Description
John Mearsheimer warned, early in the ‘War on Terror’, that terrorism was a distraction drawing resources away from the real dangers confronting the world’s major powers. From a very different epistemological and political standpoint, critical security and terrorism scholars were concomitantly making similar arguments, pointing at the systematic inflation of the “threat of terrorism” and the implications of this for state repression, violence and injustices across the world from illegal wars, to the stigmatization of Muslim communities and the implementation of ‘preventing violent extremism’ programs across health, education and social care sectors. Now, after more than two decades of the “terrorism era,” policy and scholarly attention appears finally to be heeding these calls and turning elsewhere: away from terrorism. Thus, on the one hand, we are witnessing the return of “old fears”, particularly around great power rivalry and interstate conflict, evidenced most dramatically in the ongoing war in Ukraine. At the same time, this revitalisation of 'traditional’ security concerns dovetails with growing attention to new areas of concern such as cyber security, and with the belated recognition of non-traditional security issues such as climate change which are finally beginning to gain serious attention amongst specialized audiences and broader publics alike. This panel enquires into this reassessment of terrorism as a security threat and its
impact upon security policy and scholarship.
