War-Making As Worldmaking

Samar Al-Bulushi is Assistant Professor of Anthropology at the University of California, Irvine.

"Samar Al-Bulushi's deeply researched, elegantly argued, and profoundly moving book shows the centrality of Kenya and African geographies in shaping our geopolitical present. War-Making as Worldmaking is essential reading for understanding global politics over the past two decades and in charting future alternatives to imperialism, state repression, and endless war."—Penny Von Eschen, University of Virginia "The war on terror's tentacles long ago spread beyond the Middle East. Crisscrossing local, national, global, and even familial borders, Samar Al-Bulushi's War-Making as Worldmaking turns a critical eye to its transformative effects across the African continent. This penetrating and interdisciplinary tome sheds overdue light on the worldmaking effects of imperial violence. A new and essential take on the war on terror as it stretches into its third decade."—Zachariah Mampilly, CUNY Graduate Center "How does one live in the strange, violent world made by twisting and stretching concepts like security and terrorism, war and democracy? That question has grown more pressing since the United States launched its war on terror. From an East African vantage, Samar Al-Bulushi's War-Making as Worldmaking gives us a clear-eyed analysis of the forces that are shaping lives around the globe."—Daniel Hoffman, University of Washington "How does the Kenyan Muslim become the subject of state violence? This book is a fascinating and troubling account of how the war on terror has offered allies and alibis for racialized policing and carcerality arising from existing political fissures in Kenya. Al-Bulushi's work is deeply researched and persuasively argued and will contribute greatly to our understanding of regionally particular forms of Islamophobia."—Laleh Khalili, University of Exeter "War-Making as Worldmaking is a path-breaking ethnographic account that rethinks the 'global war on terror' from the standpoint of East Africa, showing how the Kenyan state has played an active role in shaping that campaign in partnership with the United States, with dire consequences for Muslim populations in the region.—Darryl Li, University of Chicago "[Al-Bulushi's] fieldwork in Kenya, primarily among Muslim communities in Nairobi and Mombasa, is complemented by extensive contextual research. Incorporating multiple analytical perspectives, she brings the lived experiences of everyday Muslims into a single frame of Kenya–US political-military relationships. Recommended."—J. P. Smaldone, CHOICE

• Introduction1. Kenya to the Rescue? Race, Gender, and the Cultural Politics of Security2. Securing Paradise: Race, Capital, and Suspect Citizenship on the Coast3. Phantom Epistemologies: Navigating the Urban Gray Zone4. Home as Thoroughfare5. On Friendship and Freedom DreamsConclusion