PUB - Publikationen an der Universität Bielefeld

The US-administration under George W. Bush reacted on the attacks of 9/11 with a modification of its security policy, which particularly involved the redefinition of the criterion of imminence in course of preventive military practices. Under the heading of preemption, this is debated in Security Studies - as a special preventive rationality. In the course of this logic, preventive activities shall not just be executed until concrete indications for an attack exist, but already when the security risk is not yet visible. At hand, by drawing on empirical data from documents and interviews, it is exemplarily shown that this preemptive style of reasoning is also executed in mundane contexts of risk, namely in the context of suspicionless drug testing at German workplaces, where employees and/or applicants are controlled concerning their drug consumption habits without provoking suspicion by their own behavior.