A case for critical terrorism studies?

Government and Opposition

Volumn 42, Issue 3, 2007, Pages 363-393

  Gunning, Jeroen ^a  

^a NONE

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EID: 34250796383     PISSN: 0017257X     EISSN: 14777053     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1111/j.1477-7053.2007.00228.x     Document Type: Article

References (62)

1. I would like to thank Ken Booth, Marie Breen Smyth, Stuart Croft, Frazer Egerton, John Horgan, Richard Jackson, Matt McDonald, Harmonie Toros and Michael Williams for their comments on earlier drafts of the paper and for many illuminating discussions on its subject matter.
2. The 'scare marks' are intended to signal that 'terrorism' is a deeply contested term, the analytical value of which has been undermined by the political use of the term, and to remind readers that the need to problematise the term and its political usages is central to any 'critical turn'.
3. Cf. at the University of Wales, Aberystwyth (2002) and the University of East London (2006).
4. Cf. Andrew Silke (ed.), Research on Terrorism: Trends, Achievements and Failures, London, Frank Cass, 2004; Brendan O'Leary and Andrew Silke, 'Understanding and Ending Persistent Conflicts: Bridging Research and Policy', in Marianne Heiberg, Brendan O'Leary and John Tirman (eds), Terror, Insurgency and the State: Ending Protracted Conflicts, Philadelphia, University of Pennsylvania Press, 2007; Magnus Ranstorp, 'Mapping Terrorism Research: Challenges and Priorities', in Magnus Ranstorp (ed.), Mapping Terrorism Research: State of the Art, Gaps and Future Direction, London, Routledge, 2006.
5. Here too the scare marks are intended to signal that what such a 'critical turn' entails is contested. For debates about what 'critical' entails (or should entail) in the cognate field of Critical Security Studies (on which I draw in making my argument), see e.g. Steve Smith, 'The Contested Concept of Security', in Ken Booth (ed.), Critical Security Studies and World Politics, Boulder, CO, Lynne Rienner, 2004; Ken Booth, 'Beyond Critical Security Studies', in Booth, Critical Security Studies; Michael Williams and Keith Krause, 'Preface', in Michael Krause and Keith Williams (eds), Critical Security Studies, Minneapolis, University of Minnesota Press, 1997; Kimberly Hutchings, 'The Nature of Critique in Critical International Relations Theory', in Richard Wyn Jones (ed.), Critical Theory and World Politics, London, Lynne Rienner, 2001.
6. Avishag Gordon Terrorism as an Academic Subject after 9/11 Studies in Conflict and Terrorism, 28 : 1 (2005 pp. 46 50
7. 'Policy relevance' should of course not be judged simply in terms of whether policy actually changes or whether the research is 'relevant' to the ruling elite. The point is that this form of research is driven by a need to engage in issues of public policy.
8. See note 6.
9. Alex Schmid and Albert Jongman, Political Terrorism: A New Guide to Actors, Authors, Concepts, Data Bases, Theories and Literature, Amsterdam, North-Holland Publishing, 1988, p. 179.
10. Silke, 'An Introduction to Terrorism Research', pp. 61-5.
11. Cf. also John Horgan, 'The Search for the Terrorist Personality', in Andrew Silke (ed.), Terrorists, Victims and Society: Psychological Perspectives on Terrorism and its Consequences, Chichester, Wiley, 2003, p. 30ff.
12. Conference paper presented at 'Is it Time for a Critical Terrorism Studies?', University of Manchester/University of Aberystwyth, October 2006. See also Ranstorp, 'Mapping Terrorism Research', pp. 6-7; O'Leary and Silke, 'Bridging Research and Policy', p. 394.
