ABSTRACT
After two decades of research, the origin and emergence of the term radicalisation remain unclear. Even if it is difficult to put a precise date on the first appearance of the term, the diachronic discourse analysis shows that its current sense took place in the years following the early 2000s in the government policy reports. The first section supports the hypothesis that the origin may be found in the Netherlands government's preoccupation of the recruitment into domestic Islamist terrorism. The second section will address the emergence of this new term associated with political violence in the European Union following the attacks in Madrid in 2004 and London in 2005. It will be argued that the need for knowledge will lead to the creation of a new field of expertise addressing the phenomenon of radicalisation.
