
TECHNOLOGIES OF ANTI/COUNTER/TERROR
Schedule and Invited Participants
7-8 June 2002
'The closer we come to the danger... the more questioning we
become. For questioning is the piety of thought.'
-- Martin Heidegger, 'The Question Concerning Technology'
The purpose of this interdisciplinary symposium is
to question -- philosophically, strategically, ethically -- the
role of 'technology' in terror. Participants from different backgrounds
-- academic, military and media -- will investigate the impact of
technology on three forms of global terror emerging from 9/11: terror
as a networked strategy of symbolic violence, coercive intimidation
and political fear; anti-terror as a state reaction of deterrence,
disruption and destruction of terrorism; and counter-terror as a
transnational response of preventive media, disciplinary surveillance,
and criminal justice. While the emphasis is on the role of information
technologies in each form of terror, technology is broadly defined
to include technical as well as symbolic systems of producing, processing,
and distributing knowledge and power. The purpose is not to question
technology as a neutral instrument but as a constructive, destructive
and transformative force in contemporary international relations.
Friday, June 7 | Technologies of Terror
2.00 p.m. Opening remarks
Thomas Biersteker, Watson
Institute
2.15 - 4.00 p.m. Ground Zero:
Technologies of Terror, Security, and Virtuality
The events of 9/11 brought us face to face with terror
-- and much more. 9/11 profoundly challenged the 'groundedness'
of security in the over-developed territorial state with a single
act of asymmetrical violence. Its rapid elevation by information
technologies, from 'ground zero' to global crisis, suggests that
9/11 represents something new. Is 9/11 the'first war of the 21st
century', a virtual event, or the dark side of the radical contingency
of globalization? What will make us safe against the 'global terror
network'? Can technology?
Moderator: James Der Derian,
Watson Institute - [ Watch Video ]
Carol Cohn, Wellesley
Daniel Deudney, Johns Hopkins
University
John MacArthur, Harper's
Robert D. Steele, OSS.NET
4.00 p.m.
Coffee Break
4.15 - 6.00 p.m. War of Networks:
Realtime, Primetime, and the Internet
From the 'living room war' in Vietnam, to the 'CNN
effect' in the Gulf War, to the 'Internet War' in Yugoslavia, innovations
in information and communication technologies have produced profound
effects on the battlefront as well as the homefront. After 9/11,
have networks produced a more informed, more critical viewer? Have
they transformed spectators into participants? Or have networks
'force-multiplied' the terror effect? Are some media more than others
complicit in the technology of terror?
Moderator: John Santos,
Ford Foundation - [ Watch Video ]
Martin Burcharth, Information
David Campbell, University
of Newcastle
Thomas de Zengotita, New
York University
Michele Zanini, former RAND
researcher
6.30 - 8.00 p.m.
Dinner
8.00 - 9.00 p.m.
Keynote: Bruce Sterling,
author - [ Watch Video ]
Waterfire and Jazz Concert
Saturday, June 8 | Technologies of Antiterror
9.00 - 10.45 a.m. The Technological
Revolution in Civilian and Military Affairs
Even before the recent instances of terror, a transformation
of the capabilities and responsibilities of the military was under
way. How has 9/11 affected military-civilian relations? Can we locate
intersections between terror at home and abroad? In light of technological
innovation and sophistication, how is war being reconfigured? If
war is the paramount technology of territory and sovereignty, will
terror become the favored weapon of the globally dispossessed?
Moderator: Ron Deibert,
University of Toronto - [ Watch Video ]
Carl Conetta, Project on
Defense Alternatives
Colonel Tom Ehrhard, Maxwell
Air Force Base
Michael Klare, Peace and World
Security Studies
Catherine Lutz, University of
North Carolina
10.45 a.m.
Coffee break
11.00 a.m. - 12.45 p.m. Everyday
Terror: Videoconference - [ Watch Video
]
Moderators: Jarat Chopra,
Watson Institute and Thomas Keenan,
Bard College
Yaron Ezrahi, Israel Democracy
Institute
Mary Kaldor, London School
of Economics
Daoud Kuttab, Institute of
Modern Media
Sari Nusseibeh, Al Quds
University
12.45 - 2.00 p.m.
Lunch and Multimedia - [ Watch Video ]
Moderator: Tom Gleason,
Watson Institute
Scott Ritter, former UNSCOM
Chief Inspector, screens 'In Shifting Sands'
Technologies of Counterterror
2.00 - 3.45 p.m. Infowar, Cyberwar,
and the War of Dis/simulation
In an information age, power networks are ever more
congruent with knowledge and entertainment networks. If truth is
the first casualty in war, what are the costs of infowar? Is cyberwar
a threat to national security -- or to civil liberties? What are
the consequences when Hollywood, Silicon Valley and Washington join
the war on terror? In the battlespace of representations, is this
an American, Western, or universal war?
Moderator: Wendy Chun,
Brown University - [ Watch Video ]
Brahma Chellaney, Centre
for Policy Research
Dorothy E. Denning, Georgetown
University
Lene Hansen, Copenhagen University
William C. Martel, Naval War
College
3.45 p.m.
Coffee Break
4 - 5.45 p.m. The Technologies of
Change: Terrorism, Globalism, and Infopeace
The acceleration of change by technology seems to
outpace human means to understand and control its more destructive
effects. How do we balance the destructive against the constructive
capabilities of technology? Do distinctions between politics and
war, and between state violence and terrorism, help or hinder efforts
to think about political violence in a register beyond good and
evil? To the extent that techniques of counterterrorism affect,
instruct, and confine the actions of citizens, should counterterrorism
be analyzed as a technology of citizenship? What is the transformative
potential of information technology for peace? What political variety
can we imagine existing in a world of peace, and how might information
technology be used to secure and defend it? From whom, and against
what?
Moderator: Annick T.R.
Wibben, Watson Institute - [ Watch Video
]
Neta Crawford, Watson Institute
Larry George, California State
University/Long Beach
Lon Troyer, University of
California, Berkeley
Maja Zehfuss, University
of Warwick
6.00 p.m.
Concluding Remarks: Panel Chairs - [ Watch Video
]
7.30 p.m.
Dinner
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