13. Cf. Bruce Hoffman, Al-Qaeda, Trends in Terrorism, and Future Potentialities: An Assessment, Washington, DC, RAND, 2003; Walter Laqueur, Voices of Terror: Manifestos, Writings, and Manuals of Al Qaeda, Hamas, and Other Terrorists from Around the World and Throughout the Ages, New York, Reed Press, 2004; Raphael Israeli, 'Hamas Charter', The 1988-1989 Annual on Terrorism, Dordrecht, Kluwer Academic Publishers, 1990.
14. Silke, 'The Road Less Travelled' pp. 207-9. See also R. D. Crelinsten, 'Terrorism as Political Communication: The Relationship Between the Controller and the Controlled', in Paul Wilkinson and Alasdair Stewart (eds), Contemporary Research on Terrorism, Aberdeen, Aberdeen University Press, 1987, pp. 4-6.
15. Ranstorp, 'Mapping Terrorism Research', p. 7; Donatella della Porta, Social Movements, Political Violence, and the State: A Comparative Analysis of Italy and Germany, Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 1995, pp. 5-7.
16. Silke raised this at the October 2006 'Is it Time for a Critical Terrorism Studies?' conference.
17. O'Leary and Silke, 'Bridging Research and Policy', p. 393. Related to this are the issue of language skills, and the reported decline of language and area studies (cf. Francis Fukuyama, 'How Academia Failed the Nation: The Decline of Regional Studies', in SAISPHERE 2003; Anoush Ehteshami, 'Report - Middle Eastern Studies in the United Kingdom: A Challenge for Government, Industry and the Academic Community', in BRISMES; Victor King, 'Defining Southeast Asia and the Crisis in Area Studies: Personal Reflections on a Region', Working Paper No 13, Centre for East and South-East Asian Studies, Lund University, Sweden, 2005).
18. Sidney Tarrow, 'Foreword', in della Porta, Social Movements, Political Violence, and the State, p. vii. Cf. also Silke, 'The Road Less Travelled', pp. 207-10; della Porta implies this in Social Movements, Political Violence, and the State (pp. 5-7); Weinberg and Richardson remark that 'the study of terrorism has largely been an a-theoretical undertaking' (Leonard Weinberg and Louise Richardson, 'Conflict Theory and the Trajectory of Terrorist Campaigns in Western Europe', in Silke, Research on Terrorism, p. 138).
19. Silke, 'The Road Less Travelled', pp. 207-9.
20. Horgan commenting on an earlier draft of this article.
21. Max Taylor John Horgan A Conceptual Framework for Addressing Psychological Process in the Development of the Terrorist Terrorism and Political Violence 18 : 4 (2006 Cromer Analogies to Terror: The Construction of Social Problems in Israel During the Intifada Al Aqsa Terrorism and Political Violence, 18 : 3 (2006 Haider-Markel, Mark Joslyn Mohammad Tarek Al-Baghal Can We Frame the Terrorist Threat? Issue Frames, the Perception of Threat, and Opinions on Counterterrorism Policies Terrorism and Political Violence 18 : 4 (2006 Gupta Kusum Mundra Suicide Bombing as a Strategic Weapon: An Empirical Investigation of Hamas and Islamic Jihad Terrorism and Political Violence, 17 : 4 (2005 2 (2005 Burnett Dave Whyte Embedded Expertise and the New Terrorism Journal for Crime, Conflict and the Media, 1 : 4 (2005).
22. Cf. Gaetano Ilardi, 'Redefining the Issues: The Future of Terrorism Research and the Search for Empathy', in Silke, Research on Terrorism; Joseba Zulaika, 'Read My Terror: Towards a Critical Terrorism Studies', keynote address, 'Is it Time for a Critical Terrorism Studies?', Universities of Manchester/Aberystwyth, October 2006.
23. For an example of the disciplinary power of research practices, cf. Michel Foucault, Madness and Civilization: A History of Insanity in the Age of Reason, London, Tavistock Publications, 1967.
24. Cf. Silke, 'An Introduction to Terrorism Research', pp. 15-19; Silke, 'The Road Less Travelled', pp. 187-96, 209-10; O'Leary and Silke, 'Bridging Research and Policy', pp. 390-5; Schmid and Jongman, Political Terrorism, pp. 177-82.
