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The Wars for the Twenty-First Century
Knopf
April 2008
On Sale: April 1, 2008
688 pages ISBN: 1400042437 EAN: 9781400042432 Hardcover
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Non-Fiction
An urgent reconceptualization of the Wars on Terror from the
author of The Shield of Achilles (“magisterial”— The New
York Times, “a classic for future generations”—The New York
Review of Books). In this book Philip Bobbitt brings
together historical, legal, and strategic analyses to
understand the idea of a “war on terror.” Does it make
sense? What are its historical antecedents? How would such a
war be “won”? What are the appropriate doctrines of
constitutional and international law for democracies in such
a struggle? He provocatively declares that the United States is the
chief cause of global networked terrorism because of
overwhelming American strategic dominance. This is not a
matter for blame, he insists, but grounds for reflection on
basic issues. We have defined the problem of winning the
fight against terror in a way that makes the situation
virtually impossible to resolve. We need to change our ideas
about terrorism, war, and even victory itself. Bobbitt argues that the United States has ignored the role
of law in devising its strategy, with fateful consequences,
and has failed to reform law in light of the changed
strategic context. Along the way he introduces new ideas and
concepts—Parmenides’ Fallacy, the Connectivity Paradox, the
market state, and the function of terror as a by-product of
globalization—to help us prepare for what may be a
decades-long conflict of which the battle against al Qaeda
is only the first instance. At stake is whether we can maintain states of consent in the
twenty-first century or whether the dominant constitutional
order will be that of states of terror. Challenging,
provocative, and insightful, Terror and Consent addresses
the deepest themes of governance, liberty, and violence. It
will change the way we think about confronting terror—and it
will change the way we evaluate public policies in that
struggle.
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