ABSTRACT
The overpowering fear inflicted on the ‘innocent’Tcivilian’ targets of terrorism is calculated to have political and other attitudinal and behavioural effects on the appropriate authorities. The basic assumption of this chapter is that when it comes to terrorism/terrorists/terrors, the gap between the reader/them is a slippery slope, not an unbridgeable political and ethical chasm. Critical Terrorism Studies cannot guarantee to change the world no academic approach can but it can guarantee to offer new angles on old problems, and to this degree it is a necessary step towards the hope of more emancipatory practice. Terrorism Studies should welcome the attention of critical theorizing, for the Critical Terrorism Studies project represents a step towards a more mature field of study, not least by promising to develop links with Social Sciences more generally. Critical Terrorism Studies is committed to the pursuit of critical knowledge about strategy of terrorism, the label 'terrorist ', and the phenomenon of terror in human affairs.
