002, images of the detention of prisoners held at US Naval Station Guantanamo Bay as part of the Global... more In January 2002, images of the detention of prisoners held at US Naval Station Guantanamo Bay as part of the Global War on Terrorism were released by the US Department of Defense, a public relations move that Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld later referred to as ‘probably unfortunate’. These images, widely reproduced in the media, quickly came to symbolise the facility and the practices at work there. Nine years on, the images of orange-clad ‘detainees’ – the ‘orange series’ – remain a powerful symbol of US military practices and play a significant role in the resistance to the site. However, as the site has evolved, so too has its visual representation. Official images of these new facilities not only document this evolution but work to constitute, through a careful (re)framing (literal and figurative), a new (re)presentation of the site, and therefore the identities of those involved. The new series of images not only (re)inscribes the identities of detainees as dangerous but, more importantly, work to constitute the US State as humane and modern. These images are part of a broader effort by the US administration to resituate its image, and remind us, as IR scholars, to look at the diverse set of practices (beyond simply spoken language) to understand the complexity of international politics.

"Jus Ad Bellum After 9/11: A State of the Art Report"

by Mark Rigstad

The International Political Theory Beacon, Volume 3, June 2007