Forensic Rhetorics and Satellite Surveillance

The Visualization of War Crimes and Human Rights Violations

By (author) Marouf Hasian

Publication date:

25 July 2016

Length of book:

252 pages

Publisher

Lexington Books

ISBN-13: 9781498535908

Forensic Rhetorics and Satellite Surveillance: The Visualization of War Crimes and Human Rights Violations uses cases studies of satellite surveillance over the skies of Darfur, Gaza, Bosnia, Pakistan, and the Mediterranean to provide readers with an overview of some of the technological, analytic, and political complexities of satellite surveillance imagery usage. Marouf Hasian, Jr. illustrates how our earlier reliance on witness testimony or signal communications in human rights contexts is now being supplemented with forensic evidence from satellites that can be used to document, monitor, and perhaps even deter human rights violations on the ground.

Contents

Acknowledgments

Illustrations

Chapter 1: Satellite Imaging, Humanitarian Dreams, and the 21^st Century Pursuit of Forensic Truths

Chapter 2: Visualizing Srebrenica, The International Criminal Tribunal For the Former Yugoslavia (ICTY), and the Growing Acceptance of Satellite Evidence

Chapter 3: Satellite Imagery and the Visual/Virtual Israeli Occupation of the Gaza

Chapter 4: George Clooney, Surveillance of Sudanese Borders, and the Sentinel Project

Chapter 5: The Drone Wars Over Pakistan and the Aerial “Manhunts” for Taliban and Al Qaeda Enemies

Chapter 6: EUROSUR Surveillance, Mediterranean “Search and Rescue,” and the Visualization of Europe’s “Migrant Crisis”

Chapter 7: Conclusion: The Constitutive Power of Satellite Surveillance and the Crafting of Securitized and Militarized Dispositifs

Bibliography

Index

Hasian’s volume offers a valuable contribution to the growing body of work that engages rhetoric and security. The volume pinpoints deadly intersections of language, materiality, and humanitarian intervention. Its detailed, contemporary case studies usefully illustrate the ethics and politics inherent in competing, high-stakes interpretations of satellite imagery among states and citizens. Hasian cautions readers to attend to how forensic rhetorics construct crises in ways that bolster securitization and militarization. Readers will gain an in-depth and nuanced understanding of the suasory power of satellite surveillance.