ABSTRACT
If both ‘globalisation’ and ‘terrorism’ are known for their terminological vagueness and susceptibility to rhetorical abuse, then the twin spectres of ‘global terrorism’ and a global ‘war on terror’ are an ultimate conjunction of semantic ambiguity. Any discussion of the ‘globalisation of terrorism’ immediately risks shrouding the particularities of concrete situations in unhelpful generalisations, as well as playing into the exaggerated and dangerous rhetoric of a ‘global war on terror’. Yet, while caution is warranted, it is still possible to describe and analyse patterns of interaction between the phenomena of terrorism and globalisation, by reference to the characteristics and manifestations of each. Terrorism may well constitute a ‘dark side of globalisation’.2
