Book Description
The war against terrorism allows power to be reorganized at the world level. The procedures of exception set up in its name become the basis of a new legal order that gives judicial powers to administrative authorities. In this globalized process, the United States occupies an exceptional place. It rules an imperial political structure in which the American administration has the privilege of determining the exception and inscribing it into law.
The government of the United States can designate as an enemy any American or any citizen of a state with which the USA is not at war. It can seize or, because of extradition agreements, force any other government to hand over any individual that it designates as a terrorist. It can keep that individual in unlimited detention or, at its discretion, put that individual on trial before exceptional courts of law. Thus the war against terrorism is constitutive. It alters the exercise of internal and external sovereignty. It leads to an organic solidarity among various governments in the surveillance and repression of their populations. The boundary between the maintenance of order and war is blurred. Real wars are presented as police operations and control over citizens is carried out by procedures that belong to counter-espionage.
The government of the United States can designate as an enemy any American or any citizen of a state with which the USA is not at war. It can seize or, because of extradition agreements, force any other government to hand over any individual that it designates as a terrorist. It can keep that individual in unlimited detention or, at its discretion, put that individual on trial before exceptional courts of law. Thus the war against terrorism is constitutive. It alters the exercise of internal and external sovereignty. It leads to an organic solidarity among various governments in the surveillance and repression of their populations. The boundary between the maintenance of order and war is blurred. Real wars are presented as police operations and control over citizens is carried out by procedures that belong to counter-espionage.
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"This well-researched and persuasively argued study shows how state power is being used to strip away basic guaranties of liberty and fairness, all in the name of fighting 'terrorism.' All of us engaged in the struggle for human rights owe Jean-Claude Paye an enormous debt of gratitude."
Michael E. Tigar
Research Professor, Washington College of Law
Visiting Professor, Duke Law School
"Paye expertly dissects the global 'war on terror' (GWOT), arguing that the Bush administration has used the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks to assert new executive powers in the United States as well as Europe. Global War on Liberty is a unique and singularly important book. All who care about protecting national sovereignty, civil liberties, and the rule of law should read it."
Marjorie Cohn
Professor, Thomas Jefferson School of Law
President-elect, National Lawyers Guild
Michael E. Tigar
Research Professor, Washington College of Law
Visiting Professor, Duke Law School
"Paye expertly dissects the global 'war on terror' (GWOT), arguing that the Bush administration has used the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks to assert new executive powers in the United States as well as Europe. Global War on Liberty is a unique and singularly important book. All who care about protecting national sovereignty, civil liberties, and the rule of law should read it."
Marjorie Cohn
Professor, Thomas Jefferson School of Law
President-elect, National Lawyers Guild
