“WAR on TERROR,” and the RISE of ISIS by EDWIN DANIEL JACOB a Disser
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MEDITATIONS ON THE ABYSS: AMERICAN SECURITY, THE GLOBAL “WAR ON TERROR,” AND THE RISE OF ISIS by EDWIN DANIEL JACOB A dissertation submitted to the Graduate School-Newark Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy Graduate Program in Global Affairs Written under the direction of Stephen Eric Bronner And approved by __________________________________________ __________________________________________ __________________________________________ __________________________________________ Newark, New Jersey October 2018 © 2018 Edwin Daniel Jacob ALL RIGHTS RESERVED ABSTRACT OF THE DISSERTATION Meditations on the Abyss: American Security, the Global “War on Terror,” and the Rise of ISIS by Edwin Daniel Jacob Dissertation Director Stephen Eric Bronner American foreign policy has lacked a coherent strategic framework since the Cold War ended. This lack of vision is confirmed by the regional chaos that continues to plague the Middle East fifteen years after a bid to assert American hegemony in the Middle East failed in Iraq. This study contests reductionist interpretations of global insecurity in favor of what can best be understood as an ideological framework for understanding modern insecurity. It thus provides an immanent critique of American security thinking while offering suggestions for a soluble link between the theory and practice of modern security in an age mired by geostrategic challenges to state and regional powers and fractured international institutions and alliances. A critical historical and political approach is taken to determine the preconditions for today’s security failures. Unencumbered by cold war constraints from the Soviet Union, the US took on numerous unilateral and multilateral interventions ii throughout the world in the nineties and, in so doing, not only created new enemies but also set the preconditions for how America would respond when transnational terrorism touched her shores on 9/11. Operating under what I term “reified realism,” whereby power is exercised in the breach, American security practices have tended to be counterproductive: producing further insecurity through the original act of securitization— or what I deem an “in/security matrix.” This dynamic relationship becomes apparent from the standpoint of the “war on terror” presidents’ practices. Be it the unilateral preemption of Bush’s neo-conservatives or the multilateral engagement of Obama’s neo-liberals, these foreign policy models are ultimately distinguished by the means they employ to arrive at shared ends. In each instance, however, a similar phenomenon drives American security practices in this epoch of terror. “Post strategic warfare,” as I determine it, whereby ethically spurious isolated tactics replace and masquerade as strategy to fight a transnational enemy, has intensified attempts to quell security failures. Short-term exigency, which is often readily associated with security, is challenged not only in terms of ethics but also in terms of strategic utility and long-term stability—the cornerstone of the realist enterprise since its inception. Recovering realism from its usurpation will, as I argue, go a long way in reorienting American security practices today while also anticipating future ones as well. iii ACKNOWLEDGMENTS There are many people to whom I owe I great debt of gratitude for seeing me though this labor of love from the initial germs of an idea to the finished product. Chief among them is my mentor and doctoral advisor, Board of Governors Professor of Science Stephen Eric Bronner. His selfless guidance of my work through the years is invaluable. I would not be the scholar, the teacher, or the person I am today without him. My sterling dissertation committee—Drs. John Ehrenberg, Yale Ferguson, and Alison Howell—provided me with sage guidance and thoughtful insights on my interpretations of international relations in general and security in particular along the way. The administrative staff of the Division of Global Affairs were always there to help. Dr. Jean-Marc Coicaud, the Director of the DGA during the majority of my tenure is as much a gentleman as he is a renowned scholar, and I am delighted to call him a friend and colleague. Dr. Gabriela Kuetting, our incoming Director, proved instrumental in assisting with logistics. And, of course, there is Ms. Ann Martin and Ms. Desirée Gordon: Their hard work and (always!) good cheer made my time at the DGA a pleasurable one. I would be remiss if I failed to mention my other institutional families within Rutgers University. Dr. Alexander Hinton and Ms. Nela Navarro at the Center for the Study of Genocide and Human Rights are colleagues par