Anthropology of Security and Security in Anthropology: Cases of Counterterrorism in the United States

In our study of U.S. counterterrorism programs, we found that anthropology needs a mode of analysis that considers security as a form distinct from insecurity, in order to capture the very heterogeneity of security objects, logics and forms of action. This article first presents a genealogy for the anthropology of security, and identifies four main approaches: violence and State terror; military, militarization, and militarism; para-state securitization; and what we submit as “security analytics.” Security analytics moves away from studying security formations, and how much violence or insecurity they yield, to identifying security forms of action, whether or not they are part of the nation-state. As a framework for anthropological inquiry, it is oriented toward capturing how these forms of action work and what types of security they produce. We then illustrate this approach through our fieldwork on counterterrorism in the domains of law enforcement, biomedical research and federal-state counter extremism. In each of our cases, we use security analytics to arrive at a diagnosis of the form of action. The set of conceptual distinctions that we propose as an aid to approaching empirical situations and the study of security is, on another level, a proposal for an approach to anthropology today. We do not expect that the distinctions that aid us will suffice for every situation. Rather, we submit that this work presents a set of specific insights about contemporary U.S. security, and an example of a new approach to anthropological problems

Scenarios, Temporality, And Uncertainty

This chapter explores the correlation between scenarios and temporality. Thinking, imagining, and practicing the future through scenarios manifest in different ways in the context of security, health, and energy, depending on the particular temporality and the conceptualization of future uncertainty in each field. Moreover, the specific temporality of each site is employed in the scenario narratives and exercises and affected the development of different forms of scenario technologies, each with its specific orientation toward uncertainty. The chapter explains how uncertainty is designed through the dynamic of each combination of scenario technique and temporality, which also correlates to scenario planning. It then tackles the temporal orientation of scenarios addressed by the World Health Organization, World Energy Council, and Turning Point.</p

Subjectivation

This chapter covers scenario thinking and practicing generating a distinct mode of subjectivation. It explains that World Energy Council's scenario planners create global energy scenarios representing alternative plausible futures for the energy sector through a triennial cyclical process. The scenarios of the World Energy Council's strategic planning department shaped the new modalities of knowledge making and practicing concerning the global energy sector. Moreover, the three modes of veridiction, jurisdiction, and subjectivation seen in scenario planning are mutually constituted and together express a form of governance based on the rationality of uncertainty. The chapter notes how the technology of governing correlates to uncertainty as an ontological situation and modality of practicing and experiencing the world.</p

Exercising

This chapter discusses how scenario narratives are put into practice by analyzing their social enactment and effect in the annual exercises organized by the National Emergency Management Authority. It explains scenarios involving a different approach to the unknown future along with a mode of action that in itself generates uncertainty. Additionally, uncertainty becomes simultaneously expressed in the scenario's form of action or power while being generated through the actual practice of scenarios. The chapter also references Turning Point exercises, wherein the fictional world blurs imagination and reality in the experience of the participant as they need to think and act as if it was a real emergency. The actualization of the exercise would be translated into practice through incidents that have concrete repercussions.</p

Simulations

This chapter elaborates on scenarios and simulations as distinct forms of governing based on different perceptions of uncertainty and the ability to control the unexpected. It references the joint assessment and detection of events (JADE) exercises carried out by the World Health Organization. Scenarios are designed to address the emerging and unexpected. On the other hand, simulation primarily aims to improve the use of predetermined practices and responses, while simulation-based exercises are designed to enable participants to practice responses from within a closed set of possibilities that have been defined and provided to participants in advance. The chapter clarifies the differences between scenarios and simulations in terms of the degree of openness involved in the two different types of exercise and the role of the uncertain and the unexpected in their practice.</p