Description
In this article, I trace the way in which the label of ‘terrorism’ forges and defines what is (normal and abnormal) politics, and vice-versa. Rather than starting from the assumption that ‘terrorism’ and ