Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in
Palgrave Macmillan

The Politics of Torture

  • Book
  • © 2011

Overview

Authors:
  1. Tracy Lightcap
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed   Google Scholar

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this book

Log in via an institution
eBook USD 16.99 USD 39.99
Discount applied Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as EPUB and PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
Softcover Book USD 16.99 USD 54.99
Discount applied Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Compact, lightweight edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info
Hardcover Book USD 54.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Durable hardcover edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info

Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout

Other ways to access

Licence this eBook for your library

Institutional subscriptions

Table of contents (7 chapters)

  1. Front Matter

    Pages i-xi
    Download chapter PDF

  2. Introduction

    • Tracy Lightcap
    Pages 1-10

  3. Questions, Designs, and Mechanisms

    • Tracy Lightcap
    Pages 11-35

  4. Crisis and Opportunity in the United States and the Soviet Union

    • Tracy Lightcap
    Pages 37-72

  5. Torture: From Informal Institution to Official Policy

    • Tracy Lightcap
    Pages 73-100

  6. The Mechanism Fails: The United States and the Mexican War

    • Tracy Lightcap
    Pages 101-125

  7. Torture and Leadership Projects

    • Tracy Lightcap
    Pages 127-145

  8. Conclusions

    • Tracy Lightcap
    Pages 147-161

  9. Back Matter

    Pages 163-211
    Download chapter PDF
Back to top

Keywords

About this book

Why did it happen? Why did the United States begin to torture detainees during the War on Terror? Instead of an indictment, this book presents an explanation. Crises produce rare opportunities for overcoming the domestic and foreign policylogjams facing political leaders. But what if the projects used to address the crisis and provide cover for their domestic policy initiatives come under serious threat from clandestine opponents? Then the restraints on interrogation can be overwhelmed, leading to the creation ofinformal institutions that allow the official establishment of torture. These ideas are tested using comparative historical narratives drawn from two cases where torture was adopted - the War on Terror and the Stalinist Terror - and one where it was not - the Mexican War. The book concludes with some thoughts about how the United States can avoid the legal establishment of torture in the future.

Reviews

'Tracy Lightcap's analysis of comparative case studies of interrogation policy is a sophisticated work of scholarship, which is well written, well organized, and carefully sourced. His use of the framework of political time provides valuable analytical leverage in understanding the use of interrogation policy in different political regimes and in different historical eras.' - James P. Pfiffner, George Mason University, USA, and author of Torture as Public Policy

About the author

TRACY LIGHTCAP Professor of Political Science and Chairman of the Department of Political Science at LaGrange College, USA.

Bibliographic Information

Publish with us

Policies and ethics

Back to top

Search

Navigation