bringing the state back into terrorism studies
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Abstract Orthodox terrorism studies tend to focus on the activities of illiberal nonstate actors against the liberal democratic states in the North. It thus excludes state terrorism, which is one of a number of repressive tools that great powers from the North have used extensively in the global South in the service of foreign policy objectives. I establish the reasons for the absence of state terrorism from orthodox accounts of terrorism and argue that critical–normative approaches could help to overcome this major weakness.
Keywords
state terrorism; terrorism studies; political violence; torture;
repression
S
tate terrorism, along with other forms of repression, has been an ongoing feature of the foreign policies of democratic great powers from the North and the United States (US) in particular. The use of repression by the US was particularly intense during the Cold War, and we are seeing a resurgence of its use in the ‘war on terror’. State terrorism, of which torture can sometimes be a tool, is defined as threats or acts of violence carried out by representatives of the state against civilians to instill fear for political purposes. According to dominant views in mainstream policy, media and academic circles, terrorism constitutes the targeting of Northern democratic states and
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their allies by non-state groups supplied and controlled by ‘rogue’ states or elements located in the South. This is only partially accurate. While such groups have carried out attacks against Northern democracies, including the devastating attacks of September 11th, 2001, it is also the case that Northern democracies have condoned and used terrorism, along with other forms of repression, against millions of citizens in the South over many decades. There are three reasons for the notable absence of state terrorism – particularly that practised by Northern democracies – from scholarly debate within terrorism studies. The first has to do with the
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methods deployed by orthodox terrorism scholars. The second relates to their institutional affiliations. The third is connected to the marginalisation of explicitly normative approaches to foreign policy within international relations (IR) scholarship more broadly. I will outline some of the main flaws in the approaches of mainstream terrorism scholarship and show how these are exacerbated by the institutional affiliations of leading experts. I will then map out how this serious omission could be overcome.
THE STATE OF CONTEMPORARY TERRORISM STUDIES The way in which terrorism is theorised and defined in conventional terrorism studies is one of the main reasons why state terrorism by Northern democracies is largely absent from debate. This is correctly attributed to the way in which ‘the term ‘‘terrorism’’ has been virtually appropriated by mainstream political discussion to signify atrocities targeting the West’ (George, 1991: 1). It is in
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