Imperial Warfare in the Naked City-Sociality as Critical Infrastructure

Abstract

The Global War on Terror (GWOT), framed as conflict with groups and individuals determined to disrupt and destroy “critical infrastructures,” is heavily dependent on technological and psychological discourses and practices to find terrorists and their plots.[1][1] These methods seek to protect the material “backbone” of contemporary society and to detect those individuals whose capabilities might progress to action. Yet, the social nature of all action suggests that “critical infrastructure is people,” and that surveillance cannot, by itself, determine who might act and who will not. The ultimate purpose and effect of the GWOT is better understood as involving the transformation of individual mentalities, so that “heretical” thoughts and practices become impossible. [1]: #fn-1