ABSTRACT
These research approaches draw attention to the less visible sites and peoples involved in the study of terrorism. Experiences of terror and violence are not just at the national or transnational level but also at everyday levels, a view of terror that postcolonial and feminist scholars have proposed and theorized. Debates about what terrorism is and how to counter it usually ignore that terrorism is experienced differently by different races, genders, and classes across the world. Postcolonialism and feminism also direct attention to the role of standpoint in meaning-making. What counts as “knowledge” and “truth” is based on which standpoint the researcher is analyzing from (see Table 5.1). Postcolonial theorists indicate this centrality of race and imperial power in constituting dominant meanings about particular acts and actions. Generally, postcolonial and feminist analysis is about how the “other” is conceptualized and related to postcolonial feminist scholarship points out the raced and gendered practices that structure and constrain self-other relations in IR.