25. Silke, 'The Road Less Travelled', p. 191. See also note 6 above.
26. Cf. the ESRC's 'New Security Challenges Programme' (http://www. newsecurity.bham.ac.uk/); or the Norwegian government's funding of a 'critical' study of insurgent conflicts involving terroristic tactics (Heiberg, O'Leary and Tirman, Terror, Insurgency and the State).
27. See for example Horgan's critique of much of what has been written on 'terrorist psychology' (Horgan, 'The Search for the Terrorist Personality').
28. Crelinsten and Apter hint at this in their seminal articles but do not develop the point (Crelinsten, 'Terrorism as Political Communication'; David Apter, 'Political Violence in Analytical Perspective', in David Apter (ed.), The Legitimization of Violence, London, Macmillan Press, 1997).
29. Robert Cox Social Forces, States and World Orders: Beyond International Relations Theory Millennium: Journal of International Studies, 10 : 2 (1981 p. 129.
30. By 'explicitly critical' I mean that Crelinsten identifies himself with the 'critical' tradition in the social sciences, in this case interactionism which draws on Gramsci, Foucault and constructivism (Crelinsten, 'Terrorism as Political Communication', pp. 3-23).
31. E.g. Leonard Weinberg and Ami Pedahzur, Political Parties and Terrorist Groups, London, Routledge, 2003; Martha Crenshaw, 'Thoughts on Relating Terrorism to Historical Contexts', in Martha Crenshaw (ed.), Terrorism in Context, University Park, PN, Pennsylvania State University Press, 1995. I here interpret 'critical' loosely.
32. Jeffrey Ross Ted Gurr Why Terrorism Subsides Comparative Politics, 21 : 4 (1989 Hoffman Critical Theory and the Inter-Paradigm Debate Millennium: Journal of International Studies, 16 : 2 (1987 pp. 237 8).
33. Even though they are not formally part of the 'terrorism field' and some are 'critical', the sum of their contributions has helped to create a 'terrorism discourse' that is predominantly 'problem-solving'.
34. The following is a summary of the points made about 'problem-solving' approaches generally in Cox, 'Social Forces', pp. 128-30; Hoffman, 'Critical Theory and the Inter-Paradigm Debate', pp. 231-8; Krause and Williams, 'From Strategy to Security: Foundations of Critical Security Studies', in Krause and Williams, Critical Security Studies.
35. Cf. debates in Krause and Williams, Critical Security Studies; Booth, Critical Security Studies and World Politics; etc.
36. Scholars displaying a broadly 'traditional' approach could be said to include, among others, Peter Chalk, Richard Clutterbuck, Rohan Gunaratna, Bruce Hoffman, Raphael Israeli, Brian Jenkins, Walter Laqueur, Robert Pape, Jerrold Post, Marc Sageman, Claire Sterling, Paul Wilkinson. Not all are equally 'traditional'. Chalk, Pape and Sageman display a mixture of 'traditional' and 'critical' characteristics. While operating within a largely 'problem-solving' framework, Chalk historicizes 'West European Terrorism', acknowledges that states have used 'political terror' and discusses how immigration and terrorism have become discursively linked (Peter Chalk, West European Terrorism and Counter-Terrorism: The Evolving Dynamic, Basingstoke, Macmillan, 1996, pp. 18-21, 25-63, 144-50). Pape discusses the role occupational practices of democracies have played in producing 'suicide terrorism' but does not adopt an explicitly human security approach (Robert Pape, Dying to Win: The Strategic Logic of Suicide Terrorism, New York, Random House, 2005). The 'critical' vs. 'problem-solving' dichotomy is thus better conceptualized as a continuum, with scholars such as Chalk, Pape and Sageman coming close to those I have categorized as 'critical' on the ground that they historicize and problematize dichotomies and consider human security, but who share some of the 'traditional' approach's attitudes towards problem-solving and the state (e.g. Crenshaw and Weinberg).
