ABSTRACT
This chapter considers the key contributions Critical Terrorism Studies (CTS) has made to the understanding of victimisation, contending that while CTS has greatly expanded the knowledge in certain areas, it has hitherto failed to adequately engage with victims and survivors of terrorist attacks. It argues that CTS has the capacity to afford greater space to marginalised survivor narratives and representations of victimhood which are often used to justify prevailing responses to terrorist violence. The chapter proposes that this represents an important juncture for CTS to reflect upon the issue of vulnerability in its pursuit of more progressive policy agendas. CTS has challenged the socio-economic and political logic underpinning many of the policies. In addition to the dangers raised more broadly within CTS in relation to emancipation and global hegemony, the danger of focusing on victims of terrorism as "policy-relevant" is that it risks envisioning them as a perpetual problem.
