The global war on terror (GWOT) is undoubtedly the most recent case where a government authorized ‘enhanced interrogation techniques’, a euphemism for torture. In addition to shocking stories and photographs from Guantánamo, Abu Ghraib and CIA black site prisons, popular culture assists in the production of torture’s public image and indicates a site of norm contestation. Therefore, the aim of this article is threefold. First, the author shows that Zero Dark Thirty (2012, dir. Kathryn Bigelow) is constitutive for the public image of torture and its meaning-in-use. Second, she argues that the film’s representation of torture works as a popular site of contesting the anti-torture norm. Finally, she reflects on the continuum between popular culture and the politics of torture.
BergenP (2012) ‘Zero Dark Thirty’: Did torture really net bin Laden?CNN, 11December.
6.
BinnsD (2017) The Hollywood War Film: Observations from World War I to Iraq. Bristol: University of Chicago Press.
7.
BirdsallA (2016) But we don’t call it ‘torture’! Norm contestation during the US ‘War on Terror’. International Politics53(2): 176–197.
8.
BlauwkampJMRowlingCMPettitW (2018) Are Americans really okay with torture? The effects of message framing on public opinion. Media, War & Conflict (online first).
9.
BordwellD (1985) Narration in the Fictional Film. Madison: University of Wisconsin Press.
10.
BordwellD (1991) Making Meaning. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
11.
BrunnéeJToopeS (2010) Legitimacy and Legality in International Law. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
12.
BurgoyneR (2015) The violated body and affect in Zero Dark Thirty. In: LaRoccaD (ed.) The Philosophy of War Films. Lexington: University of Kentucky Press.
13.
CasoFHamiltonC (eds) (2015) Popular Culture and World Politics: Theories, Methods, Pedagogies. E-International Relations Publishing.
14.
CollS (2013) Disturbing and misleading. The New York Times Book Review, 7February.
15.
ConradCR, et al. (2018) Threat perception and American support for torture. Political Behavior (online first).
16.
DanchevA (2006) ‘Like a Dog!’: Humiliation and shame in the War on Terror. Alternatives31(3): 259–283.
17.
DoddsK (2008) Hollywood and the popular geopolitics of the War on Terror. Third World Quarterly29(8): 1621–1637.
18.
EngelkampSGlaabK (2015) Writing norms: Constructivist norm research and the politics of ambiguity. Alternatives40(3–4): 201–218.
19.
FlynnMSalekF (eds) (2012) Screening Torture: Media Representations of State Terror and Political Domination. New York: Columbia University Press.
20.
GraysonKDavisMPhilpottS (2009) Pop goes IR? Researching the popular culture–world politics continuum. Politics29(3): 155–163.
21.
GreenbergKJDratelJ (eds) (2005) The Torture Papers: The Road to Abu Ghraib. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
22.
GronkePRejaliD (2010) U.S. public opinion on torture, 2001–2009. PS43(3): 437–444.
23.
HasianMA (2014) Military orientalism at the cineplex: A postcolonial reading of Zero Dark Thirty. Critical Studies in Media Communication31(5): 464–478.
24.
HeckA (2017) Analyzing docudramas in International Relations: Narratives in the film A Murderous Decision. International Studies Perspectives18(4): 365–390.
25.
HellmichCPurseL (eds) Disappearing War: Interdisciplinary Perspectives on Cinema and Erasure in the Post-9/11 World. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press.
JeffordsSAl-SumaitFY (eds) (2015) Covering Bin Laden: Global Media and the World’s Most Wanted Man. Urbana: University of Illinois Press.
28.
KearnsEMYoungJK (2017) ‘If torture is wrong, what about 24?’ Torture and the Hollywood effect. Crime & Delinquency: 1–22.
29.
KennedyL (2017) The elusive enemy: Zero dark thirty and the american worldview. Journal of American Studies51(3): 965–980.
30.
LangbeinJH (1976/2006) Torture and the Law of Proof: Europe and England in the Ancien Régime. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
31.
LeopoldJHendersonK (2015) Tequila, painted pearls, and Prada: How the CIA helped produce ‘Zero Dark Thirty’. Vice News, 10September.
32.
LetortD (2013) Looking back into Abu Ghraib: Standard operating procedure (Erroll Morris, 2008). Media, War & Conflict6(3): 221–232.
33.
