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When you enter an airport or a protected building, security manifests itself as an inconvenience, or perhaps even an intrusion, and a disproportionate one. The overworked and often bored looking staff seem to be staging "security theater." And yet we know that, out there somewhere, real threats do exist. Each year, hundreds of terror attacks destroy lives. Things go wrong, systems fail, and people die. Who turns up when things go wrong? Getting Through Security explores the secretive world of counterterrorism.
Mark Maguire has long had extraordinary access to a series of counterterrorism programs. He trained with covert behavior detection units and attended secret meetings of international special forces. He found that security professionals, for all the force at their command, are haunted by ultimately intractable problems. Intelligence is inadequate, killers unexpectedly announce themselves, combat. teams don't arrive quickly enough, and for a time an amorphous public is on its own. Such problems both occasion and challenge the institutions of contemporary order. David A. Westbrook accompanied Maguire as he carried out his research pushing for reflection on what the dangerous enterprise of securing modern life means for key concepts such as bureaucracy, violence, and the state. Maguire and Westbrook |
introduce us to the "secret colleges" of soldiers and police, where security is produced as an infinite horizon of possibility, and where tactics shape politics covertly. The authors relate moments of experimentation by police in European airports and conversations with special forces operators in Nairobi bars, a world of shifting architecture, technical responses, and the ever present threat of violence. Secrecy is poison. Government agencies compete in the dark. The uniformed public is infantilized. Getting Through Security exposes deep flaws in the foundations of bureaucratic modernity, and suggests possibilities that may yet ameliorate our situation.
INTRODUCTIONS
Indonesian filmmaker and writer Azalia Mukransaya conducted an interview with the authors for the Baldy Center on Law and Social Policy. Episode 3: Mark Maguire and David A. Westbrook Discuss Airport Security and Counterterrorism (podcast).
Maguire & Westbrook, "The Public Problem with Counterterrorism," in Sapiens.
"Behind the scenes of counterterrorism: Prof. David Westbrook's new book addresses what security means for contemporary life. " University at Buffalo press release.
Maguire & Westbrook, "The Public Problem with Counterterrorism," in Sapiens.
"Behind the scenes of counterterrorism: Prof. David Westbrook's new book addresses what security means for contemporary life. " University at Buffalo press release.
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Maguire & Westbrook, "Security by Design." This is an accepted manuscript to be published by Taylor & Francis in Anthropology Now.
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KIND WORDS
" . . . about the uncanniness of not knowing, of being out of control, in a state of fear, yet attempting to come to grips with uncertainty and risk. In the end, it is not just about security and the officials who deal with security as a profession, but about modes of navigating with only fragments of maps at hand. A gripping and extraordinary read!"
-- Christina Garsten, Principal, Swedish Collegium for Advanced Study
"Getting Through Security's systematic examination of a particular security regime (airports) and ramified exploration of a particular realm of expertise (counterterrrorism) prepares the way for a strikingly insightful examination of issues at the heart of the contemporary security state. 'Highly distinctive in style, structure, sources and originality of thought, this book reads and should be read across disciplines -- anthropology, cultural studies, law, political science, and sociology."
-- George Marcus, author of Ethnography Through Thick and Thin and coauthor of Collaborations Now.
"unique insights into the vexing issue of security in the 21st century, an issue we confront not only in airports, but also in finance and other digital spaces."
-- Jimmie Lenz, Director, Masters of Engineering in FinTech and in Cybersecurity, Duke University
"an essential guide for understanding the critical vulnerabilities in modern bureaucratic institutions."
-- John Symmons, Professor of Philosophy, University of Kansas
". . . humanizes the security officials who, through long hours of boredom punctuated by sudden minutes of terror, become practicing ethnographers to keep the skies safe. It's a fascinating read for any air traveler interested in pondering the dilemmas faced by the security bureaucracy."
-- Michael Glennon, author of National Security and Double Government, and former Legal Adviser,
Senate Foreign Relations Committee
" . . . a masterful account of the people and ideas that animate security culture. The book is a tour de force . . . a generous invitation to the reader to reflect on the modern state, the media, bureaucracy, and expertise in relation to fundamental ideas about the resilience and vulnerabilities of the contemporary social order."
-- Douglas Holmes, author of Integral Europe: Fast-Capitalism, Multiculturalism, Neofascism
-- Christina Garsten, Principal, Swedish Collegium for Advanced Study
"Getting Through Security's systematic examination of a particular security regime (airports) and ramified exploration of a particular realm of expertise (counterterrrorism) prepares the way for a strikingly insightful examination of issues at the heart of the contemporary security state. 'Highly distinctive in style, structure, sources and originality of thought, this book reads and should be read across disciplines -- anthropology, cultural studies, law, political science, and sociology."
-- George Marcus, author of Ethnography Through Thick and Thin and coauthor of Collaborations Now.
"unique insights into the vexing issue of security in the 21st century, an issue we confront not only in airports, but also in finance and other digital spaces."
-- Jimmie Lenz, Director, Masters of Engineering in FinTech and in Cybersecurity, Duke University
"an essential guide for understanding the critical vulnerabilities in modern bureaucratic institutions."
-- John Symmons, Professor of Philosophy, University of Kansas
". . . humanizes the security officials who, through long hours of boredom punctuated by sudden minutes of terror, become practicing ethnographers to keep the skies safe. It's a fascinating read for any air traveler interested in pondering the dilemmas faced by the security bureaucracy."
-- Michael Glennon, author of National Security and Double Government, and former Legal Adviser,
Senate Foreign Relations Committee
" . . . a masterful account of the people and ideas that animate security culture. The book is a tour de force . . . a generous invitation to the reader to reflect on the modern state, the media, bureaucracy, and expertise in relation to fundamental ideas about the resilience and vulnerabilities of the contemporary social order."
-- Douglas Holmes, author of Integral Europe: Fast-Capitalism, Multiculturalism, Neofascism
| More Endorsements, Introductory Texts, Author Bios |
SCHOLARLY EFFORTS
Maguire, M. and Westbrook, D. (2019) “Those People [May Yet Be] a Kind of Solution”: Late Imperial Thoughts on the Humanization of Officialdom. [Keynote Address], 11th Slovenian Social Science Conference: Observing social transformations: National and Transnational perspectives, Ljubljana, Slovenia , 29-MAY-19 - 01-JUN-19
Westbrook, David A. and Maguire, "Those People [May Yet Be] a Kind of Solution: Late Imperial Thoughts on the Humanization of Officialdom, 67 Buffalo Law Review 889 (2019).
Westbrook, David A. "Security, Bureaucracy & Populism," Presentation to the 157 IMA Detachment, Rayburn Office Building, Washington, D.C., June 19, 2019.
Westbrook, David A. and Maguire, "Those People [May Yet Be] a Kind of Solution: Late Imperial Thoughts on the Humanization of Officialdom, 67 Buffalo Law Review 889 (2019).
Westbrook, David A. "Security, Bureaucracy & Populism," Presentation to the 157 IMA Detachment, Rayburn Office Building, Washington, D.C., June 19, 2019.