Cultures of Counterterrorism: The Anti-Knowledge of Terrorism in Spaces of Intelligence Fusion

• In Event: 476 - Section on Sociology of Culture Paper Session. Culture and (In)security in the 21st Century

Abstract

The War on Terror and the increased emphasis put on counterterrorism has led to a dramatic reorganization of the federal government. As part of this change, state and local law enforcement have began to aggregate of disparate data sources and analyze of massive datasets, what is called “intelligence fusion.” Terrorism, however, is an unstable and politicized category, what Stampnitzky calls “anti-knoweldge.” What happens when anti-knowledge becomes the basis of policy? This paper travels into the secretive world of intelligence fusion to find out. It finds that the practice of intelligence fusion in was animated by classification struggles over the nature of intelligence, which the anti-knowledge of terrorism intensifies and exacerbates. Practically, this results in the over production intelligence about exceedingly remote threat of international terrorism and the abandonment under political pressure of the more likely danger of domestic terrorism from the extreme right wing. Substantively, the anti-knowledge of terrorism advances, facilitates, and depoliticizes a wider shift: the rise of pre-emptive modes of policing termed “intelligence-led policing.” In this way, anti-knowledge of terrorism is related to the “anti-politics” of politics. In the shadow of counterterrorism and failure of intelligence analyst to produce “rational knowledge” on likely forms of political violence, intelligence fusion empowers police agencies with increased powers of surveillance and adding momentum to a shift in law enforcement toward pre-emptive modes of policing. The targets of pre-emptive forms of policing, however, are not “terrorism” but the traditional targets of law enforcement, crime.

Author

• Brendan Innis McQuade, DePaul University