Critical Terrorism Studies: A New Research Agenda

Critical Terrorism Studies: A New Research Agenda

Language: English

Pages: 292

ISBN: 0415574153

Format: PDF / Kindle (mobi) / ePub


In response to the growth of a critical perspective on contemporary issues of terrorism, this edited volume brings together a number of leading scholars to debate the new subfield of 'critical terrorism studies'.

In the years since the 9/11 attacks, terrorism studies has undergone a major transformation from minor subfield of security studies into a large stand-alone field, and is probably one of the fastest expanding areas of research in the Western academic world. However, much of the literature is beset by a number of problems, limiting its potential for producing rigorous empirical findings and genuine theoretical advancement. In response to these weaknesses in the broader field, a small but increasing number of scholars have begun to articulate a critical perspective on contemporary issues of terrorism. This volume brings together a number of leading scholars to debate the need for and the shape of this exciting new subfield.The first part of the volume examines some of the main shortcomings and limitations of orthodox terrorism studies, while the second examines exactly what a 'critical' terrorism studies would look like. Contributors from a variety of methodological and disciplinary perspectives give this volume diversity, and it will lay the foundations for, and provoke debate about, the future research agenda of this new field.

This book will be of much interest to students of critical security studies, terrorism studies and IR theory in general.

Richard Jackson is Reader in the Department of International Politics, Aberystwyth University, where he is also Senior Researcher at the Centre for the Study of Radicalisation and Contemporary Political Violence (CSRV). He is the founding editor of the journal, Critical Studies on Terrorism. Marie Breen Smyth is Director of the Centre for the Study of Radicalisation and Contemporary Political Violence (CSRV) at Aberystwyth University. She is a Reader in International Politics and co-editor of the journal, Critical Studies on Terrorism. Jeroen Gunning is Lecturer in International Politics at Aberystwyth University, Deputy Director of the Centre for the Study of Radicalisation and Contemporary Political Violence and co-editor of the journal, Critical Studies on Terrorism.

Jackal: The Secret Wars of Carlos the Jackal

After Bali: The Threat of Terrorism in Southeast Asia

The Mirage Man: Bruce Ivins, the Anthrax Attacks, and America's Rush to War

Headley And I

Devil's Game: How the United States Helped Unleash Fundamentalist Islam

Long Mile Home: Boston Under Attack, the City's Courageous Recovery, and the Epic Hunt for Justice

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

already burgeoning literature on “terrorism” published prior to 2001’ (Breen Smyth, 2007: 260). Similarly, there were only seven articles on definitional aspects in this same time period, whereas there were only one or two articles addressing major theoretical dimensions in understanding terrorism. David Leheny is one of the few academics who have argued that Constructivism, through the role of symbolism, strategic signaling, and social movement theory, could be a useful vehicle to more closely

observers that a ‘selfmade al-Qaeda expert’ becomes the custodian in the portrayal of the evolution of al-Qaeda, rather than seasoned scholars with superior knowledge and decades of experience in the region. Probably the answer is simply a financially-driven pliability to stay on message for the prosecution that would not easily exist with a reputable academic with his or her hard-earned reputation at stake. A principal problem with charlatans and self-proclaimed terrorism expertise in a court of

internal contradictions, mistakes, misconceptions, and omissions to criticise it on its own terms and expose the events and perspectives that the discourse fails to acknowledge or address (see Milliken, 1999). In such critique, it is not uncommon to use the evidence or arguments of one text to critique another, or even to use different parts of the same text or author to highlight contradictions or alternative explanations. The point of this form of internal critique is not to establish the

hegemonic political practices in society. For instance, the primary focus on the ‘problem’ of non-state terrorism functions to distract from and deny the long history of Western involvement in 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 4 4 4 4 4 4 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 0 1 2 3 4 5 Knowledge, power and politics 79 terrorism (see Blakeley, forthcoming), thereby constructing Western foreign policy as

phenomenon, the evolution and dynamics of terrorist groups, and how to deal with it from a state perspective (Maskaliunaite, 2004). Some argued that ‘the very fact that the subject of terrorism is studied from so many different angles may well be an advantage and not a shortcoming of the field’ (ibid.). It requires increasingly interdisciplinary collaboration, as terrorism in the age of globalization and increased complexity can be characterized, in the words of Nancy Hayden, as a ‘wicked

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