ABSTRACT
This chapter proposes a new model of terrorism violence built on self-categorization theory. In short, it suggests that a politically laden incident may activate a political self-categorization with respect to state agents. People with such self-categorization form an imagined discursive political protest community, which defines itself in contrast to the state. The dialectical relation between this community and the state may spiral toward violence under three conditions. The first is an escalation of conflict, including a cumulative radicalization of discourse. The second is disillusion with legal protest; and the third is a feeling of moral outrage at state agents’ aggression. At this stage, a few members of the protest community self-categorize again into a martial self-identity to protect their attacked community. These new self-imagined soldiers engage in violence in retaliation to perceived state aggression against their community. If this new bunch of violent guys survive the initial state repression against them, they may trigger a campaign of political violence and form a lasting terrorist organization. This chapter ends by drawing the implications of this model to end this dynamic of violence through prevention, containment, and de-escalation.
