Terrorism, Human Rights and Law Enforcement in Spain
Terrorism systematically violates human rights and disrupts basic political processes common to liberal democracies. Combating terrorism is thus necessary in order to protect these fundamental rights and maintain the well functioning of tolerant polities. However, state initiatives put in place to c...
Terrorism, Agenda 2063 and the challenges of development in Africa
The nobility of the objectives and aspiration of the African Union’s Agenda 2063 towards the developmental needs of the African people are laudable, as are the attempts being made to ensure collective action, despite the ‘shield of sovereignty behind which too many corrupt leaders have hidden’...
Successful terrorism: framework and review
Is terrorism successful? This oft-asked but infrequently answered question is at the heart of understanding terrorism’s use. Effective policy and practice rest on a clear appreciation of how terrorism succeeds and fails. This paper identifies and reviews the literature on terrorism’s effectivene...
Success or Shirking in Terror: Control Mechanisms in State Sponsored Terrorism
State sponsored terrorism can provide significant foreign policy benefits, but terrorist organizations are regularly observed to act in opposition to their sponsor’s interests. Previous scholars have analyzed sponsorship using the principal-agent framework, describing undesired behaviors as agency...
Still the absent friend? The European Union’s global counter-terrorism role after twenty years
Over a decade ago, it was claimed that the EU was an “absent friend” in foreign policy counter-terrorism. Much has changed since then, however. Al Qaeda and Islamic State are shadows of what they were. The contribution of this article is to re-evaluate and offer a theoretically-informed account ...
Intervention as counter-insurgency politics
Today’s military interventions are best understood as a form of counter-insurgency politics. Counter-insurgency politics constructs a distinctive type of rule and governance through military intervention. It normalises the use of military force in the management and suppression of instability ins...
Is international cooperation effective in combating terrorism? Evidence from the Shanghai Cooperation Organization
Previous studies have theoretically demonstrated that international counter-terrorism cooperation can effectively combat terrorism and maintain regional stability and development. However, due to the limited availability of data, most studies lack empirical analysis. We employ differences-indiffe...
“Islamic terrorism” in New Zealand? The John Key Government, Counterterrorism, and the “Islamic terrorism” Narrative
The presence of the “Islamic terrorism” narrative in New Zealand (NZ) counterterrorism, including its impact on NZ’s response to terrorism, has not been accorded the concern it merits. In the aftermath of the Christchurch Mosque attacks on 15 March 2019, the NZ government, the Royal Commis...
“Islamic terrorism” in New Zealand? The John Key Government, Counterterrorism, and the “Islamic terrorism” Narrative
The presence of the “Islamic terrorism” narrative in New Zealand (NZ) counterterrorism, including its impact on NZ’s response to terrorism, has not been accorded the concern it merits. In the aftermath of the Christchurch Mosque attacks on 15 March 2019, the NZ government, the Royal Commis...
Low hanging fruit: reflections about studying terrorism
Within this editorial, I intend to share my reflections about studying terrorism. This is a call for members of the broadly defined social and behavioral science community to look beyond the narrow confines of specialty areas and to explore what has already been done that can be applied to understan...
Making sense of terrorism: a narrative approach to the study of violent events
How does violence become understood as terrorism? In this article, we show how a narrative approach to the study of violent events offers a conceptually productive way to understand the process of “seeing” an event as a terrorist act, one that explicitly integrates the phenomenology of violence...
Matters of care or matters of security: feminist reflections on prosecuting terrorism financing
International treaties and European directives have put new legal responsibilities on EU member states to pre-emptively monitor and prosecute terrorist activities and offences. In particular, the prosecution of terrorism financing has been an important focus to prevent material and ideological suppo...
Moving into Terrorism: How Climate-Induced Rural-Urban Migration May Increase the Risk of Terrorism
How can we expect climate change to affect terrorism? Research on climateconflict links argues that climate and conflict are unlikely to exhibit a direct relationship. Instead, these links are likely to be indirect, often through negative shocks to agriculture. Even then, politics remains a far s...
On the relationship between weak states and terrorism
This study explored recent claims of a non-significant relationship between weak (failed and failing) states and terrorism. Openly available terrorism data and state classification from stable to weak using a failed state index (FSI) were analyzed using inferential statistics. It was hypothesized th...
Online terrorism and online law
Terrorist and extremist movements have long exploited mass communications technology in pursuit of their political ends. The advent of the internet offers new opportunities. In response, state counter-measures seek to stem the impact of extreme ideologies by a number of tactics. “Positive” measu...
Pedagogy of terrorism. Mujahid Guide revisited
This article deals with a hitherto neglected aspect in terrorism research. Pedagogy, according to the argument of this paper, is inherent to modern terrorism. In order to clarify the perspective of a pedagogy of terrorism, both pedagogy and terrorism are viewed at the analytical level of communicati...
Politicising European counter-terrorism: the role of NGOs
The article examines the role of NGOs in the politicisation of EU security. The focus of the empirical analysis lies on the field of EU counter-terrorism. The cases selected are two different types of legal acts, adopted in the aftermath of serious terrorist attacks in EU member states: The EU data ...
