Reimagining the National Security State

‘In Reimagining the National Security State, Karen J. Greenberg has brought together a veritable who’s who of scholars and practitioners to help us understand how and why the post-9⁄11 state of exception favoring security over liberty has increasingly become the norm in American politics. This collection makes for bracing, disturbing, and essential reading for anyone who hopes that we can reset that balance.’ Michael C. Desch, Packey J. Dee Professor of International affairs and Director of the Notre Dame International Security Center‘This book brings together some of our finest political thinkers to consider what has happened to the dream of liberal democracy. Has the West permanently lost its way? Is the security state a necessary, perhaps temporary step toward the salvation of democracy in the face of terrorism and the challenges of rising autocratic powers? Or does the security state represent the surrender of values that were presumed to be the core of liberalism in the West? These questions are illuminatingly addressed in this valuable collection.’ Larry Wright, author of The Looming Tower and The Terror Years‘This collection of outstanding essays makes clear that America’s war on terrorism is undermining its liberal democratic traditions and institutions. Anyone who doubts the Founding Fathers’ warnings about the dangers of fighting endless wars should read this important book.’ John J. Mearsheimer, R. Wendell Harrison Distinguished Service Professor of Political Science, University of Chicago

Karen J. Greenberg is the Director of the Center on National Security at Fordham University School of Law. She received her B.A. from Cornell University, New York and her PhD from Yale University, Connecticut. Her books include The Least Worst Place: Guantanamo’s First 100 Days (2009) and Rogue Justice: The Making of the Security State (2016). Greenberg edited The Torture Debate in America (2006), co-edited The Torture Papers: The Road to Abu Ghraib (2005) and is Editor-in-Chief of The Soufan Group Morning Brief. She is an International Studies Fellow at New America.