Homeland Insecurities

'Homeland Insecurities' engages with the impact of counterinsurgency, migration, and conflicts arising out of demands for autonomy in Assam, Northeast India. It asks three sets of related questions: (a) what are the origins of demands for ethnic homelands? (b) why does migration continue to be such an overarching oeuvre in political discourse in Assam and how does one engage with new forms of mobility? (c) how does a society recover from counterinsurgency and what are the new forms of militarisation that are emerging in the present? Working on the main argument that demands for autonomy and social justice have been central themes that have been historically articulated in Assam, it shows the tensions that arise in explanations about causes of conflict in the state. These tensions, I argue, are best understood through a critical engagement with everyday politics of organisations and individuals working on the ground. Although there is a general tendency to read conflict in Assam through the lenses of ethnicity and development, nevertheless there is evidence to show that affect offers an additional analytical tool because of its ability to offer a layered, sometimes paradoxical account of events and situations that cause conflicts in the region.

In the aftermath of 9/11, many Arab and Muslim Americans came under intense scrutiny by federal and local authorities, as well as their own neighbors, on the chance that they might know, support, or actually be terrorists. As Louise Cainkar observes, even U.S.-born Arabs and Muslims were portrayed as outsiders, an image that was amplified in the months after the attacks. She argues that 9/11 did not create anti-Arab and anti-Muslim suspicion; rather, their socially constructed images and social and political exclusion long before these attacks created an environment in which misunderstanding and hostility could thrive and the government could defend its use of profiling. Combining analysis and ethnography, Homeland Insecurity provides an intimate view of what it means to be an Arab or a Muslim in a country set on edge by the worst terrorist attack in its history. Focusing on the metropolitan Chicago area, Cainkar conducted more than a hundred research interviews and five in-depth oral histories. In this, the most comprehensive ethnographic study of the post-9/11 period for American Arabs and Muslims, native-born and immigrant Palestinians, Egyptians, Lebanese, Iraqis, Yemenis, Sudanese, Jordanians, and others speak candidly about their lives as well as their experiences with government, public mistrust, discrimination, and harassment after 9/11. The book reveals that Arab Muslims were more likely to be attacked in certain spatial contexts than others and that Muslim women wearing the hijab were more vulnerable to assault than men, as their head scarves were interpreted by some as a rejection of American culture. Even as the 9/11 Commission never found any evidence that members of Arab- or Muslim-American communities were involved in the attacks, respondents discuss their feelings of insecurity—a heightened sense of physical vulnerability and exclusion from the guarantees of citizenship afforded other Americans. Yet the vast majority of those interviewed for Homeland Insecurity report feeling optimistic about the future of Arab and Muslim life in the United States. Most of the respondents talked about their increased interest in the teachings of Islam, whether to counter anti-Muslim slurs or to better educate themselves. Governmental and popular hostility proved to be a springboard for heightened social and civic engagement. Immigrant organizations, religious leaders, civil rights advocates, community organizers, and others defended Arabs and Muslims and built networks with their organizations. Local roundtables between Arab and Muslim leaders, law enforcement, and homeland security agencies developed better understanding of Arab and Muslim communities. These post-9/11 changes have given way to stronger ties and greater inclusion in American social and political life. Will the United States extend its values of freedom and inclusion beyond the politics of "us" and "them" stirred up after 9/11? The answer is still not clear. Homeland Insecurity is keenly observed and adds Arab and Muslim American voices to this still-unfolding period in American history.

In US security culture, motherhood is a site of intense contestation--both a powerful form of cultural currency and a target of unprecedented assault. Linked by an atmosphere of crisis and perceived vulnerability, motherhood and nation have become intimately entwined, dangerously positioning national security as reliant on the control of women's bodies. Drawing on feminist scholarship and critical studies of security culture, Natalie Fixmer-Oraiz explores homeland maternity by calling our attention to the ways that authorities see both non-reproductive and "overly" reproductive women's bodies as threats to social norms--and thus to security. Homeland maternity culture intensifies motherhood's requirements and works to discipline those who refuse to adhere. Analyzing the opt-out revolution, public debates over emergency contraception, and other controversies, Fixmer-Oraiz compellingly demonstrates how policing maternal bodies serves the political function of securing the nation in a time of supposed danger--with profound and troubling implications for women's lives and agency.

Table of contents

The terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001 marked the first time since Pancho Villa's raid on Columbus, New Mexico that an enemy has attacked an American city. Was this just a fluke or a sign of things to come? Just how safe are the Borders of the United States? For the first time an author with a background in urban wrfare and counter terrorism shows the true state of border security. Are we secure or s target waiting for a marksman? Find out the truth in No Safe Haven: Homeland Insecurity.

Hot off the reprint presses! Onion fans hear this! Homeland Insecurity is the largest collection of award-winning journalism from America's Finest News Source ever released, and that means you must buy it! Featuring every brilliantly biting article printed in The Onion between November 2004 and December 2005, a time in our country's history ripe for further examination by America's Finest News Source, Homeland Insecurity collects all the news reporting you were too lazy to read when it first appeared, now delivered in a handy single volume that will fit perfectly on the bookshelf of your dorm, ward, or cell. Homeland Insecurity is Volume 17 in the always bestselling and always entertaining Onion series. The Onion is the world's most popular humor publication, with more than 3.8 million weekly visitors to its website (theonion.com) and a print circulation of more than 500,000. More than a million copies of its various books have been sold to date, beginning with Our Dumb Century, which was a #1 New York Times bestseller and winner of the Thurber Prize for American Humor.

Since the attacks of 9/11, billions of dollars and countless resources have been committed and expended in the attempt to make the nation more secure. Introduction to Homeland Security: Second Edition is written by a team of homeland security and justice professionals on the cutting edge of the field. The text is a comprehensive examination of curr

Since the attacks of 9/11, billions of dollars and countless resources have been committed and expended in the attempt to make the nation more secure. Introduction to Homeland Security: Second Edition is written by a team of homeland security and justice professionals on the cutting edge of the field. The text is a comprehensive examination of current and future challenges and explores how the United States has chosen to confront these threats with both its military and civilian agencies. Topics include: A history of homeland security in the United States The mission of the various agencies in the Department of Homeland Security and Department of Defense The foundations of emergency management: mitigation/prevention, preparedness, response, and recovery Inter-agency planning and cooperation and private partnership A survey of the most significant natural disasters and accidents, explored through case studies International and domestic terrorism and threat groups The impact of transportation and border security issues and the violence occurring in the Southwest Globalization and the role of intelligence in homeland security Future challenges in the field of homeland security Each chapter begins with objectives and ends with a summary, key terms, and discussion questions. Ample references encourage further study and research. The book is a premier text for criminal justice, homeland security, national security, and intelligence programs in universities and an ideal reference for professionals as well as policy and research institutes.