Securing the World and Challenging Civil Society: Before and After the ‘War on Terror’ |
| |
| Authors: | Jude Howell Jeremy Lind |
| |
| Affiliation: | 1. is Professor and Director of the Centre for Civil Society, London School of Economics, Houghton Street, London, WC2A 2AE, UK. She has published extensively on issues of civil society, security and aid;2. civil society, governance and international development;3. gender and civil society;4. civil society and governance in China;5. labour organizations and trades unions in China.;6. is a Fellow on the Vulnerability and Poverty Reduction Team at the Institute of Development Studies, University of Sussex, Falmer, Brighton, BN1 9RE, UK. He has written widely on civil society, development and counter‐terrorism;7. civil society and conflict;8. pastoralist livelihoods and conflict in the Horn of Africa;9. and post‐conflict natural resource management. |
| |
| Abstract: | Following President Bush's declaration of a ‘War on Terror’ in 2001, governments around the world introduced a range of counter‐terrorist legislation, policies and practices. These measures have affected not only human rights and civil liberties but also civil society and aid frameworks. Although the Obama administration has renounced the language of the ‘War on Terror’ and taken steps to revoke aspects such as water‐boarding and the detention facility at Guantanamo Bay, the bulk of the legislation and practices associated with the post‐9/11 global security framework remain. The cluster of papers which follow provide detailed studies of the effects of the War on Terror regime on civil society in four contexts: the USA, Spain, Kenya and Uzbekistan. In this way it lays a basis for civil society actors and aid agencies to reflect more strategically on how they should engage with security debates and initiatives in a way that best protects the spaces of civil society and the interests of minority and vulnerable groups. This introduction sets out the three key themes pursued throughout the cluster articles, namely, the selective impact of counter‐terrorist measures on civil society; the particularity of civil society responsiveness to these measures; and the role of aid and diplomacy in pursuing security objectives and its consequences for civil society. |
| |
| Keywords: | |
|
|
