Political rage: Terrorism and the politics of emotion

Global Change, Peace and Security

Volumn 21, Issue 1, 2009, Pages 85-98

  Wright Neville, David ^a   Smith, Debra ^a  

^a MONASH UNIVERSITY   (Australia)

Author keywords

Emotion; Political emotions; Political violence; Rage; Terrorism

Indexed keywords

EID: 77950730351     PISSN: 14781158     EISSN: 14781166     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1080/14781150802659390     Document Type: Article

References (82)

1. Here we have in mind Cicero's De Oratore, particularly book I, chapter V.
2. Pete Lentini,'Antipodal Terrorists? Accounting for Differences in Australian and "Global" Neojihadists', in The Globalization of Violence, ed.
3. Richard Devetak and Christopher W. Hughes (London and New York: Routledge 2008), 181-202.
4. M. Hafez,'Martyrdom Mythology in Iraq: How Jihadists Frame Suicide Terrorism in Videos and Biographies', Terrorism and Political Violence 19, no. 1 (2007): 95-115.
5. Abu Usamah Al-Hazin,'To the One who falls Imprisoned: Messages of Advice', http://tibyan.wordpress.com/ 2008/06/06/to-the-one-who-falls-into-imprisonment-messages-of-advice/ (accessed 11 June 2008).
6. Although the same concept can be applied to terrorism perpetrated by many non-Muslim groups.
7. A.F. Davies, Skills, Outlooks and Passions: A Psychoanalytic Contribution to the Study of Politics (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1980), 293.
8. Zygmunt Bauman, Liquid Modernity (Cambridge: Polity Press, 2000).
9. Zygmunt Bauman,'On Glocalization: Or Globalization for Some, Localization for Others', Thesis Eleven no 54 (1998): 37-49.
10. John Urry, Global Complexity (Malden, MA: Polity, 2003).
11. Shane Brighton,'British Muslims, Multiculturalism, and UK Foreign Policy: "Integration" and "Cohesion" Beyond the State', International Affairs 83, no. 1 (2007), 1-17.
12. Taken from the suicide video of Mohammed Sidiq. The video and a transcript are available from the Middle East Media Research Institute (MEMRI) website, http://www.memritv.org/ (accessed 20 September 2007).
13. In this sense we are suggesting the continuation of work on how the emotions of individuals might interact with social conditions to result in acts of violence or brutality. Notable earlier studies on this include
14. Thomas J. Scheff and Suzanne M. Retzinger, Emotions and Violence: Shame and Rage in Destructive Conflicts (Lincoln, NE: iUniverse, 2001 [1991])
15. James Gilligan, Violence: Our Deadly Epidemic and its Causes (New York: Putnam Publishing Group, 1996)
16. Roger D. Peterson, Understanding Ethnic Violence: Fear, Hatred, and Resentment in Twentieth-century Eastern Europe (Cambridge and New York: Cambridge University Press, 2002)
17. Jack Barbalet,'Emotions in Politics: From the Ballot to Suicide Terrorism', in Emotion, Politics and Society, ed.
18. Simon Clarke, Paul Hoggett and Simon Thompson (Houndmills, Basingstoke and New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2006), 31-59
19. Jonathan H. Turner,'Self, Emotions, and Extreme Violence: Extending Symbolic Interactionist Theorizing', Symbolic Interaction 30, no. 4 (2007): 501-30.
20. Walter Laqueur, No End to War: Terrorism in the Twenty First Century (New York: Continuum, 2003), 11-12.
21. Neta Crawford,'The Passion of World Politics: Propositions on Emotion and Emotional Relationships', International Security 24, no. 4 (2000): 116-56
22. Jonathan Mercer,'Rationality and Psychology in International Politics', International Organizations 59 (Winter 2005): 77-106
23. Emma Hutchinson and Roland Bleiker,'Fear no More: Emotions and World Politics', Review of International Studies 34 (2008): 115-35.
