A Woman's Place: US Counterterrorism Since 9/11

by Joana Cook

Overview

The 9/11 attacks fundamentally transformed how the US approached terrorism, and led to the unprecedented expansion of counterterrorism strategies, policies, and practices. While the analysis of these developments is rich and vast, there remains a significant void. The diverse actors contributing to counterterrorism increasingly consider, engage and impact women as agents, partners, and targets of their work. Yet, flawed assumptions and stereotypes remain prevalent, and it remains undocumented and unclear how and why counterterrorism efforts have evolved as they did, including in relation to women.

Drawing on extensive primary source documents, A Woman's Place traces the evolution of women in US counterterrorism efforts through the administrations of Presidents Bush, Obama, and Trump, examining key agencies like the US Department of Defense, the Department of State, and USAID. In their own words, Joana Cook investigates how and why women have developed the roles they have, and interrogates US counterterrorism practices in key countries like Iraq, Afghanistan, and Yemen. Analysing conceptions of and responses to terrorists, she also considers how the roles of women in Al- Qaeda and Daesh have evolved and impacted on US counterterrorism considerations.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780197506554
Publisher:	Oxford University Press
Publication date:	02/01/2020
Pages:	592
Product dimensions:	5.70(w) x 8.60(h) x 2.10(d)

About the Author

Joana Cook is Assistant Professor of Terrorism and Political Violence at Leiden University and Editor-in-Chief of the ICCT Journal of the International Center for Counterterrorism—the Hague.

Table of Contents

List of abbreviations
Acknowledgements
Introduction: Women as agents, partners and targets of counterterrorism
1. Analyzing women in counterterrorism
2. Counterterrorism from Bush to Obama
3. The Department of Defense
4. The Department of State
5. The United States Agency for International Development
6. Enter Trump: Counterterrorism going forward
Appendix: Examples highlighted throughout the book
Notes
Bibliography
Index

Editorial Reviews

"The book makes contributions to US counterterrorism (especially that national security cannot be rendered strictly as military operations), to UNSCR 1325 (such as the need to mainstream its aims into all aspects of government, not simply national policy documents and to effectively coordinate among all parts of state bureaucracy), and feminist and gender scholarship...The broadest takeaway is that women matter in counterterrorism and related areas, but women are too diverse to talk about in generalities." — Crystal Whetstone, H-War

"An authoritative assessment of the trajectory of the American-led war on terrorism from a thoroughly compelling and highly original perspective. Cook has an impressive command of the subject and her exegesis of its issues and challenges is clear and engaging."— Bruce Hoffman, Professor of Security Studies, Georgetown University, and author of Inside Terrorism

"Cook provides a sweeping and yet detailed account of how the U.S. government has—and hasn't—incorporated women in understanding terrorism and its response. Covering counterterrorism from the Bush administration onward, A Woman's Place is a must-read on gender and security in the post-9/11 landscape."— Jayne Huckerby, Clinical Professor of Law, Duke University

"A Woman's Place is a comprehensive examination of the multiple, diverse and critical roles played by women in counterterrorism. Joana Cook has produced a cornerstone text that is an extraordinary testament of the value of academic-practitioner engagement. Simply groundbreaking."— John Horgan, Professor of Psychology, Georgia State University

"This book provides a new and important perspective of America's Wars on Terror. Comprehensive and superbly written!"— Peter R. Neumann, Professor of Security Studies, King's College London

"Cook provides a comprehensive overview of US counterterrorism policy since 9/11. [Her] analysis usefully summarizes and incorporates theories of feminist security studies . . . [and she] astutely observes how the promotion of women's rights were executed in US national security and foreign policy-making and how they were often conflated with counterterrorism success."

— The Lowy Institute's The Interpreter

"[A woman's place] offers an important perspective on the role of women in the "Global War on Terror (GWOT)" under all three post-9/11 presidential administrations. Importantly, the scope of the text includes the role of American women who work as security professionals, in intelligence agencies, and in military and diplomatic roles." — Choice, T. T. Gibson, Westminster College

"A tour de force."— CHOICE

From the Publisher