The Risk of Terror: Profiling as a Preemptive Logic of Counterterrorism.

This paper argues that US counterterrorism efforts are fundamentally premised upon Logics of Preemption - tactical logics orienting counterterrorism practices that seek to preemptively identify potential terrorists before they have undertaken any act of terror. I focus here on the particular preemptive logic of profiling which operates according to a principle of generating both individual and population profiles that are ascribed particular levels of risk in terms of their propensity for terrorism. This paper seeks to illuminate this logic by examining the concrete techniques and tactics through which it manifests, particularly within the range of screening practices undertaken by the state at airports and borders, and within immigration and visa issuance procedures. These screening practices have relied upon two major strategies: developing technologies of identification/individuation- an intensification of efforts to effectively identify individuals who are then ascribed risk profiles, and undertaking tactics of aggregation - the aggregation of high risk populations through watch lists. Insofar as counterterrorism is faced with the enormous task of preempting terror attacks, it must necessarily constitute populations of potential "terrorists" - high risk populations who must be governed so as to preempt the threat of terror they pose. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]