Could the United States Reinstitute an Official Torture Policy?
In 2015, the United States passed legislation that reaffirmed its ban on using torture and abusive techniques in national security interrogations. However, the Republican president-elect Donald Trump has repeatedly promised to revive torture as official policy, and the idea of torturing suspected te...
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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Henley-Putnam University
2017-06-01
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| Series: | Journal of Strategic Security |
| Online Access: | http://scholarcommons.usf.edu/jss/vol10/iss2/7/ |
| Summary: | In 2015, the United States passed legislation that reaffirmed its ban on using torture and abusive techniques in national security interrogations. However, the Republican president-elect Donald Trump has repeatedly promised to revive torture as official policy, and the idea of torturing suspected terrorists is popular with the American public. Given these facts, what are the vulnerabilities within the current prohibition that makes a return to an official torture policy possible? This paper examines the weaknesses within each branch of government and other factors that could contribute to making a return to official torture by the United States more likely. It shows that the prohibition against torture does face vulnerabilities that can be exploited to reinstitute a torture policy, and that while this may not be likely in the current political environment, it is possible. |
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| ISSN: | 1944-0464 1944-0472 |