Book Review: Kathleen Gleeson, Australia’s ‘War on Terror’ Discourse
| Date | 01 August 2016 |
| Author | Mustafa Menshawy |
| Published date | 01 August 2016 |
| DOI | 10.1177/1478929916656541 |
| Subject Matter | Book ReviewsAsia and the Pacific |
Book Reviews 483
the two countries in the wake of changing
power equations in the world must improve to
shape the relationship, even though India and
China do not officially consider the other a
security threat. The interaction of these two ris-
ing Asian powers, with China in the lead, is the
most critical and significant issue in Asian
politics today, and this book provides a valua-
ble guide to students, scholars and policymak-
ers working in this field.
Sangit Sarita Dwivedi
(University of Delhi)
The Author(s) 2016
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DOI: 10.1177/1478929916652783
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Australia’s ‘War on Terror’ Discourse by
Kathleen Gleeson. Farnham: Ashgate, 2014.
273pp., £65.00 (h/b), ISBN 9781472419859
Australia’s ‘War on Terror’ Discourse by
Kathleen Gleeson is theoretically sophisti-
cated. The analysis moves at two levels: text
and context. At the textual level, the primary
focus is the language of then Prime Minister
Winston Howard. For the ‘context’, Gleeson
traces through these linguistic representations
the evolution of the ‘war on terror’ discourse.
The theoretical sophistication is generated by
Gleeson’s adoption of Michel Foucault’s gene-
alogy theory. Abstract as it is, the Foucauldian
analysis is enhanced by a broader, clearer and
more solidly defined approach: critical dis-
course analysis (CDA). In this synthesis, poli-
tics, society and the workings of power are
brought together to produce what is taken as
the first systematic study of Australia’s
involvement in the global war on terrorism.
The book is divided into six chapters. After
the preceding theoretical background, chapter
3 identifies four themes that make up the
‘architecture of discourse’, namely, fear, vio-
lence, statism and exclusion. Gleeson con-
cludes that Australia’s political attitudes have
been defined by ‘discursively constituted inse-
curity’. This securitisation of politics is mani-
fested in the next two chapters. Chapter 4
focuses on the period from before the 9/11
attacks on the United States until early 2003,
showing how the government employed the
‘war on terror’ discourse not only to build on
established pre-existing historical discourses
related to identity and threat, but also to justify
present actions. In chapter 5, the author maps
out the genealogy of discourse from 2003 until
2007, elucidating how the government was
broadly successful in ‘sell[ing] the war on ter-
ror and its associated policies’ such as involve-
ment in Iraq, contentious anti-terror laws and
the extraordinary detention of terror suspects
(pp. 185–186). As this latter phase was less sta-
ble and consistent, chapter 6 then explores the
‘genealogy of resistance’ – that is, counter-
discourses. Again, this discursive/historical
division of the book is evidence of how the
Foucauldian analysis is adequately equipped to
theorise the continuities and discontinuities of
such a pervasive relational discourse.
Nevertheless, the book could have benefit-
ted from analysing a much wider range of texts
in search of co-occurring features at such
‘micro-context’ levels as transitivity, modality
and discursivity. With its pronounced critical-
ity, the book could still avoid drawing quick
‘critical’ conclusions (such as taking this domi-
nant yet inconsistent discourse as the cause of
myriad phenomena and incidents – for exam-
ple, the Cronulla Riots – to the exclusion of
other ‘causes’). After all, in Foucault’s expres-
sion, ‘power is everywhere’ diffused and
embodied in multiple and variable discourses.
Mustafa Menshawy
(University of Westminster)
The Author(s) 2016
Reprints and permissions: sagepub.co.uk/journalsPermissions.nav
DOI: 10.1177/1478929916656541
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Shanghai Future: Modernity Remade by Anna
Greenspan. London: C Hurst & Co, 2014. 256pp.,
£22.00 (p/b), ISBN 9781849043601
Combining a close look at various parts of
the city with a prodigious study of the theo-
ries of urbanisation and modernity, Anna
Greenspan’s Shanghai Future explores the
unique culture and ideal of modernity
reflected in the construction of urban land-
scape in contemporary Shanghai, China’s
richest and most cosmopolitan city.
The nine main chapters, divided into three
sections, travel through the city’s transitional
zones to centre around the tension between
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