Absolutist Security

Abstract

Establishing an enemy involves utilizing rules of formation. The U.S. absolutist security agenda (ASA) does not acknowledge that the “truth of certain … propositions belongs to our frame of reference.”¹ The event of 9/11 is touted by the United States as the basis of a universal moral, ethical, and total-war response; all states must recognize, empathize, and interpret 9/11 as the United States posits. To refuse the U.S. interpretation is to be marginalized, possibly provoking the ire of the world’s hyperpower. Terror and rogue states, after 9/11, are presented as universal threats as opposed to state-specific, context-based threats. The U.S. ASA disseminates particular modalities of knowledge and truth, and examination of the rules pertaining to security and how they are made, communicated, administered, interpreted, enforced, legitimized, and disseminated sheds light on how the United States manufactures and disseminates knowledge based in absolute security.² The articulation and implementation of rules of formation have the consequence of being “directed towards the preservation of order, not [only] by directly upholding or implementing the rules, but by shaping, molding or managing the social environment in which the rules operate.”³ The ASA posited by the United States presents the United States as the “organic bond uniting hierarchized individuals” on a global level.⁴ In the case of securing the “blessings of liberty” for all states, even those states that do not solicit U.S. intervention—a positive effect of the U.S. ASA—the United States categorically asserts,

In Afghanistan, we removed a dangerous regime that harbored the terrorists who plotted the attacks of 9/11. Because we acted, the Afghan people have been liberated, and a nation that was once a training ground for terrorists has become an ally in the war on terror. We built a strong coalition of nations, including every member of the NATO Alliance, to help the Afghan people defend their young democracy. We will ensure Afghanistan never again becomes a safe haven for terrorists seeking to launch attacks on America or our allies. In Iraq, an international coalition removed a brutal dictator who murdered his own people, paid the families of suicide bombers, invaded his neighbors, and repeatedly defied UN resolutions. In 2006, the situation in Iraq was deteriorating, so the President ordered a surge of forces into Iraq. Since the surge began violence in Iraq has dropped, civilian deaths and sectarian killings are down, and political and economic progress is taking place. Iraq is a rising democracy.⁵