Homeland Insecurity Manual is an artist manuscript associated with the animation Homeland Insecurity. It uses passages from the United States’ Department of Defense Law of War Manual to illuminate on American laws guiding its wars abroad. The selected passages point to contradictions in practice and theory given recent historical events relating to America’s advances in the Middle East since the Cold War. Guidelines around military necessity, legality of weapons, treatment of detainees, and proportionality in war–to name a few–render these contradictions flagrant in cases of the invasion of Iraq as pretext response to the 9/11 attacks, Abu Ghraib, and interests of American proxies in the region, for example.
Homeland Insecurity Manual, 2019; grid of 28 archival inkjet prints; 34 x 77 inches (installation); 8.5 x 11 inches (each print).
Homeland Insecurity Manual – Object of War (detail); archival inkjet print; 8.5 x 11 inches.
Homeland Insecurity Manual – Military Objectives (detail); archival inkjet print; 8.5 x 11 inches.
Homeland Insecurity Manual – Jus ad Bellum & Jus in Bello (detail); archival inkjet print; 8.5 x 11 inches.
(Jus ad Bellum: law concerning the resort to force; Jus in Bello: law concerning conduct during war).
Homeland Insecurity Manual – Proportionality (detail); archival inkjet print; 8.5 x 11 inches.
Homeland Insecurity Manual – Humane Treatment of Detainees (detail); archival inkjet print; 8.5 x 11 inches.