ABSTRACT
Critical approaches to the study of terrorism are not new. As Jeffrey A. Sluka notes in this volume, anthropologists have for decades adopted a sceptical view of the dominant discourse and modes of study of those deemed ‘terrorists’, and as a consequence, much of the anthropological literature challenges commonly held assertions about the nature and causes of terrorism (see also Zulaika and Douglass, 1996). Similarly, during the cold war a number of mainly left-wing scholars explored how the emerging field of terrorism studies was both politically biased towards the West and appeared to function ideologically to legitimise the involvement of Western governments in the suppression of left-wing movements in parts of the developing world (Chomsky and Herman, 1979; Herman, 1982; Herman and O’Sullivan, 1989; George, 1991a). However, critical approaches such as these have taken place largely outside of the main scholarly activities of what we would identify as the traditional terrorism studies field. Certainly, such critical research has rarely been published in the main terrorism studies journals or included in its conferences, and to date, it has arguably failed to influence the general focus and approach of mainstream, international relations-based terrorism research.
