Shielding America: Missile Defense and the Reification of Domesticity

Abstract

Imagine an impenetrable shield, impermeable to enemy missile attack, protecting the “homeland.” A shield that guarantees national security and secures national prosperity. A shield that fulfills and enables America’s destiny. This is the illusion that U.S. political leaders, defense contractors and their military clients, and conservative social advocates have presented to the American public under the guise of the “war on terror.” Rhetorical justifications of a missile defense shield for the United States portray it seductively as being the first line of defense in the war on terror, and situate the failure to pursue this “antiterror,” “antimissile” mission as irresponsible. The George W. Bush administration and its allied constituencies have presented the shield to the American populace as a package of policies—a presentation made through a gendered discourse that links defense of the country with defense of the family. We argue that, in the rhetorical war to define and defend the “homeland,” the missile defense shield serves as a magical vehicle that does not simply promise future safety, but reifies the mythical past and a projected future of gender stability and domestic order.