Can our civil liberties or human rights survive the War on Terror

Write a thoughtful, well-crafted paper that draws on relevant course materials to make an argument in relation to the prompt below. Your paper should be 3-5 pages, in 12 point font, double-spaced, with standard margins.

Overview

Write a thoughtful, well-crafted paper that draws on relevant course materials to make an
argument in relation to the prompt below. Your paper should be 3-5 pages, in 12 point font,
double-spaced, with standard margins.

Include in-text citations for all direct quotes, paraphrased passages, and references to
concepts, ideas, or arguments from the readings. At a minimum, provide the author’s name
and the page number(s) in parentheses, e.g.: (Tilly 155).

Can our civil liberties and/or human rights survive the War on Terror?

It’s a deliberately stark question. You might reject its premises altogether, and that’s fine.
But I’d like you to use this question as an entry point to think through (again) some of the
recurring questions of the course (now that we’ve reached the end):

o How should we define terrorism?

o To what extent is “terrorism” a useful concept for making sense of various events or
phenomena in the world? What does the term enable us to see or to do (or not)
compared to other labels or concepts we might use?

o Is it possible to apply the label “terrorism” objectively, or is it inherently subjective?
Why might that matter?

o How might we draw the line between “terrorism” and other forms of political activity
or behavior?

o And more to the point: can we adequately distinguish between protected First
Amendment activity, political engagement, civil disobedience, and direct action, etc,
on the one hand, and terrorism on the other?

In thinking through these questions, you should consider the cases of the SHAC 7 and
Daniel McGowan and the ELF. You might also consider the case of Tarek Mehanna.
Consider the actual or alleged behavior at issue, how and why their actions were considered
terrorism by the federal government, and what implications this might have for other
groups and for other forms of political engagement. If the government could secure
convictions in these cases on terrorism-related charges (bearing in mind what exactly they
did and didn’t do), what might this mean for civil liberties and political expression more
generally?
Include in-text citations for all direct quotes, paraphrased passages, and references to concepts, ideas, or arguments from the readings. At a minimum, provide the author’s name and the page number(s) in parentheses, e.g.: (Tilly 155).

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