Critical Terrorism Studies

Cosmopolitanism vs Terrorism? Discourses of Ethical Possibility Before and After 7/7

by james brassett

The article provides a critical analysis of the relationship between cosmopolitanism and terrorism, via the question... more The article provides a critical analysis of the relationship between cosmopolitanism and terrorism, via the question of response. Using 9/11 and 7/7 as key moments in the evolution of this relationship, the article asks: how does cosmopolitanism respond to terrorism? What limits does this response contain? How might we go beyond such limits? It is argued that cosmopolitan responses to terrorism provide an important, but limited (and sometimes limiting), alternative to mainstream discourses on terror. After 9/11 the possibility for cosmopolitan thinking ‘beyond’ the mainstream view was articulated by a range of authors, including Archibugi, Habermas, Held and Linklater. A brief survey suggests that defending international law, constructing international institutions and alleviating global poverty were seen as good responses, in the context of divisive mainstream politics. However, by engaging a case study of the Make Poverty History campaign, the article argues that when cosmopolitan ideas were cemented in practice, the distinctiveness of a cosmopolitan response faded. This point was brought into sharp relief by a number of moralising responses to 7/7. Straightforward dichotomies between ‘barbaric terrorists’ and ‘civilised cosmopolitans’ served to construct cosmopolitanism as a coherent, and united, global community. Available tactics, for this ‘community’, were reduced to more-of-the same – more aid, more global democracy – and assertions of a moral equivalence between Bush and ‘Terror’, such that ‘you are either with cosmopolitans, or, you are with the War on Terror’. In light of
these ethical closures, and drawing from the arguments of Jacques Derrida and Judith Butler, the article identifies some cursory ways in which cosmopolitans might think beyond such limits, to articulate an imaginative and engaged approach to global ethics.

We Don't Negotiate with Terrorists!': Legitimacy and Complexity in Terrorist Conflicts

by Harmonie Toros

Terrorists, scholars and ordinary people: confronting terrorism studies with field experiences

by Harmonie Toros

Bild dir Deine Meinung. Die metaphorische Konstruktion des Terrorismus in den Medien

by Alexander Spencer

published in 'Zeitschrift für Internationale Beziehungen', Vol. 18, No. 1 (2011), 47-76.

Sic[k] of the New Terrorism Debate? A Response to our Critics

by Alexander Spencer

published in 'Ciritical Studies on Terrorism', Vol. 4, No. 3 (2011), 459-467.

Apart from the great debates on the definition of terrorism or its causes, the discussion about whether ‘new... more Apart from the great debates on the definition of terrorism or its causes, the discussion about whether ‘new terrorism’ can really be considered new or not has become one of the central disagreements in terrorism research. This article will respond to the criticism voiced by some of the proponents of the ‘new terrorism’ idea and reflect on the merits of their arguments. It will emphasis the importance of words and the implication of small predicates such as ‘new’ for the construction of terrorism and our reaction to it.

Know thy enemy: Hizbullah,'terrorism'and the politics of perception

by Mona Harb

co-authored with Reinoud Leenders, Third World Quartelry, Vol.26(1), p.173-197 (2005).

Rethinking Terrorist Safe Havens: Beyond a State-Centric Approach

by Benjamin Ducol

Over the last decade, the term safe haven has stirred controversy both in the political arena as well as in the... more Over the last decade, the term safe haven has stirred controversy both in the political arena as well as in the academic literature. Several authors have emphasised the imprecise and commonly ill-conceived use of this terminology. This article intends to provide a fresh analytical framework to better understand the notion of terrorist safe haven. Rejecting the orthodox state-centric approach that envisions terrorist safe havens solely in their static and territorial dimensions, we focus rather on the social dynamics that characterise these spaces. We contend that although they might appear socially fragmented, these geographical areas are ruled by alternative modes of governance that impose a form of social order regulating interactions among actors. We use the concept of ‘social space’ to capture the framework in which social interactions between local actors are taking place. While we recognise that the social order that governs a given social space imposes constraints for actors, we contend that it can be subjected to internal contestation, opening a series of opportunities for transnational terrorist networks. We then try to highlight how terrorist groups might take advantage of these internal dynamics and create new ones to ensnare some local actors into forming alliances with them. This article addresses several case studies to further illustrate the theoretical discussion. Finally, we conclude with a discussion of the importance of interpersonal relationships between local and transnational actors. While this article proposes a preliminary analysis of the question, it opens up new research avenues in conceptualising why and how some regions have come to attract transnational terrorist groups.

'Remembering and Forgetting Sites of Terrorism in New York, 1900–2001'

by Ross Wilson

Journal of Conflict Archaeology, Vol. 6 No. 3, September, 2011, 200–21

This article assesses the manner in which terrorist attacks have been remembered and forgotten within New York during... more This article assesses the manner in which terrorist attacks have been remembered and forgotten within New York during the twentieth century. As a ‘global city’, New York has frequently been the focus of individuals and groups seeking to promote their cause by attacking targets in the city, its businesses, its infrastructure, its organizations, and its citizens. By examining how these events were reported and subsequently incorporated or dismissed within both the urban fabric and the city’s ‘collective memory’, this article addresses how violent terrorism is engaged with by society. Building upon the advances made within the study of modern conflict archaeology, this article examines the possibility of an archaeology of terrorism.

Lies, Damned Lies and Plagiarizing "Experts"

by Darryl Li

Middle East Report 260, Fall 2011 (subscriber access only)

This inset box, which accompanies the article "'Afghan Arabs,' Real and Imagined," highlights an instance in... more This inset box, which accompanies the article "'Afghan Arabs,' Real and Imagined," highlights an instance in which the 9/11 Commission Report plagiarized the research of a terrorism "expert" that was itself unreliable.