Queering Terrorism
There are few theoretical and empirical researches on sexual fluidity and sexual victimization against men inside terrorist groups. Drawing from the case of Islamic terrorists group (Boko Haram), queer theory, and discursive accounts of male survivors, NGOs and security agents, I argue that Boko...
Refugees in uniform: community policing as a technology of government in Kakuma refugee camp, Kenya
Community policing has been a popular paradigm for local anticrime activities in Africa since the 1990s and spread rapidly across the continent. Humanitarian agencies have increasingly embraced versions of the framework to administer refugee camps and ostensibly foster security, protection and peac...
Reporting threats of terrorism: stigmatisation, procedural justice and policing Muslims in Australia
The increase in Islamic-inspired terrorism on Western soil has led governments around the world to introduce new counter-terrorism laws and more intrusive police practices aimed at countering the threat of terrorism. This has had a profound negative impact on Muslim communities living in the West w...
Responses to Terrorism in Southeast Asia
Although the most critical part of the fi ght against Islamic terrorism has to be waged by individual states within their national borders, given the nature of today’s threat, cooperation between states is crucial. Changes in the nature of terrorist organizations have also increased the demands...
Reviewing terrorism threat on China after the cold war
Over the past three decades, terrorism has directly threatened China’s national security and has played a key role in its foreign policy. The nature of terrorism in China is changing, as is the Chinese government’s response to the threat. Despite the issue’s importance, there is still little k...
Singapore: Recent developments in terrorism and Japan's role
The threat of terrorism to Singapore remains serious, given the spread of radical ideology in Southeast Asia. Aware that it is a prime terrorist target, Singapore’s response has been the most vigorous of all the states in the region. It has instituted a comprehensive homeland security structure, s...
Terror's True Nightmare? Reevaluating the Consequences of Terrorism on Democratic Governance
Some scholars argue that terrorism has few adverse consequences for political and civil liberties in democracies and that fears about a reversal of freedoms due to counterterror programs are unjustified. However, anecdotal evidence suggests that democracies respond to terrorism in ways that curtail...
Terrorism and violence: another violence is possible?
This article sets out to explore whether the category of ‘terrorism’ improves or impedes our intellectual understanding of violence. By addressing key concepts at the heart of common definitions of terrorism, the article asks these questions: What does the category of ‘terrorism’ mean for t...
Terrorism discourses, public and secret
This article provides a historical account of the American-supported ‘counterinsurgency’ campaign in Guatemala in the 1960s. The analysis of a selection of now-declassified secret documents and of a number of public testimonies given by representatives of the executive branch before the US Congr...
Terrorism measures in Bahrain: proportionality and the interplay between security, civil liberties and political stability
As a member of the Gulf Cooperation Council, Bahrain is a strategically significant country in the Arabian Gulf. Against a backdrop of political instability and sectarian tension, Bahrain faces a substantial risk of terrorism. Currently this threat arises internally from extremist Shia opposition g...
Terrorism Research: The Record
Looking back at the beginnings of academic research on terrorism just over 40 years ago, it is extraordinary to see that what was once a marginal subject for social science has developed into a full-fledged program of “terrorism studies.” In fact, recently a sociologist considered the subject o...
Terrorists, scholars and ordinary people: confronting terrorism studies with field experiences
Fieldwork in the study of terrorism remains the exception, allowing for scores of publications to be produced each year with little or no contact with the perpetrators of terrorist violence and scarce direct observation of the social realities in which it occurs. While examining some of the serious ...
Testing the Universality of the Gender Equality– Peace Thesis: The Influence of Increased Gender Equality on Terrorism in Turkey
Gender inequality has been empirically linked to the incidence of terrorism, as a motivator for women’s involvement in terrorism, and political and social violence more generally. Although these studies demonstrate that advances in gender equality on average decrease terrorism, it is unclear how t...
The “Somalinisation” of terrorism and counterterrorism in Kenya: the case of refoulement
Kenya’s state discourse on terrorism and counterterrorism securitises Somali refugees and refugee camps. Using the securitisation theory, a perspective of social constructivism as a theoretical framework, the article attempts to establish the relationship between the securitisation of Somali refu...
The “Somalinisation” of terrorism and counterterrorism in Kenya: the case of refoulement
Kenya’s state discourse on terrorism and counterterrorism securitises Somali refugees and refugee camps. Using the securitisation theory, a perspective of social constructivism as a theoretical framework, the article attempts to establish the relationship between the securitisation of Somali refu...
The Challenge of Talking about Terrorism: The EU and the Arab Debate on the Causes of Islamist Terrorism
The Arab ‘‘hegemonic debate’’ on the causes of Islamist terrorism nurtures (pan-) Arab, anti-Western sentiments and delegitimizes criticism of the political status quo. The European Union’s emphasis on multilateral means of conflict resolution and trade promotion leads to official pronounc...
The Conflict Sensitivity Principle: Can Best Practice in Conflict Research Fill the Ethics Gap in Terrorism and Counterterrorism Research Practice?
