ABSTRACT
In this chapter, the author argues that what he has learned about counterterrorism policy and practice in the years since establishment of Critical Terrorism Studies (CTS) strongly suggests that the "ripe moment" for offering expertise and guidance to policymakers and practitioners which author perceived at the time is now gone, if it ever really existed. He suggests that there was always potential contradiction, or point of tension, between the contrasting aspirations for policy relevance and access to power, and CTS's commitment to emancipation and critical distance. He suggests that under these conditions it is virtually impossible to maintain an ethical commitment to human rights, human welfare, non-violence, and progressive politics – that is, emancipation – while simultaneously participating in an inherently violent and counter-emancipatory regime of counterterrorism. He argues elsewhere in relation to peace studies, he believes that "an explicit commitment to adopting the language, ontology, epistemology and praxis of 'resistance' could potentially reinvigorate the critical orientation of the field".
