ABSTRACT
CTS has built its reputation in large part on a powerful analytical and normative critique of the war on terror and contemporary counterterrorism. It has convincingly demonstrated the serious problems which result from employing state-directed counter-violence to the violence of terrorists and has documented the widespread harms caused by the massive expansion of counterterrorism after September 11, 2001. However, largely missing from this literature has been a serious critique of the nature of violence as a political tool and the centrality of state violence to the operation of sovereign power. This chapter will explore the potential of considering alternative approaches to countering terrorism based on the rejection of violence and dominatory sovereign power. Specifically, it will explore the potentialities of revolutionary nonviolence as a practical, ethically consistent, harm- and violence-reducing response to acts of terrorism which expands the social possibilities of security and politics. It will argue that the theory of power at the heart of revolutionary nonviolence, as well as its political transformational potential and the historical evidence for its practical success, makes it an ideal source for developing long-term, practical counterterrorism policies.
