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The exceptionalism of risk: Trump's Wall and travel ban

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  21 December 2020

William Clapton Open the ORCID record for William Clapton [Opens in a new window]
William Clapton*
Affiliation:
School of Social Sciences, The University of New South Wales, Sydney, Australia
*
*Corresponding author. Email: w.clapton@unsw.edu.au
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Abstract

Risk has recently become a core aspect of the study and practice of security. This raises the question of how the governing of security issues has changed and how risk is situated vis-à-vis other approaches, particularly securitisation theory. One approach is to distinguish securitisation and risk within typologies of ideal-type logics of security, which suggest that while both are useful, securitisation and risk are fundamentally different. One of the crucial distinctions made here is that risk is geared towards the longer-term, routine, and ‘normal’ governance of security issues, while securitisation involves the employment of exceptional measures justified via invocations of existential threat. This article interrogates this distinction, arguing that the division between risk as the normal or routine and securitisation as the exceptional is not as clear as has been suggested in either theory or practice. Risk can and repeatedly has resulted in exceptionalism. This argument is demonstrated empirically through an analysis of the immigration practices and policies of the Trump administration, particularly the travel ban and the declaration of a national emergency to fund construction of a wall along the US-Mexico border.

Type
Research Article
Information
European Journal of International Security , Volume 6 , Issue 2 , May 2021 , pp. 129 - 147
Copyright
Copyright © The Author(s), 2020. Published by Cambridge University Press on behalf of the British International Studies Association

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27 van Munster, ‘Logics of security’, p. 8.

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34 Ibid., p. 24.

35 Ibid.

36 See Clapton, Risk and Hierarchy in International Society.

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43 Claudia Aradau and Rens van Munster, ‘Exceptionalism and the war on terror: Criminology meets international relations’, British Journal of Criminology, 49:5 (2009), p. 694.

44 Ibid.

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46 Corry, ‘Securitisation and “riskification”’, p. 257.

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48 See White House, The National Security Strategy of the United States of America (Washington, DC: September 2002).

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50 Aradau et al., ‘Security, technologies of risk, and the political’, p. 152.

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53 Clapton, ‘Risk in international relations’, p. 283.

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58 I am grateful to one of the reviewers for this point.

59 See Heng, War as Risk Management and Rasmussen, The Risk Society at War.

60 White House, The National Security Strategy of the United States of America (Washington, DC: December 2017), pp. 9–10.

61 Ibid., p. 14.

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66 White House, ‘Executive Order Protecting the Nation from Foreign Terrorist Entry into the United States’, Executive Order 13769 (27 January 2017), available at: {https://www.whitehouse.gov/presidential-actions/executive-order-protecting-nation-foreign-terrorist-entry-united-states/} accessed 9 May 2020.

67 Ibid.

68 Ibid.

69 John F. Kelly, ‘Written Testimony of DHS Secretary John F. Kelly for a House Committee on Homeland Security Hearing Titled “Ending the Crisis: America's Borders and the Path to Security”’, Department of Homeland Security (7 February 2017), available at: {https://www.dhs.gov/news/2017/02/07/written-testimony-dhs-secretary-john-f-kelly-house-commitee-homeland-security} accessed 24 January 2020.

70 White House, ‘Executive Order Protecting the Nation from Foreign Terrorist Entry into the United States’, Executive Order 13780 (6 March 2017), available at: {https://www.whitehouse.gov/presidential-actions/executive-order-protecting-nation-foreign-terrorist-entry-united-states-2/} accessed 3 March 2020. Also see Eunice Lee, ‘Non-discrimination in refugee and asylum law (against travel ban 1.0 and 2.0)’, Georgetown Immigration Law Journal, 31:3 (2017), p. 461.

71 White House, ‘Presidential Proclamation Enhancing Vetting Capabilities and Processes for Detecting Attempted Entry into the United States by Terrorists or Other Public-Safety Threats’, No. 9645 (24 September 2017), available at: {https://www.whitehouse.gov/presidential-actions/presidential-proclamation-enhancing-vetting-capabilities-processes-detecting-attempted-entry-united-states-terrorists-public-safety-threats/} accessed 8 May 2020.

