scholarly journals 9/11 and the emergence of Critical Terrorism Studies

2021 ◽  
Vol 27 (2) ◽  
pp. 9-25
Author(s):  
Raquel Da Silva ◽  
Alice Martini
Keyword(s):  
Problem Solving ◽  
War On Terror ◽  
Global War On Terror ◽  
Counter Terrorism ◽  
Counter Narrative ◽  
Diverse Backgrounds ◽  
Alternative Approaches ◽  
Global War ◽  
The Impact

The attacks of 11 September 2001 have profoundly impacted the field of terrorism studies. In this article we aim to trace, in particular, the impact of this date on the establishment of critical terrorism studies (CTS) as a school of thought. Such an endeavour aims to create an ‘umbrella-term’ to gather scholars from diverse backgrounds, in an attempt to provide a counter-narrative to the dominant, mainstream understanding of terrorism and counter-terrorism. CTS scholarship offers alternative approaches to state-centred, ahistorical, and ‘problem-solving’ standpoints, which have been at the origin of numerous atrocities committed, for example, under the Global War on Terror banner. This article explores the key debates stirred by CTS scholarship over the years, its recent advancements, and existing gaps.

Deterrence and Democracy

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Richard A. Falkenrath
Keyword(s):  
War On Terror ◽  
Terrorist Attacks ◽  
Global War On Terror ◽  
Counter Terrorism ◽  
Liberal Democratic ◽  
The Us ◽  
Democratic Societies ◽  
Global War ◽  
Taking Action ◽  
The Given

This chapter examines strategy and deterrence and traces the shift from deterrence by ‘punishment’ to deterrence by ‘denial’ in Washington’s conduct of the Global War on Terror. The former rested on an assumption that the consequences of an action would serve as deterrents. The latter may carry messages of possible consequences, but these are delivered by taking action that removes the capabilities available to opponents – in the given context, the Islamist terrorists challenging the US. Both approaches rest on credibility, but are more complex in the realm of counter-terrorism, where the US authorities have no obvious ‘return to sender’ address and threats to punish have questionable credibility. In this context, denial offers a more realistic way of preventing terrorist attacks. Yet, the advanced means available to the US are deeply ethically problematic in liberal democratic societies. However, there would likely be even bigger questions if governments failed to act.

scholarly journals Enter 9/11: Latin America and the Global War on Terror

2020 ◽  
Vol 52 (3) ◽  
pp. 545-573
Author(s):  
Markus-Michael Müller
Keyword(s):  
Latin America ◽  
Latin American ◽  
Local Knowledge ◽  
War On Terror ◽  
Discursive Construction ◽  
Global War On Terror ◽  
Security Governance ◽  
Counter Terrorism ◽  
Global War

AbstractThis article offers an analysis of the transnational discursive construction processes informing Latin American security governance in the aftermath of 9/11. It demonstrates that the Global War on Terror provided an opportunity for external and aligned local knowledge producers in the security establishments throughout the Americas to reframe Latin America's security problems through the promotion of a militarised security epistemology, and derived policies, centred on the region's ‘convergent threats’. In tracing the discursive repercussions of this epistemic reframing, the article shows that, by tapping into these discourses, military bureaucracies throughout the Americas were able to overcome their previous institutional marginalisation vis-à-vis civilian agencies. This development contributed to the renaissance of counter-insurgency and counter-terrorism discourses and policies in the region, allowing countries such as Colombia and Brazil to reposition themselves globally by exporting their military expertise for confronting post-9/11 threats beyond the region.

scholarly journals Managing ‘dangerous populations’: How colonial emergency laws shape citizenship

2020 ◽  
Vol 51 (6) ◽  
pp. 557-578 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yael Berda
Keyword(s):  
War On Terror ◽  
Population Control ◽  
Vantage Point ◽  
New Democracies ◽  
Security Risk ◽  
Global War On Terror ◽  
Counter Terrorism ◽  
The Matrix ◽  
Population Classification ◽  
Global War

This article traces the historical foundations of current security legislation as the matrix of citizenship. Examining Israel’s new Counter-Terrorism Law against the backdrop of security legislation in India, its main proposition is that these laws and their effects are rooted in colonial emergency regulations and the bureaucratic mechanisms for population control developed therein, rather than in the ‘global war on terror’. The article offers an organizational vantage point from which to understand the development of population-classification practices in terms of an ‘axis of suspicion’ that conflates ‘political risk’ with ‘security risk’. Through an account of the formalization of emergency laws, it explains the effects of colonial bureaucracies of security upon independent regimes seeking legitimacy as new democracies by tracing decisions regarding the use of an inherited arsenal of colonial and settler-colonial practices of security laws for population management, particularly mobility restrictions, surveillance and political control. One of the most important of these effects is the shaping of the citizenship of targeted populations by security laws.

Iran: The state and terrorism in Iran

2019 ◽  
pp. 363-384
Author(s):  
Ali M. Ansari
Keyword(s):  
Political Violence ◽  
French Revolution ◽  
State Policy ◽  
War On Terror ◽  
Historical Context ◽  
Global War On Terror ◽  
The Us ◽  
Global War ◽  
The Impact

This paper discusses the role of 'terror' and 'terrorism' as an aspect of state policy in Iran during the twentieth century, looking at its historical context both within Qajar Iran and as an aspect of state policy during there French Revolution. The paper critically assesses Iranian state's relationship with the term, as both a perceived victim and perpetrator, and focusses on the application of political violence against both dissidents and political opponents where the term 'terror' is used in Persian as a synonym for assassination. The paper looks at the various justifications for the use of terror and political violence, the legacy of the Rushdie affair and the impact of the US led Global War on Terror on perceptions within Iran. 

