Review Essay: War-Making as Worldmaking: Kenya, the United States, and the War on Terror by Samar al-Bulushi

Amina al-Bulushi’s study offers a critical re-examination of the War on Terror by shifting analytical attention from conventional geopolitical theatres to the lived experiences of individuals in Kenya. Drawing on fifteen months of fieldwork and a constructivist theoretical framework, the book investigates how security is defined, enacted, and contested in a context formally outside recognised war zones yet deeply shaped by counterterrorism practices. In doing so, it positions Kenya not merely as a passive recipient of external security agendas but as a political actor exercising agency in shaping domestic counterterrorism responses and their social consequences.