Book Review: One Nation Under Surveillance: A New Social Contract to Defend Freedom Without Sacrificing Liberty by Simon Chesterman
Eugene K.B. Tan
Citation: [2012] Sing JLS 205
Institutional efforts to deal with the terrorism threat are in essence a collective action challenge: How do societies prevent terrorist ideology from establishing and gaining traction within a community? Assuming a terrorist attack takes place, especially by "home-grown" terrorists, what can society do to cope with the aftermath? How can societies fortify themselves to come out resiliently against such forces that seek to divide and destroy? These questions perhaps mask the central questions and concerns surrounding surveillance and intelligence - not just what is collected and processed but also how this information is used - in many jurisdictions. Surveillance and intelligence are integral parts of the larger strategy employed to ensure that societies can come out on top of the collective action challenge posed by terrorism.