Claudio Colaguori (ed.), Security, Life and Death: Governmentality and Biopower in the Post 9/11 Era (Whitby: De Sitter Publications, 2013), $39.00, ISBN: 978-1-897160-81-7

At first glance the book Security, Life and Death: Governmentality and Biopower in the Post 9/11 Era strikes the reader as something quite serious.Aside from the almost ominous title the book, the cover image is of a Chinese-motif Imperial dragon that appears to be consuming its tail set against a black background.Could this image perhaps symbolize the political consciousness of the ten fine research essays in the book whereby the security society is locked in a spiral of selfdefeat?The essays that make up the book certainly deal with the larger issue of an imperial form of power that is entangled in the trappings of its own insecurity.But what makes this yet-anotherbook on security in the post 9/11 era unique from the numerous other offerings?This question is clear from the editor's preface where he states that this book is an analysis of the politics of security from a uniquely Foucauldian perspective.Its analyses of security policy are performed through the application of Foucauldian social theoretical concepts to the material conditions of the post 9/11 era rather than abstract ruminations on the theoretical concepts Foucault has furnished in his oeuvre.After all what is the point of discussing social concepts if not to utilize them in a way that performs a "history of the present" as per Foucault's analytic method?The book's editor Claudio Colaguori's preface remarks that the inspiration for the book came after the tenth anniversary of the events of September 11 th , 2001 and how normalized forms of disciplinary power were coming to define the era against notions of historical progress based on globalizing human rights and peace.If scholarly and intellectual pursuits are to account for the geo-political shift from liberty to security in an age of troubled human rights, clear and present threats to human security, and perpetual war, then it seems Foucault's concepts are very well suited to the task of such a critical analysis.Clearly Foucault's analysis of power and especially the volumes of his published lectures speak about the martial mode of social life and thus they are directly transposable to the global situation of the post 9/11 era.This book is a formidable attempt at making sense of security, life and death in the post 9/11 era through a Foucauldian lens.The concepts of governmentality, biopower, security and warfare are central to the analyses made by the book's eclectic group of contributing scholars.The manner by which such concepts are employed will be of use both to those interested in novel applications of

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