This article explores how best practice in conflict research can address some of the key gaps and limitations of the terrorism research field with regards to research ethics. It draws from conflict research literature, as well as the authors’ primary research experience in Fragile and Conflict-...
The de-radicalization, rehabilitation and reintegration project in Nigeria’s counter-terrorism strategy: Operation Safe Corridor in context
In the years since the emergence of Boko Haram, the terror threat posed by the sect’s violent extremism has remained a challenge for the Nigerian government. The failure to contain it has been attributed to the government’s over-reliance on military strategies. While conventional approaches ...
The effects of Israeli use of coercive and conciliatory tactics on Palestinian's use of terrorist tactics: 2000–2006
The study investigated the effects of Israel’s use of offensive, defensive and conciliatory tactics on Palestinian’s use of terrorist tactics. Proportional hazard modeling assessed the effects of Israeli tactics on total terrorist activity by Palestinians, suicidal and nonsuicidal acts of terro...
The failed paradigm of ‘terrorism’
This paper argues that the paradigm of ‘terrorism’ needs to be abandoned by those academics engaged in exploring political violence. The authors, through the prism of their various disciplinary backgrounds and their research experience in Northern Ireland, argue that those engaged within Terrori...
The implementation of the pentahelix model for the terrorism deradicalization program in Indonesia
The policy of countering terrorism in Indonesia is carried out through hard power (namely law enforcement) and soft power (in the form of counterradicalism and de-radicalization). The deradicalization program of terrorism carried out by the Indonesian government, especially the National Counterte...
The Importance of Europe in the Global Campaign Against Terrorism
Terrorism and how to respond to it looms large in the current transatlantic debate, with the Europeans often being accused of failing to recognise terrorism as the major strategic issue of the early twenty-first century and thus putting their own security as well as that of others at risk. This is b...
The jihadists are coming! Abyssal thinking and spatial politics of un/knowing in Ghana’s terrorism discourse
Coastal West African countries are in a threat anticipatory anxiety mode: over the fear that subaltern violent “jihadist” groups (SVJGs) are breaching their borders and heading south from across the Sahel. In Ghana, this fear has led to a build-up of commentaries, political statements, and c...
The Munich Olympics Massacre and the Development of Counter-Terrorism in Australia
Counter-terrorism is a product of government, identifying as its target a kind of violence defined as terrorism. This article explores a particular moment in its development, as an intersection of international, national and bureaucratic responses to the Munich Olympics massacre of 1972. Australian ...
The Philippine Response to Terrorism
This paper is a study of how the Philippines has responded to terrorism - currently considered by the United Nations to be a major threat to world peace and security. The author examines the conditions that give rise to terrorism in the country; the strategy and programs adopted by the governmen...
The position of the special operations forces soldiers on the so-called global war on terrorism. A survey report
Operations involving special operations forces are veiled in mystery, and public opinion is usually not well informed. The period of the last twenty years, beginning with the terrorist attacks of 09/11, has been no exception. But occasionally, official reports and the results of investigative journa...
The Role of the Chemical Weapons Convention in Countering Chemical Terrorism
A series of incidents over the past two decades has indicated that some terrorist groups are interested in acquiring and using improvised chemical devices (ICDs). Although the 1993 Chemical Weapons Convention (CWC) is a disarmament treaty that is legally binding only on sovereign states that join it...
The state terrorist as terrorism racketeer – the case of Egypt
The last decade witnessed a dramatic surge in state terror and nonstate terrorism in Egypt. Against this backdrop, this article investigates how the al-Sisi regime engages in a particular form of terrorism racketeering aimed at generating continued external resources as well as political and mil...
The UK's anti-terrorism laws: does their practical use correspond to legislative intention?
This article argues that the UK’s anti-terrorism laws have, for the most part, been tailored to a particular terrorist threat. In the twentieth century, the main threat to the UK was from Northern Irish terrorism. In the twenty-first century, the threat has predominantly emanated from internationa...
The United Kingdom's “War Against Terrorism”
This article examines the United Kingdom’s current response to international terrorism and argues that the response has been driven by heightened concerns of major terrorist attacks. From the enactment of emergency legislation to major structural changes within the intelligence community, the art...
Three waves of critical terrorism studies: agendasetting, elaboration, problematisation
The past twenty years have witnessed critical terrorism studies (CTS) become an increasingly influential body of work. In this article, I offer the first sustained effort to chart CTS’ development and transformation by positing three successive waves in its evolution. CTS’ first wave, I argu...
Too Close for Comfort: Cyber Terrorism and Information Security across National Policies and International Diplomacy
This article analyses the evolution and interplay of national policies and international diplomacy on cyber terrorism within and across the UNSC’s permanent five members and the UN process on cyber norms (GGE and OEWG). First, it reveals how – through the extension of preemptive measures to ...
Transnational dynamics and Islamist terrorism in the West
In most contemporary Islamist terrorist plots in the West, we suspect a transnational component. This study attempts to identify and quantify this component. The author has created a data set of Islamist terrorist attacks, and foiled and failed plots in the West as well as against Western targets ou...
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