Psychology of Terrorism

by Robert Silva

This paper was written for Dr. Hanami, at San Francisco State University

It is the scope of Terrorism a early version could have typos, deals with psychology syndromes and complexes looking... more It is the scope of Terrorism a early version could have typos, deals with psychology syndromes and complexes looking at social psychology as tool to understand the terrorist mind set.

Hayward, K. J (2011) ‘The critical terrorism studies-cultural criminology nexus: some thoughts on how to “toughen up” the critical studies approach’, Critical Studies of Terrorism, 4 (1) pp 57-73

by Keith Hayward

The first of a couple of new papers on cultural criminology and terrorism. Another paper on terrorism and existentialism will follow shortly.

This paper adopts the perspective of cultural criminology to engage with some of the recent criticisms that have... more This paper adopts the perspective of cultural criminology to engage with some of the recent criticisms that have surfaced regarding critical terrorism studies (CTS). In particular, the paper responds to a number of critics who have implored CTS to move away from discursive and constructivist accounts of terrorism and to concentrate instead on more tangible social relations linked to politico-economic interests and historical conditions. The paper proceeds in two parts. First, it outlines the intellectual and epistemological commonalities that exist between CTS and cultural criminology. It then takes a more critical turn, offering up a series of examples from within cultural criminology that might help make the ‘critical’ in CTS less ambiguous.

Phileas Fogᵍ, or the Cyclonic Passepartout: On the Alchemical Elements of War

by Dan Mellamphy

Dan Mellamphy and Nandita Biswas Mellamphy, Forthcoming in Ed Keller, Nicola Masciandaro and Eugene Thacker (eds.), Proceedings of the First International Cyclonopedia Symposium (New York: Punctum Books, 2012 http://www.createspace.com/3790549) 192-212.

http://tiny.cc/cyclonopedia

This paper, written... more http://tiny.cc/cyclonopedia

This paper, written for the First International
Cyclonopedia Symposium (http://www.newschool.edu/
parsons/events.aspx?id=61278) in which we participated
along with a group of our graduate students from the CSTC,
engages the theories of War that have been articulated in
Reza Negarestani’s text, and specifically the notion of
the hyper-camouflaged agent of militarized taqiyya.
The latter (the agent of militarized taqiyya) is
correlated in our essay with three distinct
yet inter-related strands in and of
Cyclonopedia’s military analysis:
one that is “mathematical” (namely
geometrical analyses of trisonic cyclones);
one that is “mythological” (namely the analyses of
the Assyrian “Lamassu complex”); and one that is perhaps
more straightforwardly as opposed to obliquely (i.e. geo-
metrically and mythologically) “militant” and “military”:
the analyses of the militant religious Naphtanese
or People of Napht, a “transient omnipresence
inside and outside the battlefield” whose
tactics and strategies are based on “the belief
that War has a life of its own” ...The Naphtanese them-
selves endeavor to become the ‘Fog of War’, and we argue
in the present work that agents of militarized taqiyya are
equivalents within so-called ‘peace’-time of this
becoming-‘fog’ -- but whereas the Naphtanese fog
is akin to the black smoke of the battlefield (the earthly
vapors of the Ancient Greek ‘Aer’), the fog of taqiyya
is far more aethereal (akin to the Ancient Greek
‘Aether’, related to ‘Aer’ insofar as it is a
rarified form of the latter, ‘Ae[the]r’).
What Negarestani calls “the militarization of peace”
brings into play an entire aethereal network
and an alchemy of such [a]ethernet-
works.

Justifications for Violence

by Kevin Magill

10,000 word essay, published in Encyclopedia of Violence, Peace and Conflict, 2nd edn, ed. Lester Kurz, Elsevier, 2008.

See also 'Sorel, Nietzsche and ethical reasoning about violence: further thoughts on "Justifications for violence" ...’ http://wlv.academia.edu/KevinMagill/Papers/515618/Sorel_Nietzsche_and_ethical_reasoning_about_violence_further_thoughts_on_Justifications_for_violence_K._Magill_in_L._Kurtz_ed._The_Encyclopedia_of_Violence_Peace_and_Conflict_Academic_Press_2008_2nd_Edition_

Examines various arguments about whether and under what circumstances political violence can be justified and how they... more Examines various arguments about whether and under what circumstances political violence can be justified and how they can be employed in thinking ethically about violence. It begins by looking at arguments about the justifiability of violence that draw on major ethical theories such as deontology, utilitarianism and consequentialism. It then discusses more specific considerations and arguments concerning obligations to obey the law, the relationship between violence and reason, and between violence and democracy, and whether our duties and obligations regarding the use of violence are universal in scope or are limited by national, religious, community and class affiliation. Finally, it makes some novel suggestions about the overall purpose and conduct of discussions about the justifiability of violence in political theory and philosophy.

The orthodox and the critical approach toward terrorism: An overview

by Poowin Bunyavejchewin

Southeast Current 8(86) (2011): 34-42.

The incident of 11 September 2001 has led to numerous research on terrorism, especially in the United States.... more The incident of 11 September 2001 has led to numerous research on terrorism, especially in the United States. Nevertheless, most research tends to adopt the same practices and conclude in the same direction. These have been called orthodox terrorism studies. Recently, a new approach to studies of terrorism has appeared in the form of Welsh School of Critical Security Studies. This short article aims to clarify the main differences between orthodox terrorism studies and critical studies. More specifically, we will examine the differences in their ontology, epistemology, and methodology. The implications of the distinctions will also be discussed.