This week, we turn our attention to security, in particular the kind of security and anti-terrorism measures that have accompanied the Global War on Terror and the post-9/11 era. In a 'war' with no clear front line, we examine the diffuse and evolving geography of the U.S. 'homeland' and surveillance systems. 

At the heart of this expansion of the War on Terror and emergency politics is an implict notion of 'exception'--that events like 9/11 or the Parliament Hill shooting force societies in to a State of Exception, where we must step outside constitutional democracy in order to restore natural order. More power must flow from legislatures to the executive--away from consensus building and toward decisive action. While the USA PATRIOT Act was largely seen as a grand example of exceptional power being granted to intelligence and to the Executive branch when it was first proposed, it has been consistently renewed without fanfare and is up for renewal again June 1, 2015. So is exception the new normal?