excellence with whom I look forward to working in the future. I would also like to thank the Department of Political Science at Rutgers University. Dr. William Field, its capable undergraduate chair, gave me my first (and second and third) shot at teaching to which I am thankful for. Ms. Paulette Flowers-Yhap, Mr. Daniel Portalatin, Ms. Alicia Picone-Rodriguez, and Ms. Wendy Silverman also have my thanks for helping me navigate the bureaucratic idiosyncrasies with relative ease—no easy feat. I am fortunate to have a remarkable group iv of colleagues and former students, all of whom I count as dear friends, who afforded me honest critiques on chapter drafts that called my own assumptions into question and, as a consequence, made the finished product a better one for it. Sasha Condas, Daniel Levin, Michael Richards, Adrianna Slomicz, and, especially, Kelsey Lizotte, my long-lost twin and consummate partner in academic crime, all have my appreciation. Any mistakes, herein, are obviously solely mine and mine alone. My best friend, Jason Geraheart, as always, has my thanks for keeping me sane through the countless motorcycle rides we took to relieve my nerves. All of this, of course, would not be possible without my remarkable family. My mother, Beverly Jacob, sacrificed far more raising me as a single working-class mother than I could pay back in a thousand lifetimes. She also gave me the inspiration to enter college at the age of twenty-six when I proudly saw her complete her graduate work in library science in 2008. I owe my dear aunt, Gail “Shotsie/Sha” Pollack, much for being my Engels and editor extraordinaire since I started this journey. Lastly, I would like to thank my other family: the Krosnicks. Their son, Craig, was my best friend since we were toddlers until he left us far too soon in 2003. Thank you, Tom and Marie Krosnick, for raising him. His spirit is at my side every day and I always endeavor to live up to his example. v DEDICATION For my mother, for everything. vi TABLE OF CONTENTS Chapter I: Empire of Dreams: America’s Imperial Illusions...............................................1 Chapter II: Past Prologue: Understanding Security in an Age of Terror...........................17 I. The Vagaries of Power: Cold War Theory, War on Terror Practice..............................20 II. Interpreting Sovereignty: Evolution of an Idea.............................................................38 III. Situating Security: Considerations of a Concept.........................................................51 Chapter III: A Tragedy of Errors: Neo-conservatism, 9/11, and Iraq................................64 I. Cold Warriors without a War: Neo-conservatism in the Interregnum...........................66 II. Selling Security: Developing a (Counter) Terror Culture.............................................85 III. New Spheres, Old Problems: American Foreign Policy in the Persian Gulf...............96 Chapter IV: Not Fade Away: Revolving Actors and Evolving Tactics Under Obama...112 I. The Neo-liberal Imperative: On the Moral Cognition of Modern Warfare..................115 II. Fight by Flight: Judging the Drone.............................................................................124 III. A Tale of Two (Failed) States: Libya, Syria, and the Ethics of Intervention............142 Chapter V: Confronting the Abyss: Towards a Twenty-First-Century Security Practice.............................................................................................................................155 I. After the Fall: 1991 to 9/11..........................................................................................156 II. Models and Missteps: Perspectives on Counter-terrorism..........................................166 III. There Are Always Possibilities..................................................................................173 REFERENCES................................................................................................................178 vii 1 I EMPIRE OF DREAMS: America’s Imperial Illusions “Whoever fights monsters should see to it that in the process he does not become a monster. And when you look long into an abyss, the abyss also looks into you.”1 —Friedrich Nietzsche Global security stands on a precipice. War continues to engulf the Middle East and North Africa, even after ISIS’ strongholds in the failed and failing states of Iraq, Libya, and Syria from 2014 to 2017 have been decimated. ISIS’ loss of Mosul2 and Raqqa,3 its veritable home-bases of operations in Iraq and Syria, in July and October of 2017 signaled the looming defeat of ISIS, which came to fruition when its remaining holdouts in Syria, Deir ez-Zor, and Iraq, Rawa, fell in November 2017. Despite its recent defeats in Iraq and Syria, ISIS’ impact on