72 Ibid.

73 Ibid.

74 Ibid.

75 White House, ‘Executive Order: Border Security and Immigration Enforcement Improvements’, Executive Order 13767 (25 January 2017), available at: {https://www.whitehouse.gov/presidential-actions/executive-order-border-security-immigration-enforcement-improvements/} accessed 1 May 2020.

76 White House, ‘Secure the Border by Deterring and Swiftly Removing Illegal Entrants’ (8 October 2017), available at: {https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefings-statements/secure-border-deterring-swiftly-removing-illegal-entrants/} accessed 24 April 2020.

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83 Ibid.

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88 Donald Trump, ‘Veto message to the House of Representatives for H.J. Res. 46’, available at: {https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefings-statements/veto-message-house-repres entatives-h-j-res-46/} accessed 3 May 2020.

89 Emanuella Grinburg and Eliott C. McLaughlin, ‘Travel ban protests stretch into third day from US to UK’, CNN (31 January 2017), available at: {https://edition.cnn.com/2017/01/30/politics/travel-ban-protests-immigration/} accessed 23 January 2020.

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91 American Civil Liberties Union, ‘ACLU of Massachusetts Statement in Support of the Victims of President Trump's Muslim Ban’ (30 January 2017), available at: {https://www.aclu.org/press-releases/aclu-massachusetts-statement-support-victims-president-trumps-muslim-ban} accessed 21 September 2020.

92 For testimonies before the hearing and a full list of written submissions, see House Committee on the Judiciary, ‘Oversight of the Trump Administration's Muslim Ban’ (24 September 2019), available at: {https://judiciary.house.gov/calendar/eventsingle.aspx?EventID=2268} accessed 21 September 2020.

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96 I am grateful to one of the reviewers for this point.

97 Ciuta, ‘Security and the problem of context’, pp. 321–2.

98 Corry, ‘Securitisation and “riskification”’, p. 248.

99 Heng, War as Risk Management; Heng, ‘The “transformation of war” debate’; Williams, ‘(In)security studies’, pp. 65–6.

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102 Corry, ‘Securitisation and “riskification”’, p. 247.

103 Heng and McDonagh highlight the everyday, mundane practices of risk management in the context of the WoT that occur alongside more exceptional actions such as the use of military force. See Heng, Yee-Kuang and McDonagh, Ken, Risk, Global Governance and Security: The Other War on Terror (Oxon: Routledge, 2009)CrossRefGoogle Scholar. Amoore also highlights the everyday, less visible practices of risk management in the context of what she terms ‘algorithmic war’, the use of algorithmic calculations in surveillance networks and border control that embed a logic of pre-emption in mundane spaces. Again, risk here can result in both exceptional and mundane practices, but Amoore also argues that representations of risky others are located both inside and outside the spaces of daily life in Western societies. See Amoore, Louise, ‘Algorithmic security: Everyday geographies of the War on Terror’, Antipode, 41:1 (2009), p. 56CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

104 George W. Bush, ‘Excerpts from Remarks in Louisiana Welcome’ (3 December 2002), available at: {https://georgewbush-whitehouse.archives.gov/news/releases/2002/12/20021203-4.html} accessed 10 May 2020.

105 Corry, ‘Securitisation and “riskification”’, p. 257.

106 George W. Bush, ‘President Bush Holds Press Conference’ (13 March 2002), available at: {https://georgewbush-whitehouse.archives.gov/news/releases/2002/03/20020313-8.html} accessed 8 September 2020.

107 George W. Bush, ‘President Bush Discusses Iraq with Congressional Leaders’ (26 September 2002), available at: {https://georgewbush-whitehouse.archives.gov/news/releases/2002/09/20020926-7.html} accessed 8 September 2020.

108 For more on the risk-based logics informing the War on Terror, including the invasions of Afghanistan and Iraq, see Heng, War as Risk Management; Rasmussen, The Risk Society at War; and Clapton, Risk and Hierarchy.

109 While the Obama administration's approach to risk management is not discussed in depth here, it too employed a logic of risk in the assessment and representation of the US's strategic environment and the identification of security issues. See, for example, Department of Homeland Security, Risk Management Fundamentals.

110 Clapton, Risk and Hierarchy, p. 30.

111 See Heng, War as Risk Management.

112 Corry, ‘Securitisation and “riskification”’, p. 249.