J. Jeffrey Auer Lecture

The Department of Communication & Culture
is proud to announce the 2008 J. Jeffrey Auer Lecture will be presented by

Professor MAROUF HASIAN
Professor Department of Communication
University of Utah

March 25, 2010 at 6:00pm in State Room East IMU
a reception will follow at CMCL 2nd floor lobby


“U.S. Foreign Policy, 2lst Century Lawfare, and the Challenges of Humanitarianism Interventionism”

In the wake of 9/11 the foreign policy rhetorics of the U.S. were dramatically altered as empowered decision-makers sought to justify a series of what would be labeled humanitarian interventions, including major campaigns in Afghanistan and Iraq. What members of the G.W. Bush Administration called the “global war on terrorism” was to be fought on many domestic and international fronts and would involve a plethora of preventive or pre-emptive weapons. This presentation focuses attention on the role that “lawfare,” or the military appropriation of justice, played in the legitimating of the U.S. military appropriation of justice, played in the legitimating of the U.S. military rules of engagement between 2001 and 2008. For many patriotic commentators lawfare is a derogatory term that is used to explain how the forces of Al Qaeda or other enemies take advantage of the benevolence of the U.S. court systems in the wars that are fought for the “hearts and minds” of key audiences. In theory, those who are too solicitous of the rights of detainees who are held in places like Guantanamo or Bagram, or who advocate the usage of tort suits against CIA operatives, are said to be engaging in lawfare that stabs our nation in the back at the time when we need to be rallying around the flag. This presentation uses a rhetorical analysis of the public and military debates that surround the Haditha incident as an entrée point for larger critiques of more general military, diplomatic, and public usages of lawfare during the 21st century.

Marouf A. Hasian, Jr., is an Associate Professor of Communication at the University of Utah,in Salt Lake City. He is on the Editorial Board of Rhetoric and Public Affairs, an interdisciplinary journal devoted to the history, theory, and criticism of public discourse, and author of several books, including In the Name of Necessity: Military Tribunals and the Loss of American Civil Liberties. Professor Hasian’s areas of interest include law and rhetoric, postcolonial studies, critical memory studies and securitization studies.

The Department of Communication and Culture is pleased to welcome Professor Hasian to Indiana University. He will be introduced by Melanie Loehwing, a CMCL Ph.D. candidate.