Freedom of Security

Colleen Bell is a lecturer in international politics in the Department of Politics at Birkbeck, University of London.

• Introduction: Relations of Freedom, Relations of Security1 Opting In: Precautionary Engagement as National Security Strategy2 The Socio-Legal Paradox of Freedom: Security Certificates and the Politics of Exception3 Interventionary Designs: The Liberal Way of War in Afghanistan4 Sovereignty and Refusal: The Violent Limits of Liberal RightsConclusion: Freedom beyond SecurityNotesReferencesIndex

[Bell] pursues her thinking uncompromisingly and shares her research with an eloquence rare in academic treatises ... she invites us to think anew about an important aspect of contemporary political life. Security practices are now so imbedded in our ideas of freedom that we are unable to disengage from them. We are no longer able to fully appreciate how security intrudes in our lives as we travel, play, work or participate in the political process ... by forcing us to confront these unattractive facts and to recognize just how insidious security has become, Bell does her readers a considerable service. - Nathalie Des Rosiers (Literary Review of Canada)