Performance Politics And The War On Terror

Using a performance studies lens, this book is a study of performance in the post-9/11 context of the so-called war on terror. It analyzes conventional theatre, political protest, performance art and other sites of performance to unpack the ways in which meaning has been made in the contemporary global sociopolitical environment.

This book offers a study of post-9/11 anti-war organizations in the United States and their role in domestic foreign policy debates. The moment of the 9/11 terrorist attacks has been much cited in political and cultural scholarship and much attention has been paid to the promotion of "War on Terror" policies. The social mechanisms behind the circumscription and regulation of national ideals attracted critical analyses from scholars across disciplines; yet the prevalence of scholarly concern with the negative political devices of the Bush Administration at times seemed to risk reproducing the hierarchies of power that underpinned the very issue of concern, and even the War on Terror itself. By contrast, this book celebrates the political acts of individuals committed to changing the dominant politics of the Bush era. Drawing on participant observation and interviews with the leaders of prominent anti-war organizations including Code Pink and Iraq Veterans Against the War, the book employs Performance Theory to evaluate the capacity of protest to effect lasting social change. In addition to highlighting an often overlooked aspect of foreign policy formation, this volume demonstrates that Performance Studies can be used as innovative approach to Politics and IR. This book will be of much interest to students of US politics and foreign policy, theatre studies, cultural studies, and critical security and international relations.

Performance in the Time of Terror is an important investigation of the ways in which performance has given shape and form to "wars of terror," past and present, and as a strategy and tactic of violence. Focusing on an array of performances that caused a stir during the "war on terror" of the first decade of the twenty-first century, Hughes also explores the use of performance by counterinsurgents during the "war on terrorism" in Northern Ireland (1969-1998). Offering original discussions of the resurgence of political theater on London stages and the proliferation of anti-war activism during the war in Iraq (2003-2008), also documented are a series of theater productions targeting communities deemed vulnerable to ideologies of violent extremism. This book will appeal to researchers and students of contemporary theater and performance, especially those interested in the politics of performance. It will interest anyone researching wars on terror and terrorism from an interdisciplinary perspective.

‘This work goes where other books fear to tread. It reaches the parts other scholars might imagine in their dreams but would neither have the international reach nor the critical acumen and forensic flourish to deliver.’ Alan Read, King's College London ‘This book is not only timely. It is overdue – and it is a masterpiece unrivalled by any book I know of.’ Erika Fischer-Lichte, Freie Universität Berlin ‘The first and only book that focuses on the intersections of performance, terror and terrorism as played out beyond a Euro-American context post-9/11. It is an important work, both substantively and methodologically.’ Jenny Hughes, University of Manchester ‘A profound and tightly bound sequence of reflections ... a rigorously provocative book.’ Stephen Barber, Kingston University London In this exceptional investigation Rustom Bharucha considers the realities of Islamophobia, the legacies of Truth and Reconciliation, the deadly certitudes of State-controlled security systems and the legitimacy of counter-terror terrorism, drawing on a vast spectrum of human cruelties across the global South. The outcome is a brilliantly argued case for seeing terror as a volatile and mutant phenomenon that is deeply lived, experienced, and performed within the cultures of everyday life.

Using a performance studies lens, this book is a study of performance in the post-9/11 context of the so-called war on terror. It analyzes conventional theatre, political protest, performance art and other sites of performance to unpack the ways in which meaning has been made in the contemporary global sociopolitical environment.

This inter-disciplinary edited volume critically examines the dynamics of the War on Terror, focusing on the theme of the politics of response. The book explores both how responses to terrorism - by politicians, authorities and the media - legitimise particular forms of sovereign politics, and how terrorism can be understood as a response to global inequalities, colonial and imperial legacies, and the dominant idioms of modern politics. The investigation is made against the backdrop of the 7 July 2005 bombings in London and their aftermath, which have gone largely unexamined in the academic literature to date. The case offers a provocative site for analysing the diverse logics implicated in the broader context of the War on Terror, for examining how terrorist events are framed, and how such framings serve to legitimise particular policies and political practices.

Seeking to extend discussions of 9/11 music beyond the acts typically associated with the September 11th attacks”U2, Toby Keith, The Dixie Chicks, Bruce Springsteen”this collection interrogates the politics of a variety of post-9/11 music scenes. Contributors add an aural dimension to what has been a visual conceptualization of this important moment in US history by articulating the role that lesser-known contemporary musicians have played”or have refused to play”in constructing a politics of protest in direct response to the trauma inflicted that day. Encouraging new conceptualizations of what constitutes 'political music,' The Politics of Post-9/11 Music covers topics as diverse as the rise of Internet music distribution, Christian punk rock, rap music in the Obama era, and nostalgia for 1960s political activism.

This book examines performance in the context of the 2003 Iraq War and subsequent conflicts with Daesh, or the so-called Islamic State. Working within a theater and performance studies lens, it analyzes adaptations of Greek tragedy, documentary theater, political performances by the Bush administration, protest performances, satiric news television programs, and post-apocalyptic narratives in popular culture. By considering performance across genre and media, War as Performance offers an interdisciplinary approach to the study of culture, warfare, and militarization, and argues that spectacular and banal aesthetics of contemporary war positions performance as a practice struggling to distance itself from appropriation by the military for violent ends. Contemporary warfare has infiltrated our narratives to such an extent that it holds performance hostage. As lines between the military and performance weaken, this book analyzes how performance responds to and potentially shapes war and conflict in the new century.