Abstract of Counter-Insurgency in the Philippines and the Global War on Terror. Examining the Dynamics of the Twenty-first Century Long Wars

2010 ◽  
Vol 9 (1) ◽  
pp. 135-160
Author(s):  
Renato Cruz De Castro
Keyword(s):  
War On Terror ◽  
Armed Forces ◽  
The Philippines ◽  
First Century ◽  
Global War On Terror ◽  
Low Intensity ◽  
The Third ◽  
Global War ◽  
The Impact ◽  
Structure And Functions

AbstractThis article examines how the global war on terror affects the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP), particularly its long and continuous involvement in many wars of the third kind. It discusses the history and essence of counter-insurgency warfare or low-intensity conflict (LICs) in the Philippine setting. It then explores the impact of the global war on terror on the Philippine military's counter-insurgency campaigns and the current reforms in the Philippine defence establishment to end the insurgency problems. In conclusion, the article argues these reforms and the post-9/11 US security assistance will not significantly transform the AFP's structure and functions as it will be preoccupied with its anti-terrorist and counter-insurgency efforts indefinitely into the future.

scholarly journals Military and monetary power: Are they the right counter-terrorism strategies?

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Minh-Hoang Nguyen
Keyword(s):  
International Collaboration ◽  
War On Terror ◽  
Trust Building ◽  
Global War On Terror ◽  
Counter Terrorism ◽  
Suicide Attacks ◽  
Global Terrorism ◽  
Building Activities ◽  
The Right ◽  
Global War

Two-century efforts of the global war on terror, using overwhelming monetary power and modern destructive weapons, still could not obliterate terrorism. The suicide attacks into Kabul airport are evidence of the existing risks of the return of global terrorism. They, terrorists, might come back stronger and deadlier, using the weapons that used to belong to counter-terrorism fighters to damage their homeland. So, is it time to rethink the grand global counter-terrorism strategies? In my opinion, terrorism can be countered by neither modern military weapons, technologies, nor monetary power but through trust-based international collaboration and trust-building activities

Institutions as swords and shields: multilateral counter-terrorism since 9/11

2010 ◽  
Vol 36 (3) ◽  
pp. 591-613 ◽  
Author(s):  
PETER ROMANIUK
Keyword(s):  
War On Terror ◽  
International Institutions ◽  
Maritime Security ◽  
Weak States ◽  
Global War On Terror ◽  
Counter Terrorism ◽  
Terrorist Financing ◽  
Distributional Consequences ◽  
Global War ◽  
Over Time

AbstractInternational institutions are prominent in the ‘global War on Terror’. But there remains variation in the institutionalisation of counter-terrorism, across policy domains and over time. I argue that institutions pursue tasks of counter-terrorism when they are backed by power. Institutions function as ‘swords’ as strong states seek to influence others. Weak states, too, are sensitive to the distributional consequences of cooperation and use institutions as ‘shields’ to resist the powerful. These claims are reflected in patterns of cooperation within the UN, and in terrorist financing and maritime security. Looking forward, multilateral counter-terrorism may remain contingent upon state power.

Counter-Terrorism in the Post-9/11 Era

2015 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rashmi Singh
Keyword(s):  
War On Terror ◽  
Global War On Terror ◽  
Counter Terrorism ◽  
Strategic Vision ◽  
The Past ◽  
The Us ◽  
The Future ◽  
Global War ◽  
Successes And Failures

This chapter assesses the US-led counter-terrorism response to the September 2001 attacks on the American homeland in order to gauge the successes and failures of the Global War on Terror. It concludes that successes against transnational terrorist threats, as represented by al-Qaida and its affiliates, have been few and far between. Instead, the past decade has been marked by a failure to meet set goals for a number of reasons, including but not limited to: the shifting character of war, the unintended fallouts of the counter-terrorism policies adopted, and an inadvertent strengthening of al-Qaida’s material and ideological capabilities through the US macro-securitisation of the Global War on Terror–all of which point to the absence of a long-term strategic vision. However, our counter-terrorism failures hold crucial lessons for the future and the chapter concludes by outlining how they can enable us to translate our past failures into future successes.

A Curriculum of Fear

2016 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nicole Nguyen
Keyword(s):  
School Reform ◽  
Homeland Security ◽  
War On Terror ◽  
The Political ◽  
Global War On Terror ◽  
Critical Scholarship ◽  
The Social ◽  
Global War ◽  
The Impact ◽  
The U.S

By traveling through daily life at the school, A Curriculum of Fear investigates how students and school staff made sense of, negotiated, and contested the intense focus on national security, terrorism, and their militarized responsibilities to the nation. Drawing from critical scholarship on school militarization, neoliberal school reform, the impact of the global war on terror on everyday life in the U.S., and the political uses of fear, this book maps the social, political, and economic contexts that gave rise to the school’s Homeland Security program and its popularity. Ultimately, as the first ethnography of a high school Homeland Security program, this book traces how Milton was not only “under siege”—shaped by the new normal imposed by the global war on terror—it actively prepared for the siege itself.

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