24. This acceptance is expressed by Slavoj Žižek when he connects the violent acts of terrorism to the experience of resentment. Importantly, however, Žižek suggests that violence needs to be explored in both its'subjective' and'objective' forms, therefore connecting terrorists' experiences of resentment and subsequent violent behaviour to the wider social conditions in which it manifests.
25. Slavoj Žižek, Violence (London: Profile Books, 2008), especially 72-9.
26. Jeroen Gunning,'A Case for Critical Terrorism Studies?', Government and Opposition, 42, no. 3 (2007): 368-71.
27. It should also be noted here that Gunning expresses a degree of scepticism over whether a delineated field of'terrorism studies' actually exists. Furthermore, he questions the value of creating such a separate discipline on the grounds that it may'limit the necessity for interdisciplinary'.
28. John Horgan, The Psychology of Terrorism (London and New York: Routledge, 2005)
29. Andrew Silke, ed., Terrorists, Victims, and Society: Psychological Perspectives on Terrorism and its Consequences (Hoboken, NJ: Wiley, 2003)
30. James Jones, The Blood the Cries Out from the Earth: The Psychology of Religious Terrorism (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2008).
31. Max Abrahms has recently challenged the Strategic Choice Model of terrorism suggesting that it largely ignores the role of affective ties. Although suggesting that the role of affect is not limited to bonds of solidarity between terrorists, we certainly agree that this is a significant area of importance. Like Abrahms, we reject the idea that an affective component in terrorist behaviour renders their behaviour irrational.
32. Max Abrahms,'What Terrorists Really Want: Terrorist Motives and Counterterrorism Strategy', International Security 32, no. 4 (Spring 2008): 78-105.
33. Ralph Peters, Beyond Terror: Strategy in a Changing World (Mechanicsburg, PA: Stackpole Books, 2002), 57.
34. Jerrold Post, The Mind of the Terrorist: The Psychology of Terrorism from al Qaeda to the IRA (Basingstoke: Palgrave-Macmillan, 2007). Post emphasises the role of hate in constructing terrorists' psychological ordering.
35. John Horgan,'The Social and Psychological Characteristics of Terrorism and Terrorists', in Root Causes of Terrorism: Myths, Realities and Ways Forward, ed.
36. Tore Bjorgo (London and New York: Routledge, 2005), 51
37. Andrew Silke,'Becoming a Terrorist', in Terrorists,Victims and Society: Psychological Perspectives on Terrorism and its Consequences, ed.
38. Andrew Silke (Hoboken, NJ: Wiley, 2003), 29-54.
39. Horgan, The Psychology of Terrorism, 87.
40. Martha C. Nussbaum, Upheavals of Thought: The Intelligence of Emotions (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2001).
41. Jeff Goodwin, James M. Jasper and Francesca Polletta, eds., Passionate Politics: Emotions and Social Movements (Chicago and London: University of Chicago Press, 2001)
42. Helena Flam and Debra King, eds., Emotions and Social Movements (London and New York: Routledge, 2005).
43. James Waller, Becoming Evil: How Ordinary People Commit Genocide and Mass Killing (Oxford: Oxford University Press 2007), 269.
44. Emran Qureshi and Michael A. Sells, eds., The New Crusades: Constructing the Muslim Enemy (New York: Columbia University Press, 2003).
45. Neta Crawford,'The Passion of World Politics: Propositions on Emotion and Emotional Relationships', International Security 24, no. 4 (2000): 119.
46. Christian von Scheve and Rolf von Luede,'Emotion and Social Structures: Towards an Interdisciplinary Approach', Journal for the Theory of Social Behaviour 35, no. 3 (2005): 306.
47. Jerrold Post, Ehud Sprinzak and Laurita Denny,'The Terrorists in Their Own Words: Interviews with Thirty Five Incarcerated Middle Eastern Terrorists', Terrorism and Political Violence 15, no. 1 (2003): 171- 84
48. Andrew Silke,'Becoming a Terrorist'; Marc Sageman, Understanding Terror Networks (Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2004)
