One Nation Under Surveillance: A New Social Contract to Defend Freedom Without Sacrificing Liberty - Hardcover

Simon Chesterman is Global Professor and Director of the New York University School of Law Singapore Program, and Vice Dean and Professor of Law at the National University of Singapore. His books include Shared Secrets, You, The People(OUP 2004), and Just War or Just Peace?(OUP 2001).

"A timely examination of the theory and practice of governmental surveillance...One Nation Under Surveillance is a cogent contribution to the growing body of post-9/11 literature examining contemporary political developments in tension with the fundamental values of political liberalism...a clear catalogue of the contemporary approaches to emergency power...a welcome addition to any library and will prove to be a valuable resource for students and researchers in the area. And, it is to be hoped, for our policymakers and 'deciders.'"--Journal of Law, Information & Science

"The author, a specialist in international law and globalisation, adeptly pulls key ideas from a morass of national security verbiage, while offering compelling stories and facts...Chesterman's book provides a selective field guide to some of the best that has been said about intelligence and national security strained through the author's experience and legal knowledge...The book brings greater depth and familiarity with theory and research than most journalistic efforts and more disciplinary breadth and human-interest material than most legal analyses."--Times Higher Education

"This book squarely faces the taboo subject of domestic privacy in an era of Islamist terrorism. Our enemies are not nation-states, so the targets of the intelligence services seeking to pre-empt terrorist attacks must be individuals. The casualty will be individual privacy. People will struggle against heightened surveillance, Chesterman notes, 'but the war will be lost.' A must-read for anyone interested in staying current about the privacy implications of the war on terror."--Frederick P. Hitz, former Inspector General, CIA

"This is an important book, breaking new ground in the sweep of its analysis, its analytical insights, and the policy implications it draws out. It shows just how often foreign and domestic intelligence gathering in the major democracies has been insensitive to public accountability, legality, and its consequences for individuals, to the detriment of both liberty and security--and how this can and must change. Simon Chesterman writes, as always, with compelling clarity and authority."--Gareth Evans, President Emeritus of the International Crisis Group and former Foreign Minister of Australia

"Simon Chesterman offers a clear, thoughtful, and incisive analysis of the long-standing tension between civil liberties, on the one hand, and security against threats to the polity, on the other hand. He takes a new tact on this old dilemma by probing into the question of what governments actually do with all the information they gather on their citizens. This is an interesting and provocative book."--Loch K. Johnson, Professor of Political Science, University of Georgia

"Simon Chesterman moves the debate on privacy beyond the question of whether the government and its intelligence services should have access to personal information to the realistic recognition that electronic transparency is here to stay. In a series of carefully articulated arguments, Chesterman outlines mechanisms that can hold governments accountable for the uses of that information. In so doing, he points the way to a twenty-first century rethinking of notions of privacy, security, and the laws that regulate them."--Karen J. Greenberg, Executive Director of the Center on Law and Security, New York University School of Law