War on terror

The attacks of 11 September 2001 enabled western states to radically transform their counterterrorism practices. This conference aims to critically engage with this transformation; to map how the ‘war on terror’ is shaping new areas of our everyday lives and identify the challenges ahead for those fighting for human rights and social justice across the security field.

Vengeance may have been wreaked on the infamous Al Qaeda leader, but as long as deadly U.S. wars continue in Afghanistan, Pakistan, Iraq, and beyond, justice has not been done.

After the Vietnam War, the US repeated its pledge (the first time being after the Korean War) never to enter into a quagmire like that again. And yet it has. In Iraq and Afghanistan, the US has no clear enemy, no clear goals, no clear exit strategies and apparently no limit to the costs borne by citizens in the US and elsewhere. The current US “quagmires” will contribute to a global power shift away from the US, Gabriel Kolko argues.