In light of the ongoing war against terrorism, can the United States maintain its dedication to protecting civil liberties without compromising security? At stake is nothing less than the survival of ideas associated with the modern period of political philosophy: the freedom of conscience, the inviolable rights of the individual to privacy, the constitutionally limited state, as well as the more recent refinement of late modern liberalism, multiculturalism. Contributors evaluate the need to reassess the nation's public policies, institutions, as well as its very identity. The struggle to persist as an open society in the age of terrorism will be the defining test of democracy in the Twenty-first-century.

Importance of civil liberties being challenged

SECTION I: THE HISTORICAL & POLITICAL CONTEXT Testing the Flexibility of American Democracy: National Security and Civil Liberties in the Twenty-first-Century; J.W.Wells & D.B.Cohen The Rise Of Civil Liberties and Its Historical Tension With National Security; J.A.Rosati SECTION II: INSTITUTIONAL RESPONSES TO THE SECURITY DILEMMA Developing New Institutions for Homeland Defense: Implications for American Civil Liberties; D.B.Cohen & A.H.Cook 'Putting Terror in Every Heart'? Anti-Terrorism Legislation and the Rehnquist Court In the Wake of Oklahoma City and September 11; C.P.Banks Terrorism, Security, and Civil Liberties: The States Respond; E.R.Sharkey, Jr. & K.B.Stewart Terrorism, War, and Freedom of the Press: Suppression and Manipulation in Times of Crisis; K.B.Stewart & C.Marlin SECTION III: POLICY, CITIZENSHIP, & THE SECURITY DILEMMA The Rights of Detainees in an Era of Terrorism; O.H.Stephens, Jr. Flying the Friendly Skies? Federal Airport Security Policy and Racial Profiling in the Wake of September 11; B.J.Gerber & S.J.Tabrizi The Possibility of Dissent in the Age of Terrorism; D.P.Tokaji At What Price? Security, Civil Liberties, and Public Opinion in the Age of Terrorism; S.J.Tabrizi SECTION IV: CONCLUSION From Lockean Dreams to Hobbesian Reality: September 11 and the Effect on American Political Culture; J.W.Wells