Upcoming Events

Demos sponsors many conferences, speakers and other events in order to inject important ideas into the public sphere. Unless otherwise noted, all events are free and open to the public.

The Cost of Counterterrorism:
Power, Politics, and Liberty
September 9, 2008
6:00-8:00pm
Demos 220 Fifth Ave., 5th Floor (btwn. 26th & 27th)

Discussant & Moderator: Belinda Cooper, co-founder of the Citizenship and Security Program at the World Policy Institute.

Join Demos and the World Policy Institute for a discussion with Laura K. Donohue , author of The Cost of Counterterrorism: Power, Politics, and Liberty
Has America paid too high a price to increase our sense of security in the post-9/11 era? From extended detention, interrogation, and anti-terrorist finance, to phone taps, watch lists, and censorship, Laura K. Donohue examines laws that have been promoted as increasing security, but which exact tremendous costs on life, liberty, property, privacy, and free speech. Drawing on her research in the United Kingdom and United States, Donohue shows how the unintended consequences of counter-terrorism policies can undermine the systems they are intended to protect. Weighing the relative costs and benefits of the new counterterrorist norms, she rejects the argument that liberty and security are opposed to each other and warns that the dramatic increase in executive power can fundamentally change the way government works.