Lessons and Legacies of the War on Terror: From Moral Panic to Permanent War

This volume examines the lessons and legacies of the U.S.-led "Global War on Terror," utilizing the framework of a political "moral panic."

A decade after 9/11, it is increasingly difficult to deny that terror has prevailed – not as a specific enemy, but as a way of life. Transport, trade, and communications are repeatedly threatened and disrupted worldwide. While the pace and intensity of terror attacks have abated, many of the temporary security measures and sacrifices of liberty adopted in their immediate aftermath have become more or less permanent.

This book examines the social, cultural, and political drivers of the war on terror through the framework of a "political moral panic": the exploration of threats to particular individuals or institutions that come to be viewed as threats to a way of life, social norms and values, civilization, and even morality itself. Drawing upon a wide range of domestic and international case studies, this volume reinforces the need for reason, empathy, and a dogged defence of principle in the face of terror.

This book will be of much interest to students of terrorism studies, human rights, U.S. foreign policy, American politics, and Security Studies and I.R. in general.

Gershon Shafir is Professor of Sociology, Director of the Institute for International, Comparative, and Area Studies, and founding Director of the Human Rights Minor at the University of California, San Diego. He is the author of several books, including Being Israeli: The Dynamics of Multiple Citizenship, co-authored with Yoav Peled, which won the Middle Eastern Studies Association's Albert Hourani Award for best book on the Middle East in 2002.

Everard Meade is Assistant Professor of History and founding member of the advisory board of the Human Rights Minor Program at UCSD. He has published recent articles in the Journal of Historical Biography, Mexican Studies/Estudios Mexicanos and InterCulture.

William J. Aceves is Associate Dean for Academic Affairs and Professor of Law at California Western School of Law. He is the author of The Anatomy of Torture and the co-author of The Law of Consular Access and principal author of the influential Amnesty International USA Safe Haven report.