This project asks how extraordinary rendition and secret detention of terror suspects has developed and whether they are US-led phenomena. Sources will include as yet unanalysed databases of detention facilities and detainees and the case histories of victims of rendition. This will enable the research team to provide a more robust theoretical basis for this illicit yet widespread phenomenon. The team will explore three key questions: Is the global system of rendition and secret detention US-led, or is it a more diffuse system with distinct and partly autonomous regional sub-systems that serve specific local as well as US interests? Are there any regional differences in the ways in which rendition and secret detention have developed and are operated? Can we identify any specific evolutionary moments or shifts in the development and operation of rendition and secret detention? Research findings may challenge public assumptions about rendition and secret detention as a US response to terrorism. The development of a theoretical model to explain rendition will contribute to scholarly debate on security collaborations and state violence. Project outputs will be of practical use to those agencies involved in the legal representation of victims of rendition and secret detention.

The flight logs of aircraft that have been involved in the rendition of prisoners since 2001 have been obtained through Freedom of Information Requests, and passed onto the research team by a range of human rights litigators and human rights NGOs. We collated the data to produce a dataset of the flight data to help us analyse patterns in the global rendition system.