Pacifying the Homeland

“Brendan McQuade’s superb study explores a persistent legacy of the fading War on Terror—a hidden proliferation of federal-state fusion centers for mass surveillance that make entire communities into open-air prisons. The pacification of Iraq may have failed, but the effort's technology has come home to become America’s main mechanism for mass supervision of criminalized minority populations.”—Alfred W. McCoy, author of In the Shadows of the American Century

“Ostensibly about the fusion center, this book is in fact much, much more. Taking the fusion center as a springboard, McQuade makes a telling and profoundly important contribution to our understanding of the ways in which the contemporary state manages the surplus populations dispossessed and criminalized by capital. McQuade's argument is rich in its theoretical contribution and its empirical analysis. Under this scrutiny, the fusion center emerges not simply as a new development in homeland security, but rather as a key technique in the contemporary fabrication of order.”—Mark Neocleous, Professor of the Critique of Political Economy, Brunel University London

“Pacifying the Homeland is essential reading for anyone interested in understanding how policing and surveillance have evolved in the twenty-first century. In this lucidly written account, Brendan McQuade introduces readers to fusion centers and how these are linked to mass surveillance and supervision. This book challenges us to ask better questions about how carcerality connects to capitalism and to the state. After you read this book for the first time, you will want to return to it again.”—Mariame Kaba, founder and director of Project NIA 

“This is a work that dares to ask new questions, proceeds to deep analysis, and provides strong connections between its specific research object and the wider sociopolitical world in which it took shape and now operates. It provides fruitful ways of thinking about fusion centers, policing, security, and statehood.”—Christos Boukalas, author of Homeland Security, Its Law and Its State