Problematising Counter-Terrorism Review
Although counter-terrorism review often works well in the United Kingdom, challenges to realising the accountability potential of counter-terrorism review persist. In large part, those challenges reflect the persistence of exceptionalist thinking within the counter-terrorist state. This chapter zooms out from the detailed accounts given in Chapters 2 and 3 to problematise counter-terrorism review from the perspective of accountability. In doing so it dwells on four persistent challenges that emerge from the analysis of counter-terrorism review: the secret state, the abundance of executive control, the limitations of Parliament, and the absence of trust. These challenges have a serious impact on counter-terrorism review but, to a large extent, this chapter argues that their resolution may be beyond the reach of the assemblage itself.