Civil Society Under Strain: Counter-Terrorism Policy, Civil Society and Aid Post-9/11 - Softcover

Howell, Jude

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1565492978 ISBN 13: 9781565492974

Publisher: Lynne Rienner Publishers, 2009

Synopsis

This is the first book to comprehensively examine the War on Terror's impact on civil society. Its contributors include well-known scholars in IR, political science and security studies. Following George W. Bush's declaration of a global War on Terror in the wake of the September 11 attacks, political leaders across the world introduced a swath of counter-terrorist legislation and measures. Often hastily rushed in, not least to satisfy perceived public demand for a strong state response, such extraordinary laws and measures are riddled with ambiguity and trespass unashamedly on basic democratic rights. In many countries the introduction of such counter-terrorist measures has fuelled a climate of fear and suspicion, damaging the efforts of civil society actors. This edited volume investigates the convergence of aid and security objectives in the wake of the September 11 attacks. It explores the effects of this convergence on civil society spaces, actors and organizations and analyzes the impact of counter-terrorist legislation, measures, discourses and practices on civil societies in a range of political contexts. It proposes that the War on Terror has accelerated the processes of a securitization of aid that were already underway in the 1990s. The bulk of the literature on civil society and development relates to the Golden Era of the 1990s. ""Civil Society Under Strain"" brings the discussion into this newly altered landscape.

About this title

Review:

"This book offers careful, scrupulous analyses of a subject which might have inspired shrill, emotional responses: damaging intrusions by governments on civil society in several countries since 9/11. Those actions force the authors to rethink much of the literature on civil society that emerged in happier times. They have done so admirably."

About the Author:

Jude Howell is Professor and Director of the Centre for Civil Society at the London School of Economics and Political Science. Jeremy Lind is a Research Officer at the London School of Economics.

About this edition

• Publisher: Lynne Rienner Publishers
• Publication date: 2009
• ISBN 10: 1565492978
• ISBN 13: 9781565492974
• Binding: Paperback
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 256