Argues that the attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon on September 11 activated a series of political and cultural responses that mapped a colonial perimeter of power. This book traces the connections between political, military, and economic power and the spatial stories told by the lives of ordinary people.

In this powerful and passionate critique of the 'war on terror' in Afghanistan, Palestine, and Iraq, Derek Gregory traces the long history of British and American involvements in the Middle East. He argues that the attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon on September 11 activated a series of political and cultural responses that mapped a profoundly colonial perimeter of power. "The Colonial Present" traces the connections between political, military, and economic power - the grand strategies of geopolitics - and the spatial stories told by the lives of ordinary people. It also shows the intimate connections between events in Afghanistan, Palestine, and Iraq. Packed with empirical detail, and shot through with arresting arguments, "The Colonial Present" is indispensable reading for anyone seeking to understand a world riven by a war on terror that is also a war of terror.

List of Figures PrefaceAcknowledgments Part 1: The Colonial Present:1.1
Foucault's Laughter1.2
The Present TensePart 2: Architectures of Enmity:2.1
Imaginative Geographies2.2
"Why do they hate us?"2.3
September 11 Part 3: The Land Where Red Tulips Grew:3.1
Great Games3.2
Uncivil Wars and Transnational Terrorism3.3
The Sorcerer's ApprenticesPart 4 Civilization and Barbarism:4.1
The Visible and the Invisible4.2
Territorialization, Targets, and Technoculture4.3
Deadly Messengers4.4
Spaces of the Exception4.5
DeconstructionsPart 5 Barbed Boundaries:5.1
America's Israel5.2
Diaspora, Dispossession, and Disaster5.3
Occupation, Coercion, and Colonization5.4
Camp David and GoliathPart 6: Defiled Cities:6.1
Ground Zeros6.2
Besieging Cartographies6.3
Identities and OppositionsPart 7: The Tyranny of Strangers:7.1
"Not as conquerors or enemies..."7.2
Coups and Conflicts7.3
Desert Storms and Urban NightmaresPart 8: Boundless War:8.1
Black September8.2
Killing Grounds8.3
The Cutting-room WarPart 9: Gravity's Rainbows:9.1
Connective Dissonance9.2
The Colonial Present and Cultures of Travel9.3
Pandora's SpacesGuide to Further ReadingIndex