The discourse and practice of counter-terrorism in liberal democracies

Australian Journal of Politics and History

Volumn 44, Issue 3, 1998, Pages 389-413

  Crelinsten, Ronald D ^a  

^a NONE

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EID: 0032361585     PISSN: 00049522     EISSN: None     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1111/1467-8497.00028     Document Type: Article

References (56)

1. See, for example, Andrew T. Price-Smith, "Infectious Disease and State Failure: Developing a New Security Paradigm". Paper prepared for the annual meeting of the International Studies Association, Toronto, 18-22 March 1997.
2. See, for example, Matthew G. Devost, National Security in the Information Age. MA thesis in Political Science, The University of Vermont, May, 1995. For an electronic version, see 〉http://www.terrorism.com/documents/devostthesis.html〈. See also Matthew G. Devost, Brian K. Houghton and Neal Allen Pollard, "Information Terrorism: Political Violence in the Information Age", Terrorism and Political Violence 9, 1 (1997), pp. 72-83.
3. See, for example, Matthew G. Devost, National Security in the Information Age. MA thesis in Political Science, The University of Vermont, May, 1995. For an electronic version, see 〉http://www.terrorism.com/documents/devostthesis.html〈. See also Matthew G. Devost, Brian K. Houghton and Neal Allen Pollard, "Information Terrorism: Political Violence in the Information Age", Terrorism and Political Violence 9, 1 (1997), pp. 72-83.
4. Richard Clutterbuck, Terrorism in an Unstable World (London: Routledge, 1994).
5. Jean-Paul Brodeur, "High Policing and Low Policing: Remarks about the Policing of Political Activities", Social Problems 30 (1983), pp. 507-20.
6. See Didier Bigo, "Security(s): Internal and External, the möbius ribbon". Paper presented at the International Studies Association annual meeting, Toronto, 18-22 March 1997, especially pp. 13-15.
7. For earlier versions of this model, see Ronald D. Crelinsten, "Terrorism Counter-Terrorism and Democracy: The Assessment of National Security Threats", Terrorism and Political Violence 1, 2 (1989), pp. 242-69; "Terrorism as Political Communication: The Relationship Between the Controller and the Controlled", in P. Wilkinson and A. M. Stewart, eds, Contemporary Research on Terrorism (Aberdeen: University of Aberdeen Press, 1987), pp. 3-23.
8. For earlier versions of this model, see Ronald D. Crelinsten, "Terrorism Counter-Terrorism and Democracy: The Assessment of National Security Threats", Terrorism and Political Violence 1, 2 (1989), pp. 242-69; "Terrorism as Political Communication: The Relationship Between the Controller and the Controlled", in P. Wilkinson and A. M. Stewart, eds, Contemporary Research on Terrorism (Aberdeen: University of Aberdeen Press, 1987), pp. 3-23.
9. Crelinsten, "Terrorism as Political Communication".
10. David Garland, Punishment and Modern Society: A Study in Social Theory (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1990), p. 283.
11. See Ronald D. Crelinsten and Alex P. Schmid, eds, The Politics of Pain: Torturers and Their Masters (Boulder, CO: Westview Press, 1995) for an examination of the use of torture.
12. See, for example, Frederick Hacker, Crusaders, Criminals, Crazies (New York: W. W. Norton, 1976). See also the typology on the front cover of Alex Schmid's texts on terrorism, e.g. Alex P. Schmid and Albert J. Jongman, Political Terrorism: A New Guide to Actors, Authors, Concepts, Data Bases, Theories and Literature (New Brunswick: Transaction Books, 1988).
13. See, for example, Frederick Hacker, Crusaders, Criminals, Crazies (New York: W. W. Norton, 1976). See also the typology on the front cover of Alex Schmid's texts on terrorism, e.g. Alex P. Schmid and Albert J. Jongman, Political Terrorism: A New Guide to Actors, Authors, Concepts, Data Bases, Theories and Literature (New Brunswick: Transaction Books, 1988).
14. Peter H. Merkl, "Radical Right Parties in Europe and Anti-Foreigner Violence: A Comparative Essay", Terrorism and Political Violence 7 (1995), p. 100.
15. Victor Biro, Weekly Terrorism Profile (WTP), 22 April 1996.
