Contesting Torture

This edited volume seeks to contest prevailing assumptions about torture and to consider why, despite its illegality, torture continues to be widely employed and misrepresented.

The resurgence of torture and public justifications of it led to the central questions that this inter-disciplinary volume seeks to address: How is it possible for torture to be practiced when it is legally prohibited? What kinds of moves do agents make that render torture palatable? Why do so many ignore the evidence that torture is ineffective as an intelligence-gathering technique? Who are the victims of torture? The various contributors in the book look to history, the practices of interrogators, artistic representations, documentary films, rendition policies, political campaigns, diplomatic discourses, international legal rules, refugee practices, and cultural representations of death and the body to illuminate how torture becomes permissible. Building from the personal to the communal, and from the practical to the conceptual, the volume reflects the multivalence of torture itself. This framework enables readers at all levels better appreciate how and why torture is open to so many interpretations and applications.

This book will be of much interest to students of International Relations, Security Studies, Terrorism Studies, Ethics, and International Legal Studies.

Rory Cox is a Senior Lecturer in History at the University of St. Andrews and a Fellow of the Royal Historical Society. His research explores the ethics of violence and the history of the just war tradition over a broad chronological range.

Faye Donnelly is a Lecturer in the School of International Relations at the University of St. Andrews. Her research and teaching engage with and contribute to critical security studies.

Anthony F. Lang Jr. is a Professor of International Political Theory in the School of International Relations at the University of St. Andrews. His research and teaching sit at the intersection of politics, law, and ethics at the global level.