The extraordinary rendition network: illiberal security complexes and global governance

The Rendition, Detention, and Interrogation programme was implemented by the G.W. Bush Administration in order to covertly capture and move “suspected terrorists” around the globe, and ultimately detain and torture them in secret facilities. Using network analysis of rendition flight data, we measure the centrality of democratic and nondemocratic states within the network. The data indicate first that the network was designed to avoid domestic and international accountability, skirting global governance systems. Second, we find that democratic states and non-democratic states participated in the network and both had touch-points with flights carrying detainees, though democratic states more often served in an obfuscation role than in flight legs involving a rendered individual. We argue that the rendition network is an example of what we term an illiberal security complex: a network that is structured to operate covertly and informally in order to violate international norms and rules without detection.