The Politics of Protest and US Foreign Policy: Performative Construction of the War on Terror

This book offers a study of post-9/11 antiwar organisations in the United States and their role in domestic foreign policy debates. Drawing on participant observation and interviews with the leaders of prominent antiwar organisations, the study offers insight into the role of marginal political actors in the domestic battle for foreign policy support. Rooted firmly in an investigation of the impact of such organisations on international politics, the book employs performance theory to understand the dramatic tactics employed by activists and the ways that they operate on mass public audiences. The author has conducted fieldwork activist groups, including participation in major political demonstrations in the United Statesm and conducted interviews with pro-war counterprotestors and members of the general public, to gain insight into the experiences of onlookers at antiwar demonstrations. As a result, the book includes an analysis of several events and phenomena not previously considered by politics and IR scholars. With rich illustrative detail it conveys the vibrancy and passion of post 9/11 protest in locations ranging from the gates of the White House to rural town squares. Addressing tactics of narrative tragedy and comic subversion, the work considers the experiences of military families torn apart by the trauma of war, alongside tales of women who wear pink lingerie to Congressional hearings and soldiers who stage mock search-and-seizure operations amid commuter crowds. It is the first book study to consider the political and cultural impact of events such as the Winter Soldier hearings of 2008, in which US Armed Services Veterans testified to atrocities committed by US forces in Iraq and Afghanistan. It also presents a detailed examination of the narratives of AWOL soldiers, pro-war counterprotestors, and mainstream politicians in the lead-up to the 2012 Election. 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.