The Necessary Evil of Preventive Detention in the War on Terror: A Plan for a More Moderate and Sustainable Solution
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The Necessary Evil of Preventive Detention in the War on Terror: ...

Chapter 1:  Introduction
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Research Questions

Based on the preceding discussion outlining the problems with the status quo approach to detaining U.S. persons as enemy combatants, this book addresses the following questions:

  • To what extent, if any, does the United States need a system of preventive detention where suspected terrorists are detained against their will without the filing of criminal charges as a tool in the war on terror?
  • How can the United States create a system of preventive detention that is lawful and good policy without undermining its credibility, reputation, and democratic principles?
  • Are interrogation and incapacitation of terrorist suspects legitimate and justifiable rationales for creating a system of preventive detention?
  • How do Israel and Britain, which have dealt with terrorist threats for decades, handle preventive detention, and can their approaches provide useful insight to the United States in the war on terror?
  • What are the other ideas that policy makers, lawyers, and academics have proposed for creating systems of preventive detention as a tool in the war on terror, and how do these approaches compare to one another and the status quo?

    • Literature Review

    To answer the aforementioned questions, it is necessary to look at the existing literature addressing these issues. While a plethora of literature exists criticizing the administration’s enemy-combatant policy as unlawful and/or unsound policy, and many professors and policy makers have proposed alternative approaches to preventive detention, there is a dearth of literature that thoroughly analyzes and addresses more fundamental questions such as whether the United States needs a system of preventive detention as a tool in the war on terror, whether the rationales for preventive detention are justifiable, whether Israel’s and Britain’s respective approaches to preventive detention to deal with terrorism provide useful insights for the United States, whether a system of preventive detention can be lawful, and whether it is worth the consequent deleterious effects to America’s reputation.