Chasing Phantoms
Reality, Imagination, and Homeland Security Since 9/11
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- $19.99
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- $19.99
Publisher Description
Although a report by the congressionally mandated Commission on the Prevention of Weapons of Mass Destruction, Proliferation, and Terrorism concluded that biological or nuclear weapons were very likely to be unleashed in the years soon after 2001, what Americans actually have experienced are relatively low-tech threats. Yet even under a new administration, extraordinary domestic and international policies enacted by the U.S. government in the wake of 9/11 remain unchanged. Political scientist and former FBI consultant Michael Barkun argues that a nonrational, emotion-driven obsession with dangers that cannot be seen has played and continues to play an underrecognized role in sustaining the climate of fear that drives the U.S. "war on terror."
Barkun identifies a gap between the realities of terrorism--"violence without a return address--and the everyday discourse about it among government officials and the general public. Demonstrating that U.S. homeland security policy reflects significant nonrational thinking, Barkun offers new recommendations for effective--and rational--policymaking.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Barkun (Religion and the Racist Right), professor emeritus of political science at Syracuse University, explores "the gap between the reality of terrorism and the imagined threat of terrorism" in this timely if academic study. Linking this gap between reality and paranoia to the Bush administration's "overreaction" to terrorist threats especially the unprecedented expansion of government power and the development of a "cumbersome homeland security bureaucracy" the author focuses on "the issue of unseen dangers." Jargon modalities of invisibility, "differential focusing," "convergent disinterest" and analytical overindulgence will likely put off general readers, but Barkun convincingly lays out powerful arguments including that "destruction fantasies" pervasive in popular culture contribute to creating an inner "landscape of fear." Without being too specific in his prescriptions, Barkun suggests that understanding the gulf between reality and imagination will restore a "proportional conception of terrorism and homeland security." Scholars, students, and policy makers will find much to ponder in this rigorous examination of homeland security and its demons.
