Constructions Of Terrorism

This publication is part of the Constructions of Terrorism Research Project being carried out through a partnership between TRENDS Research & Advisory, Abu Dhabi, UAE, and the Orfalea Center for Global and International Studies, University of California, Santa Barbara.

How have media constructions around terrorism changed since 9.11? This book analyses the ways that language is employed in the media to reference discourses around terrorism in different social systems and doctrines, and illustrates the ways in which news reporting around terrorism is filtered according to a wide range of phenomena including national interests, the goals of those who run the press, international relations, methods of news production, audience targeting and other historical, political and social factors. This book collects and analyses corpora from news articles in the two most widely read newspapers in China and the UK. Corpus techniques including frequency and keyness are merged with methods associated with critical discourse analysis particularly investigation of social context. This book shows that there is a wide range of possible discursive constructions of terrorism in the media. Such different perspectives are likely to shape national or even global opinion on how to tackle terrorism.

"Discussions about the meaning of terrorism are enduring in everyday language, government policy, news reporting and international politics. Disagreements about both the definition and the class of violent events that constitute terrorism contribute to the difficulty of formulating effective responses aimed at the prevention and management of the threat of terrorism and the development of counterterrorism policies. This collection makes a major contribution to understanding terrorism through the inter-disciplinary perspectives through which the contributors confront the problem"--Provided by publisher.

Over the last fifteen years there has been a significant growth in literature dealing with terrorism. Nevertheless, scholars within mainstream criminology have only recently begun to grapple with the problem of terrorism in a sustained fashion. In this provocative book the authors provide both an exposition of the contradictions that have emerged around the regulation of terrorism and an incisive analysis of the questions that the management of terrorism poses for the discipline. Focusing primarily on the processes and practices that have emerged in the United States and the United Kingdom, the book provides a critical account of the political construction, mediation and regulation of terrorist threat since the events of 9/11. The authors explore the ways in which new institutional modes of risk assessment based on the principle of pre-emption have impacted on individuals targeted by them. Noting the dilemmas produced by the pre-emptive turn, the authors also elucidate more recent moves to develop the idea of resilience in counter-terrorism and security policy. This book will be suitable for academics and students interested in political violence, terrorism, geopolitics and risk, as well as for practitioners and experts working in the security industries.

Informed by both critical animal studies and critical terrorism studies, John Sorenson analyzes ecoterrorism as a social construction. He examines how corporations that profit from animal exploitation fund and produce propaganda to portray the compassionate goals and nonviolent practices of animal activists as outlandish, anti-human campaigns that operate by violent means not only to destroy Western civilization but also to create actual genocide. The idea of concern for others is itself a dangerous one, and capitalism works by keeping people focused on individual interests and discouraging compassion and commitment to others.

This book introduces a constructivist approach to the study of terrorism and shows how language in the media affects our perceptions of 'terrorists' and how particular constructions of 'terrorist' automatically make certain counter-terrorism policies possible, logical and seemingly appropriate.

This book examines the politicisation of victims of terrorism and the reality of the victimisation experience within the broader field of terrorism and the resulting conflict. Victims of terrorism are a unique group of individuals whose experience is overlooked in the current literature on terrorism. Since 9/11, terrorism has risen to global prominence and has become a key topic of interest with regards to media attention and national security. As a result, many European countries (as well as the USA) have had to take active steps to protect and provide for the victims of terrorism, particularly given the nature of victimisation post-3/11 (Madrid) and 7/7 (London). Recently, we have also seen an increase in the political currency of the terrorist victim; for example, the lobbying activities and political involvement of the victims of ETA terrorism and the exceptionally powerful lobby in the USA that sees the involvement of victims of terrorism and their families in policy-making and law-enforcement transformations. This book is based on extensive field work in Northern Ireland, London and Spain and presents the results, which focus on the needs and experiences of victims of terrorism and political violence, and critically analyses these findings comparatively and in their own right. The aim is to assess the provision of support initiatives in Northern Ireland, mainland UK and Spain and understand if victims' needs are being met by these initiatives but most importantly to construct a picture of the local and international interpretation of the experience of victimisation by terrorism. This book will be of much interest to students of terrorism and political violence, victimology, criminology, security studies and IR.

DIVThe greatest danger facing the world today, says Alan M. Dershowitz, comes from religiously inspired, state sponsored terrorist groups that seek to develop weapons of mass destruction for use against civilian targets. In his newest book, Dershowitz argues passionately and persuasively that global terrorism is a phenomenon largely of our own making and that we must and can take steps to reduce the frequency and severity of terrorist acts. Analyzing recent acts of terrorism and our reaction to them, Dershowitz explains that terrorism is successful when the international community gives in to the demands of terrorists—or even tries to understand and eliminate the “root causes” of terrorism. He discusses extreme approaches to wiping out international terrorism that would work if we were not constrained by legal, moral, and humanitarian considerations. And then, given that we do operate under such constraints, he offers a series of proposals that would effectively reduce the frequency and severity of international terrorism by striking a balance between security and liberty./div