37. Zulaika, 'Read My Terror', p. 51.
38. Ibid., p. 32.
39. Ilardi makes a similar point when he calls for more empathy in terrorism research (Ilardi, 'Redefining the Issues', pp. 218-20, 223-5). The relative absence of interviews in 'terrorism research' can obviously not solely be attributed to the prevalence of 'problem-solving' approaches. Security and practical concerns (such as language skills) play an important role, as does the fact that not all theoretical perspectives give interviews a central methodological place. But a 'problem-solving' perspective, with its emphasis on the state and its discourses, does facilitate the view, expressed to me without nuance by a 'terrorism' expert at a St Andrews conference, that Israeli interrogations of Hamas prisoners were a much more reliable source than personal interviews with free Hamas leaders as in the latter case they were more likely to dissimulate. Short-termism similarly encourages the view that former 'terrorists' are not worth talking to (which, Horgan observed in his comments on an earlier draft of this paper, is one of the reasons why 'terrorism experts' so seldom use interviews).
40. Cf. the search for a Soviet connection behind European and Middle Eastern 'terrorism' during the Cold War, and the focus on Iranian-sponsored 'terrorism' since the 1980s (e.g. Claire Sterling, The Terror Network: The Secret War of International Terrorism, New York, Holt, Rinehart and Winston, 1981; Edgar O'Ballance, Islamic Fundamentalist Terrorism, 1979-95: The Iranian Connection, London, Palgrave Macmillan, 1996); cf. also the focus on the 'usual suspects' such as Libya, Iran, etc. in 'traditional' discussions of state terrorism (e.g. Walter Laqueur, The Age of Terrorism, Boston, Little, Brown, 1987, pp. 266-97; Bruce Hoffman, Inside Terrorism, London, Indigo, 1999, pp. 185-96). None of this is to deny that states sponsor terrorism. At issue here is the selective focus on states that are both considered (semi-)authoritarian and enemies of the West and/or liberal democracy (see also George, 'The Discipline of Terrorology').
41. Cf. Silke, 'The Road Less Travelled', p. 209; Crenshaw and della Porta similarly imply this (Crenshaw, Terrorism in Context, pp. ix, 12-19; della Porta, Social Movements, Political Violence, and the State, pp. 4-7).
42. Epitomizing this approach, the official 9/11 report reserved only three out of several hundred pages to discuss the 'Roots of al-Qaeda' (National Comission, The 9/11 Commission Report, London, W. W. Norton, 2004). This point was brought to my attention by Harmonie Toros.
43. See note 18.
44. Cf. also Horgan, 'Understanding Terrorism', p. 77.
45. Crelinsten makes a similar point (Crelinsten, 'Terrorism as Political Communication', pp. 4-6). American political and academic discourse in the wake of 9/11 is an example of exceptionalism that served to marginalize any previous experience of counter-terrorism and justify exceptional measures (cf. Richard Jackson, Writing the War on Terrorism: Language, Politics and Counter-Terrorism, Manchester, Manchester University Press, 2005). More broadly, terrorism research has shown a tendency to depict its topic as somehow sui generis, different from other forms of political behaviour and thus rendering cognate theories useless.
46. Cf. Hoffman, Inside Terrorism, pp. 87-130.
47. Crenshaw, Terrorism, Legitimacy, and Power: The Consequences of Political Violence, Middletown, CT, Wesleyan University Press, 1983, pp. 10-11; cf. also O'Leary and Silke's observation that 'governments and insurgents generally negotiate even though they say they never will' (O'Leary and Silke, 'Bridging Research and Policy', pp. 416-18).
