United States' Use of Torture in Counterterrorism and Global Security

The routinized and widespread use of torture by the US in the war against terrorism as well as the consistency of this torture utilization indicates that incidences of torture were not mere exceptions emanating from misguided individual behaviour, but an actual strategic element in the interrogations of detained terrorist suspects. This practice has had consequences on global security as well as adherence of states to international conventions and norms against torture. There are strong circumstantial evidences linking United States' use of torture in counterterrorism operations to the emergence of Islamic State (IS) and the conspiracy of silence among states in the face of the gross human rights abuse, which torture constitutes.