From its inception, the WOT was an international, transnational and global undertaking. Insofar as it can be traced to the aftermath of the 11 September 2001 attacks, however, it becomes necessary to look at the domestic level of analysis to understand the origins of this wide- ranging war. The G/ WOT, as a set of foreign policy actions, was shaped by factors within the US and the US government, including the agendas of those in elected office at the time of the attacks. In addition, the domestic WOT within the US had profound implications for American society, the rule of law and civil liberties. This chapter offers insight into the domestic influences on the US- led GWOT (i.e. foreign policy) and the impacts of the WOT “at home”. In recounting the decisions taken in the months and years following the September 2001 attacks, it emphasizes those changes to policy and law that proved most durable, including on matters of surveillance and presidential authority.

The debates that shaped the early post- 9/ 11 period were wrapped up in a host of complex cultural meanings and identity- based constructions, as displayed in narratives of American exceptionalism, religion, security and global leadership. In some ways, the discourses of American foreign policy were predisposed to accommodate the contingent and highly aggressive approach taken by the George W. Bush administration. Officials used bellicose rhetoric to pursue certain outcomes in domestic and foreign policy- making. The nature of the threat was framed in a manner that facilitated a deeply militarized posture not only towards al- Qaeda (and other non- state terrorist organizations) but towards adversarial states in the Middle East and elsewhere. Bush's rhetoric was generally understood as Manichean: blunt, moralizing and hostile to nuance. This had obvious applications to foreign policy but it also aided in the formation of new institutional structures in the American homeland. The presence of the security state became a sali-ent feature of national life for US citizens in a manner that would have seemed unthinkable before 9/ 11.