Discourses and Practices of Terrorism: Interrogating Terror

This interdisciplinary book investigates the consequences of the language of terror for our lives in democratic societies.

The approach of this book is in direct contrast with those that either view terrorism simplistically, as a clear reality threatening democratic society and thus requiring certain sorts of response, or argue, equally simplistically, that the invocation of terror is merely the ideological veil for continued capitalist exploitation. While closer in spirit to the second of these, this work does not simply dismiss the discourse on terror, but rather investigates the consequences of this discourse for the organisation of life in democratic societies.

In interrogating the discourse of terror from a variety of viewpoints, this interdisciplinary text builds upon the understanding of the importance of the language of terror from a new perspective: the interconnections between discourses of terror; the material realities they at once reflect and help produce; and the specificities of particular historical circumstances. In offering an integrated approach of this sort, and founded on a base of applied philosophy, broadly conceived, the contributors offer a new contribution to both public and academic debate, and at the same time initiate a series of further interventions in Critical Terrorism Studies.

This book will be of interest to students of critical terrorism studies, terrorism studies, security studies, philosophy and discourse theory.

Bob Brecher is Director of the Centre for Applied Philosophy, Politics & Ethics at Brighton University. He has published widely in moral, political and applied philosophy and the politics of higher education.

Mark Devenney is Academic Programme Leader in Humanities at the University of Brighton. He has published in the areas of critical theory, post-Marxism and post-Colonial politics.

Aaron Winter is Lecturer in Sociology at the University of Abertay Dundee. His research focuses on terrorism and the concept of ‘extremism’, whiteness, masculinity and violence, and the extreme right, organised racism and the religious right in the United States.

Bob Brecher is Director of the Centre for Applied Philosophy, Politics and Ethics at Brighton University. He has published widely in moral, political and applied philosophy and the politics of higher education.

Mark Devenney is Academic Programme Leader in Humanities at the University of Brighton. He has published in the areas of critical theory, post-Marxism and post-colonial politics.

Aaron Winter is Lecturer in Sociology at the University of Abertay Dundee. His research focuses on terrorism and the concept of ‘extremism’, whiteness, masculinity and violence, and the extreme right, organised racism and the religious right in the United States.

1. Introduction: Philosophy, Politics, Terror Bob Brecher and Mark Devenney 2. Rediscovering the Individual in the "War on Terror": a Virtue and Liberal Approach Heather Widdows 3. Is there a Justifiable Shoot-to-Kill Policy? Shahrar Ali 4. Torture and the Demise of the Justiciable Standard of Enlightened Government: A S Perspective Don Wallace and Akis Kalaitzidis 5. Asylum and the Discourse of Terror: the European "Security state" Fran Cetti 6. Feeling Persecuted? The Definitive Role of Paranoid Anxiety in the Constitution of "War on Terror" Television Hugh Ortega Breton 7. Fundamentalist Foundations of Terrorist Practice:the Political Logic of Life-Sacrifice Jeff Noonan 8. Specificities, Complexities, Histories: Algerian Politics and George Bush’s USA-led "War on Terror" Martin Evans 9. Ignatieff, Ireland and the Lesser Evil: Some Problems with the Lessons Learnt Mark McGovern 10. American Terror: from Oklahoma City to 9/11 and After Aaron Winter. Bibliography