ABSTRACT

Much of terrorism research concerns aspects of what in sociological circles are called ‘social movements’. Granted, terrorism scholars more often focus on smaller-scale, underground organisations engaged in violence rather than the generally non-violent, broad-based movements that tend to populate social movement studies. But the organisations that terrorism scholars study are not only typically part of broader social movements but are affected by similar opportunities and constraints, and profoundly shaped by their interaction with these broader movements and their detractors. An increasing number of social movement theorists have begun to apply their framework to the study of political violence. However, within terrorism studies, social movement theory has remained, until recently, largely under-used. In this chapter, I will argue that social movement theory is an appropriate tool to study ‘terrorist organisations’ – which for reasons to be discussed shortly, I shall refer to as ‘militant organisations’ – and, crucially, that it can make a major contribution to overcoming some of the weaknesses of terrorism research.