Deconstructing the terrorist threat in the United Kingdom after 2005 (original) (raw)
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Terrorist Threat Construction and the Transition to Permanent British Counterterrorism Law
After over two decades of renewing temporary counterterrorism laws in Britain from the early 1970s, making such measures permanent with the Terrorism Act 2000 was not necessarily a predictable or predetermined outcome. The Northern Ireland peace process was underway, the Labour party who had voted against temporary counterterrorism laws for over a decade was newly back in power, and historical context pointed to an inconclusiveness around how effective such laws actually were in reducing insecurity. In this article I argue a key element helping explain this transition from temporary to permanent counterterrorism law lies in how particular threat and referent identities were constructed in official British discourse. Drawing on empirical research from a relational-securitization analysis of official British discourses from the late 1960s to the present, this paper argues that processes of identity construction were essential to introducing and justifying the Terrorism Act 2000. The deployment of particular threat and referent labels established in discourse before events such as 9/11 or 7/7, such as “international” terrorism, helped enable the shift in counterterrorism law from temporary emergency response to permanent policy practice.
Critical Studies on Terrorism, 2018
This article explores the construction of extremism in media discourse, the factors driving specific constructions and the implications of these constructions for counterterrorism policy. We contend that extremism has predominantly and increasingly been framed as a security issue. This article explores the implications of this practice through the framework of securitisation. We measure the average intensity of security framing in 38,616 articles found in three major US newspapers, New York Times, Wall Street Journal and Los Angeles Times, between 20 January 1993 and 19 January 2017 comprising the Clinton, Bush and Obama presidencies, and look at factors influencing the shift in intensity over time. Through our analysis, we show that it is possible to return to a pre- 9/11 discourse but that the confluence of real-world events and the strategic choices of political actors have so far prevented this from fully occurring. We then explore the effect of securitization on public perceptions of the threat from terrorism, finding that increases in the intensity of security framing artificially increases the public’s worry about becoming a victim of terrorism. We conclude by discussing implications for the communication of counterterrorism policy and the requirements for an after, after 9/11 approach
Terror threat perception and its consequences in contemporary Britain
British Journal of Psychology, 2005
The terrorist attacks of 9/11, and subsequent terrorist acts around the world, have alerted social psychologists to the need to examine the antecedents and consequences of terrorist threat perception. In these two studies we examined the predictive power of demographic factors age, sex, location), individual values and normative influences on threat perception and the consequences of this perception for behavioural change and close relationships. In study 1 (N = 100) gender, benevolence values and normative influences were all correlates of threat perception, whilst sense of personal threat was correlated with increased contact with friends and family. In study 2 (N = 240) age, sex, location, and the values of Openness to Change and Hedonism, all predicted threat perception, which in turn predicted behavioural change and relationship contact. Such findings point to the important role social psychologists should play in understanding responses to these new terrorist threats. Terror threat perception and its consequences in contemporary Britain. The terrorist attacks of September 11 th 2001, and subsequent suicide attacks in Africa, Russia, Spain and the Middle East, have alerted Western countries to the new threat posed by large-scale, co-ordinated terror attacks. The increasing global spread of the terrorist threat means that increasing numbers of people, previously remote from conflict areas, are now faced with threats either at home or when travelling or living overseas. However, research on this topic has been largely confined to the discipline of political science or military medicine, and has rarely investigated the part played by psychological factors in predicting threat perception or its consequences (Levant, Barbanel
In thinking about time, temporality, and global politics, I propose that we think about conditional (non)belonging in the context of identity, insecurity, and counterterrorism. If we are to better combat counterproductive consequences of othering that increase insecurity, we must critically investigate threat labels and the meanings and policies that they legitimise through exclusionary us/them boundary-drawing. This requires that we dislocate status quo time horizons and associated identity assumptions, and that we prioritise empathy, imagination, and analytical risk-taking. It is through this disruption of time, being, and (non)belonging, I would argue, that we have the best chance of achieving effective and ethical security strategies. It is in this vein that through this chapter we explore how temporal assumptions position the ‘homegrown’ terrorist threat as a ‘conditional self’: an actor from within and without. In so doing we see how signposts such as ‘domestic’, ‘international’, and ‘homegrown’ can generalise actors along sweeping categorical assumptions which enable an ongoing exclusion from full belonging, and an increase in insecurity for many with no relation to terroristic violence.
