A Universal Enemy?: “Foreign Fighters” and Legal Regimes of Exclusion and Exemption Under the “Global War on Terror”
A UNIVERSAL ENEMY?: “FOREIGN FIGHTERS” AND LEGAL REGIMES OF EXCLUSION AND EXEMPTION UNDER THE “GLOBAL WAR ON TERROR” Darryl Li* ABSTRACT This Article argues that the ongoing U.S.-driven “Global War on Terror” stands apart from similar state campaigns in its special focus on confronting “foreign fighters”—armed, transnational, non- state Islamists operating outside their home countries—in places where the United States is no less foreign. This global hunt for foreign fighters animates diverse attempts to exclude similarly “out-of-place” Muslim migrants and travelers from legal protection by reshaping laws and policies on interrogation, detention, immigration, and citizenship. Yet at the same time, certain other outsiders—namely the United States and its allies—enjoy various forms of exemption from local legal accountability. By juxtaposing the problems of extraordinary rendition and military contractor impunity in post-war Bosnia-Herzegovina and post-invasion Iraq, this Article illustrates * Ph.D., Anthropology & Middle Eastern Studies, Harvard University, expected 2011; J.D., Yale Law School, 2009; M.Phil., Cambridge University, 2003; B.A., Harvard University, 2001. This paper benefited enormously from the thoughtful feedback of Aslı Bâli, George Bisharat, John J. Connolly, Owen Fiss, Maryam Monalisa Gharavi, Mana Kia, Odette Lienau, Marek Marczyński, Rajiv Nunna, Aziz Rana, Sayres Rudy, Garth Schofield, Sarah Waheed, and Joy Wang. Thanks also to the organizers of the “States of Captivity” conference co-sponsored by Duke and the University of North Carolina, where an early draft of this paper was presented. This research was supported by the Centers for European and Middle Eastern Studies, respectively, at Harvard University and a Paul & Daisy Soros Fellowship.
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