ABSTRACT
This chapter examines the use of state terrorism by liberal democratic states in the South following the Second World War, and up until the end of the Cold War. Two significant processes involved the widespread use of state terrorism in the South by powerful states from the North, and their allies. The first of these was decolonisation. In an effort to suppress nationalist movements in their struggle for independence, the European colonial powers resorted to various repressive measures in their colonies, including state terrorism. The final struggles for independence from the European powers coincided with the ascendancy of the US as the most powerful Northern state. As discussed in Chapter 3, the rise to prominence of the US was, in part, a consequence of the devastating impact of the Second World War on the economies of the European powers. It was also a direct result of the will on the part of US foreign policy planners to ensure that the US extended its global reach and influence and to ensure access to and control of resources and markets deemed essential if the US was to maintain a dominant position on the world stage. Throughout the Cold War the US sponsored and deployed state terrorism on an enormous scale. This was justified as a means of containing communism. It was, primarily, however, a means of ensuring that the interests of US elites were protected and promoted.