49. Christine Fair and Bryan Shepherd,'Who Supports Terrorism? Evidence from Fourteen Muslim Countries', Studies in Conflict and Terrorism 29, no. 1 (2006): 51-74.
50. Jonathan Haidt,'Positive Emotions Motivate Terrorists', http://www.thefederationonline.org/events/Briefings/ 2006_SPSP_DHS/Haidt_Emotions_Sum.pdf (accessed 4 March 2007).
51. David Harvey, A Brief History of Neoliberalism (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2005).
52. Catrina Kinnvall,'Globalization and Religious Nationalism: Self, Identity, and the Search for Ontological Security', Political Psychology 25, no. 5 (2004): 741-67.
53. Karl Polanyi, The Great Transformation: the Political and Economic Origins of Our Time (Boston: Beacon Press, 2001 [1944]).
54. Jack Barbalet, Emotions, Social Theory and Social Structure: A Macrosociological Approach (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1998), 172.
55. Polanyi, The Great Transformation, 207.
56. Mark Juergensmeyer, Global Rebellion: Religious Challenges to the Secular State, From Christian Militias to al Qaeda (Berkeley, CA and London: University of California Press, 2008).
57. Barbalet, Emotion, Social Theory and Social Structure, 174.
58. Erik H. Erikson, Identity: Youth and Crisis (New York and London: W.W. Norton and Company, 1994 [1968]), 191.
59. Bruce Lawrence, ed., Messages to the World: The Statements of Osama bin Laden (London and New York: Verso, 2005).
60. Franz Fanon, The Wretched of the Earth, preface by Jean-Paul Sartre, trans. Constance Farrington (Harmondsworth: Penguin, 1967).
61. Louise Richardson, What Terrorists Want: Understanding the Terrorist Threat (London: John Murray Publishers, 2006), chapter 4.
62. especially the quote (p. 126) by one of the 9/11 hijackers
63. Ahmad al-Haznawi al-Ghamidi: The time of humiliation is over. It is time to kill the Americans in their own backyard, among their sons, and near their forces and intelligence.'
64. Quintan Wiktorowicz, Radical Islam Rising: Muslim Extremism in the West (Lanham, MD: Rowman and Littlefield, 2005).
65. Catarina Kinnvall, Globalization and Religious Nationalism: Self, Identity, and the Search for Ontological Security', Political Psychology 25, no. 5 (2004): 741-67.
66. Wiktorowicz, Radical Islam Rising, 85.
67. Benedictus de Spinoza, The Ethics (London: Penguin Books, 1996), especially Part III.
68. Gilles Deleuze's reading of Spinoza. Gilles Deleuze, Spinoza: Practical Philosophy (San Francisco: City Lights Books, 1988), 27-8.
69. Horgan, The Psychology of Terrorism.
70. Andrew Silke, Becoming a Terrorist'.
71. Fathali Moghaddam, The Staircase to Terrorism', American Psychologist 60, no. 2 (2005): 161-9.
72. Waller, Becoming Evil.
73. Silke, Becoming a Terrorist', 37-9.
74. Andrew Silke, Courage in Dark Places: Reflections on Terrorist Psychology', Social Research 71, no. 1 (2004): 189-90.
75. Waller, Becoming Evil, 235.
76. This resonates with parts of the argument put forward by Franz Fanon in The Wretched of the Earth. However, while Fanon makes a normative argument in favour of violence, we limit ourselves to an observation of why violence becomes the preferred form of political agency for some people.
77. Albert Bandura et al., Mechanisms of Moral Disengagement in the Exercise of Moral Agency', Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 71, no. 2 (1996): 364-74.
78. Dave Grossman, On Killing: The Psychological Cost of Learning to Kill in War and Society (Boston: Little Brown, 1995).
79. Bandura et al., Mechanisms of Moral Disengagement', 372.
80. John L. Comaroff, ed., Perspectives on Nationalism and War, International Studies in Global Change, 7 (London: Routledge, 1995).
81. Ulrich Beck, Power in the Global Age (Cambridge: Polity Press, 2006)
82. Zygmunt Bauman, Reconnaissance Wars of the Planetary Frontierland', Theory, Culture and Society 19, no. 4 (2002): 81-90.