Conveners
Terrorism and Counter-Terrorism
- Giulia Grillo (University College London)
Description
The topics of terrorism and counter/anti-terrorism have in recent years received a huge amount of scholarly attention. The increase in scholarship led to deeper knowledge of and insights into the causes, processes, activities, and ends of terrorism of as well as responses to terrorist struggles. There is a certain temptation to write studies that summarize existing knowledge, rather than producing innovative, original and/or empirical contributions. There are challenges both regarding the consistency of the scholarly base and the content of contributions. First, there is a lack of a solid and consistent base of scholarship, due to lack of long-term funding, and difficulty to access primary, empirical data. Second, the field is somewhat obsessed with fashions and topical studies. There is a deep-rooted lack of appreciation of the history of (counter/anti)-terrorism and of case studies that are not in the constant spotlight of media and political attention. At the same time, scholarship has devoted much time and effort to a few main lines of inquiry (e.g. definitions, the ‘root causes’ discussion, radicalisation and de-radicalisation, WMD and terrorism, AQ/ISIL). Meanwhile, on the theoretical level, the establishment of Critical Terrorism Studies has created a welcome diversity. However, rather than encouraging exchange, scholars have often resorted to entrenchment in response to this development. This panel is explicitly open to diverse disciplines, such as history, political science, legal studies or sociology. We invite contributions which address any, or possibly all, of the above challenges and which discuss a variety of issues and cases around terrorism and counter/anti-terrorism. This panel intends to offer a multidisciplinary perspective and contribute towards joint research projects.
How does tactical, organizational, and other information pass between armed groups? Existing research overwhelmingly focuses on observable links like alliances, training camps, and shared foreign patrons. Yet, information is also passed via organizational lineage through processes of splitting, merging, and membership migration. Focusing on organizational splitting in particular, we test this...
In the post-Cold War World, stigmatization emerged as a way of disciplining transgressive states. However, the existing state of affairs raises questions on the feasibility of targeted punishment and disciplining through stigmatization. Even the members of the Western liberal-democratic society of states sharing certain normative stances and similar security concerns do not always act in...
This paper broadens the research on the international agenda of Countering/Preventing Violent Extremism by putting it into conversation with critical research on countering hybrid threats. While both international security agendas differ in their identification of the origins of the respective threats and specific countermeasures, they share the focus on security threats stemming from the...
This study embarks on a comprehensive exploration of the intersection between narrative and terrorism, delving into the pivotal role narratives play in the radicalisation process. With a methodological approach grounded in an exhaustive literature review, employing keywords such as "narrative," "terrorism," and "radicalisation," the study identifies three patterns of findings on this topic....