Between Fear and the Need of Security: Counterterrorism since 9/11
2016
Following the tragedy of 9/11 the impression we had of international terrorism changed dramatically. It became clearer that global terror organisations were deeply rooted within national societies, and counterterrorism strategies had to be reassessed as a consequence. We also learnt in investigating 9/11 that ccontemporary terrorist groups have a fluid structure which can be a real challenge for policy-makers, especially considering their use of force against civilian targets as well. Counterterrorism strategies have also implied a certain degree of encroachment on civil society which is seen as affecting life styles in ways that a few years ago could not have been thought possible. The changing nature of terrorism itself and the consequential actions taken by governments in order to tackle this issue are requesting new points of view on this subject. This paper aims to analyse policy positions on the matter, specifically the Patriot Act approved in the United States in the aftermat...
European Security And The Terrorist Threat: Evolutions And Current Ways Of Managing It
International conference KNOWLEDGE-BASED ORGANIZATION, 2015
The European Security Strategy “A Secure Europe in a Better World” emphasizes on the fact that security is a precondition of development and nominates terrorism as the first key threat in the list of five major threats addressed to European security. In the “EU Internal Security Strategy in Action” the terrorism is seen as second threat (after serious and organized crime) and is pointed out as a phenomenon which requires concerted European action, due to a still existent vulnerability of our societies to terrorist attacks, “Europe being both a target and a base for such terrorism”.The paper presents the evolution of the European security environment between 1990 and 2015, emphasizing the increase of the terrorist threat and the steps and actions taken in preventing and fighting against it, as well as possible solutions for managing the terrorist phenomenon. In the final part of the paper, the findings of a case study achieved through sociological questionnaire are rendered. The stud...
2013
Reflexive approaches not only maintain that representations of danger are socially constructed, but also that they relate with political behaviour. Representations of terrorism, for instance, are argued to constitute that danger in distinct ways and thus to make certain counterterror policies possible. This article challenges this popular association of reflexive security studies with constitutive effects. It argues that constitutive argumentation advances an insufficiently tangible argument of effect, and that this conceptual weakness derives from both a problematic foundational social theory and a premature rejection of causation. Drawing on the social theory of Margaret Archer and Roy Bhaskar and a differentiated notion of causation, the article advances a ‘dialectical causal’ framework for the analysis of representations of danger instead. Applying it to contemporary Swiss terrorism politics, the article shows how this framework improves on constitutive argumentation in disentangling the political powers involved in the production and enactment of representations of danger.
Risk, dread and the crisis of counter-terrorism security
Rosa dos Ventos, 2013
The present research explores not only the diverse definitions of terrorism but also the social conditions for the appearance of counter-terrorism. 9/11 was undoubtedly the epicenter of a new way of interpreting the risksociety. Combining empirical examples with a rich conceptual framework, our thesis is that while complete, no-gaps security may prove elusive, counterterrorism security can (and should) make people feel good about moving through public places. Last but not least, the 'representational' practices of security have become a central concern for counterterrorism thinkers in the post-9/11 world. Indeed, these authors have described these representations of security in only slightly different ways. These security methods and styles share much in common. Given the right situation, it might be argued that these authors are all describing something similar, if not the same thing. These methods are designed to mitigate fear and foster feelings of safety, certainty and security in inexpensive ways. We will conclude with two post-9/11 stories that illustrate this argument. The first story is drawn from an interview conducted with an Australian school teacher who worked for a year in a small town in Virginia. During her one year teaching assignment in 2006 and 2007 she was struck by the paradox of the everyday lives of the children she taught in this town. She marveled at their wonderful play equipment, sporting equipment and their pristine suburbs. She also marveled at how this play equipment and sporting facilities were never used.