48. B. I. Spector Negotiating with Villains Revisited: Research Note International Negotiation, 8 (2003 p. 616.
49. Cf. Cox's observation that 'problem-solving' approaches are good in 'fix[ing] limits. to a problem area and to reduce the statement of a particular problem to a limited number of variables which are amenable to relatively close and precise examination' (Cox, 'Social Forces', p. 129). Examples of rigorous and informative 'traditional terrorism research' are Chalk, West European Terrorism; Marc Sageman, Understanding Terror Networks, Philadelphia, University of Pennsylvania Press, 2004; and Pape, Dying to Win (although this is in part because these authors display some key 'critical' attitudes, such as a readiness to historicize and consider the negative impact of state policies).
50. Williams and Krause, 'Preface', pp. xiii-xvi; Krause and Williams, 'From Strategy to Security', pp. 51-2.
51. Williams and Krause, 'Preface', p. xvi.
52. See notes 41 and 54.
53. See Silke's description of three levels of knowledge and his comment that 'traditional' terrorism studies has not progressed beyond these levels to producing much explanatory or predictive knowledge (Andrew Silke, 'The Devil You Know', in Silke, Research on Terrorism, p. 58).
54. John Galtung Violence, Peace and Peace Research Journal of Peace Research, 6 : 3 (1969).
55. Cf. Crenshaw, Terrorism in Context; della Porta, Social Movements, Political Violence, and the State; Ranstorp, 'Mapping Terrorism Research', pp. 14-15.
56. Cf. Donatella della Porta, Social Movements and Violence: Participation in Underground Organizations, vol. 4, International Social Movement Research, London, JAI Press, 1992); della Porta, Social Movements, Political Violence, and the State; Glenn Robinson, 'Hamas as Social Movement', in Quintan Wiktorowicz (ed.), Islamic Activism: A Social Movement Theory Approach, Bloomington, IN, Indiana University Press, 2004; Jeroen Gunning, Hamas in Politics: Democracy, Religion, Violence, London, Hurst, 2007.
57. Cf. Stuart Croft, Culture, Crisis and America's War on Terror, Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 2006; Jackson, Writing the War on Terrorism; Zulaika and Douglass, Terror and Taboo.
58. Cf. what makes it possible for groups such as the Lebanese Hizbollah to depict the Holocaust as a fabrication or an exaggeration without losing credibility with their constituency.
59. Cf. John Paul Lederach, 'Quo Vadis? Reframing Terror from the Perspective of Conflict Resolution', in Townhall Meeting, University of California, Irvine, 2001). I am indebted to Harmonie Toros for this point.
60. Sara Roy, Failing Peace: Gaza and the Palestinian-Israeli Conflict, London, Pluto Press, 2006, p. viii.
61. Victoria Fontan Polarization between Occupier and Occupied in Post-Saddam Iraq: Colonial Humiliation and the Formation of Political Violence Terrorism and Political Violence, 18 : 2 (2006 Peace with Hamas? The Transforming Potential of Political Participation International Affairs, 80 : 2 (2004 The Role of Suicide in Politics, Conflict, and Terrorism Terrorism and Political Violence, 18 : 1 (2006);
62. The creation of a master's course dedicated to exploring 'traditional' and 'critical' approaches to terrorism at the University of Aberystwyth's Department of International Politics is a case in point, as is the establishment of the Centre for the Study of Radicalisation and Contemporary Political Violence in Aberystwyth (see http://www.aber.ac.uk/interpol/research/CI.html). Another example is the appointment of more 'critical' scholars such as Schmid and Horgan by the previously more 'traditional' Centre for the Study of Terrorism and Political Violence in St Andrews, and the inclusion of projects with a more 'critical' orientation in the Centre's research portfolio (e.g. its research on processes of radicalization; on the 'Terrorism-Counter-Terrorism Nexus' and why governmental reactions 'often result in more terrorism rather than less'; and on when 'rebels move to other tactics, or combine terrorism with less violent/more legal tactics'; see http://www.st-andrews.ac.uk/intrel/ research/cstpv/pages/projects.html).