LieseA (2009) Exceptional necessity: How liberal democracies contest the prohibition of torture and ill-treatment when countering terrorism. Journal of International Law and International Relations5(1): 17–47.
34.
MahlerJ (2015) What do we really know about Osama bin Laden’s death? The history of Obama’s most important foreign-policy victory is still being written. The New York Times, 18October.
35.
MayerJ (2012) Zero conscience in ‘Zero Dark Thirty’. The New Yorker, 14December.
36.
McCoyAW (2012) Torture and Impunity: The U.S. Doctrine of Coercive Interrogation. Madison: University of Wisconsin Press.
37.
McKeownR (2009) Norm regress: US revisionism and the slow death of the torture norm. International Relations23(1): 5–25.
38.
MillerPGronkePRejaliD (2014) Torture and public opinion: The partisan dimension. In: LightcapTPfiffnerJP (eds) Examining Torture. New York: Palgrave Macmillan.
39.
NeumannIBNexonD (2006) Introduction: Harry Potter and the study of world politics. In: NeumannIBNexonD (eds) Harry Potter and International Relations. Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield.
40.
NiemannHSchillingerH (2016) Contestation ‘all the way down’? The grammar of contestation in norm research. Review of International Studies43(1): 29–49.
41.
ObamaB (2008) CBS 60 Minutes: Interview with Barack Obama, 16 November 2008.
42.
PautzM (2015) Argo and Zero Dark Thirty: Film, government, and audiences. PS48(1): 120–128.
43.
PiotrowskaA (2014) Zero Dark Thirty – ‘war autism’ or a Lacanian ethical act?New Review of Film and Television Studies12(2): 143–155.
44.
PowersRG (2013) Zero Dark Thirty. Journal of American History100(1): 303–305.
45.
Press-BarnathanG (2017) Thinking about the role of popular culture in international conflicts. International Studies Review19(2): 166–184.
46.
PriestDGellmanB (2002) U.S. decries abuse but defends interrogations ‘stress and duress’ tactics used on terrorism suspects held in secret overseas facilities, Washington Post, 26December.
47.
PurseL (2017) Ambiguity, ambivalence and absence in Zero Dark Thirty. In: HellmichCPurseL (eds) Disappearing War: Interdisciplinary Perspectives on Cinema and Erasure in the Post-9/11 World. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 131–148.
48.
RejaliDM (2000) Torture and Democracy. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.
49.
RejaliDM (2012) Movies of modern torture as convenient truths. In: FlynnMSalekF (eds) Screening Torture: Media Representations of State Terror and Political Domination. New York: Columbia University Press.
50.
RowleyCWeldesJ (2015) So, how does popular culture relate to world politics. In: CasoFHamiltonC (eds) Popular Culture and World Politics: Theories, Methods, Pedagogies. Bristol: e-international relations.
51.
SandsP (2008) Torture Team: Rumsfeld’s Memo and the Betrayal of American Values. New York: Palgrave Macmillan.
52.
SchmidtASikkinkK (2017) This is what will happen if Trump brings back secret prisons. Washington Post, 9February.
53.
SikkinkK (2013) The United States and torture: Does the spiral model work? In: RisseT, et al. (eds) The Persistent Power of Human Rights: From Commitment to Compliance. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 145–163.
54.
SoufanA (2011) The Black Banners: The Inside Story of 9/11 and the War against Al-Qaeda. London: Penguin Press.
55.
StoreyJ (2008) Cultural Theory and Popular Culture: A reader.University of Georgia Press.
56.
SwimlearS (2013) Visualizing International Relations: Assessing student learning through film. International Studies Perspectives14(1): 14–38.
57.
Van VeerenE (2009) Interrogating 24: Making sense of US counter-terrorism in the Global War on Terrorism. New Political Science31(3): 361–384.
58.
WeldesJ (2003) Popular culture, science fiction, and world politics: Exploring intertextual relations. In: WeldesJ (ed.) To Seek Out New Worlds: Exploring Links between Science Fiction and World Politics. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan, 1–27.
59.
WestwellG (2011) Regarding the pain of others: Scenarios of obligation in post-9/11 US cinema. Journal of American Studies45(4): 815–834.
60.
WestwellG (2014) Parallel Lines: Post-9/11 American Cinema. New York: Columbia University Press.
61.
WienerA (2014) A Theory of Contestation. New York: Springer.
