Preempting Dissent: The Politics of an Inevitable Future (Semaphore)

The Bush administration’s “War on Terror” ushered in a new logic of surveillance, suppressing public dissent and mobilizing both “faith” and “fear.” Elmer and Opel reveal the underlying logic of preemption whereby threats must be eliminated before they materialize, drawing on social theories and media analyses to assess the wider impact of this new era of security and political order. They track three emerging strategies: zoning or incarceration of protesters, expansion of human surveillance techniques by police and law enforcement agencies, and deployment of “stealth” forms of crowd control. Addressing the logic of preemption, Elmer and Opel lay the groundwork for more effective resistance.