16. In similar fashion, the term "computerror" or "computer terrorism" has sprung up in the wake of highly publicised incidents whereby individuals have managed to break into computer data banks. Such activities, including the use of computer viruses, are more a kind of sabotage rather than a new form of terrorism. The use of a term such as "computerror" only introduces more definitional confusion into an already confused area.
17. See Gary T. Marx, Undercover: Police Surveillance in America (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1988).
18. Richard V. Ericson and Kevin D. Haggerty, Policing the Risk Society (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1997), p. 246.
19. This often involved stripping national conflicts of their social, political and cultural contexts so as to characterise more easily the conflict as the result of Soviet influence. This may be why the state terrorism of the Shah of Iran was tolerated (and, it may be argued, facilitated, through technology transfer and police training) - until the Khomeini Revolution put an end to it (and replaced it with another form). For an excellent analysis of both regimes of terror, see Darius Rejali, Torture and Modernity: Self, Society, and State in Modern Iran (Boulder, CO: Westview Press, 1994).
20. This was facilitated by the first trend, since many left-wing terrorist groups either cooperated internationally/transnationally or else used an internationalist rhetoric, claiming common goals with comrades and brethren throughout the world in their common fight against Western (US) imperialism and colonialism. 18 For a comparison of American and Soviet views on terrorism at the end of the 1980s, see Brian Jenkins, "Setting the Scene", in J. Marks and I. Beliaev, eds, Common Ground on Terrorism: Soviet-American Cooperation Against the Politics of Terror (New York: W. W. Norton, 1991), pp. 30-49. While the United States focused on international terrorism, primarily because United States nationals were prime targets, the Soviet Union focused mainly on the danger of domestic terrorism. Now, we find that terrorism at home has become a prime focus of the Americans in the wake of the New York World Trade Center bombing and especially the Oklahoma City bombing, while the Soviet fears have been justified by the Chechen use of terrorism in their ongoing rebellion.
21. For more on the militarisation of counter-terrorism in the late 1980s, see Ronald D. Crelinsten and Alex P. Schmid, "Western Responses to Terrorism: A Twenty-Five Year Balance Sheet", in A. P. Schmid and R. D. Crelinsten, eds, Western Responses to Terrorism (London: Frank Cass, 1993), pp. 307-40, especially pp. 315-22.
22. For a more recent attempt to transcend some of these Cold War-inspired distortions and to view terrorism in its historical, social, political and economic context, see Martha Crenshaw, ed., Terrorism in Context (Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1995).
23. Laurence Lustgarten and Ian Leigh, In From the Cold: National Security and Parliamentary Democracy (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1994), pp. 27-30.
24. See, for example, Bruce Hoffman, "The Confluence of International and Domestic Trends in Terrorism", Terrorism and Political Violence 9, 2 (1997), pp. 2-3.
25. For an excellent analysis of the Waco incident, see Michael Barkun, "Millenarian Groups and Law Enforcement Agencies: The Lessons of Waco". Terrorism and Political Violence 6, 1 (1994), pp. 75-95.
26. See Crelinsten and Schmid, "Western Responses to Terrorism", pp. 333-34, note 20.
27. Bigo, "Security(s)", p. 12, note 5, coins the term "policiarisation" to refer to the tendency for the military to use proactive policing techniques in dealing with external trouble spots such as Bosnia. Here, I am using an Anglicised version of his term to refer to the increasing involvement of the military in matters that would normally be dealt with by the police. Another possible term would be "civilianisation", which emphasises the use of the military in peacetime.
28. Martin Woolacott, "The Long Army of the Law", Globe and Mail (Toronto), 27 January 1996, p. D4. Reprinted from the Guardian (date unknown).
29. For more on this latter shift, see Crelinsten and Schmid, "Western Responses to Terrorism", pp. 315-22.
30. Bigo, "Security(s)", p. 12.
31. Ibid., p. 11.
32. Ibid., p. 12.
33. See Ronald D. Crelinsten and Iffet Özkut, "Counterterrorism Policy in Fortress Europe: Implications for Human Rights", in Fernando Reinares, ed., European Democracies Facing Terrorism: Government Policies and Supranational Cooperation (Dartmouth/Oñati Series in Law and Society, forthcoming).
34. Bigo, "Security(s)", p. 12.
35. See Crelinsten, "Terrorism, Counter-Terrorism and Democracy" , pp. 254-55, note 7.
36. See Lustgarten and Leigh, In From the Cold, chapter 11, note 22, for a more detailed discussion of the kinds of techniques used in prosecutions and trials to balance the rights of the defence with the needs of national security.
37. For more on this trend, see Crelinsten and Özkut, "Counterterrorism Policy in Fortress Europe", note 33.
38. Lode Van Outrive, La police grise (The Grey Police). Lecture presented to the Department of Criminology, University of Ottawa, Ottawa, Canada, 21 March 1996.
39. Amnesty International, Federal Republic of Germany: Failed by the System: Police Ill-Treatment of Foreigners (London: Amnesty International, International Secretariat, 1995), AI Index: EUR 23/06/95.
40. Der Tagesspiel, 21 July 1994.
41. Stanley Cohen and Daphan Golan, The Interrogation of Palestinians During the Intifada: Ill-treatment, "Moderate Physical Pressure" or Torture? (Jerusalem: B'TSELEM - The Israeli Information Center for Human Rights in the Occupied Territories, 1991), p. 110.
42. Crelinsten and Schmid, "Western Responses to Terrorism", p. 334, note 20.
43. See Tore Bjørgo, ed., Terror from the Extreme Right, special issue of Terrorism and Political Violence 7, 1 (1995) for a collection of articles dealing with the rise in rigth-wing violence in Europe and beyond.
44. Merkl, "Radical Right Parties in Europe", pp. 104-05, note 12.
45. Ibid., p. 99.
46. Ibid., p. 113.
47. See also Crelinsten and Özkur, "Counterterrorism Policy in Fortress Europe", note 33; Peter Chalk, "EU Counter-Terrorism, the Maastricht Third Pillar and Liberal Democratic Acceptability", Terrorism and Political Violence 6, 2 (1994), pp. 103-45.
48. See also Crelinsten and Özkur, "Counterterrorism Policy in Fortress Europe", note 33; Peter Chalk, "EU Counter-Terrorism, the Maastricht Third Pillar and Liberal Democratic Acceptability", Terrorism and Political Violence 6, 2 (1994), pp. 103-45.
49. See Bigo, "Security(s)", pp. 13-18.
50. Mediatised attacks by France and Germany on Dutch drug policy as promoting drug-trafficking within Europe could be included here.
51. Bigo, "Security(s)", p. 18.
52. As in "disinformation".
53. In Zone A (Figure 4), top left, media literacy is identified as an important element of education. If members of the public were more aware of how the media can distort political discourse, they might be more immune to these media effects. See Ronald D. Crelinsten, "The Impac of Television on Terrorism and Crisis Situations: Implications for Public Policy", Journal of Contingencies and Crisis Management 2, 2 (1994), pp. 61-72.
54. For a detailed study of this case, see Donna Winslow, The Canadian Airborne Regiment in Somalia: A Socio-cultural Inquiry. A Study Prepared for the Commission of Inquiry into the Deployment of Canadian Forces to Somalia (Ottawa: Minister of Public Works and Government Services, Canada, 1997).
55. Lustgarten and Leigh, In From the Cold, pp. 27-30.
56. At a recent seminar on the future of terrorism, sponsored by the US Department of State, one of the participants suggested that the entire US population be vaccinated against anthrax, since he was convinced that an anthrax attack was inevitable given the ease with which terrorists could acquire and deliver the deadly virus. Happily, no one else found the suggestion had any merit, but one can imagine the panic if some major media outlet published an interview with this "security expert" and framed it as a prediction with high credibility.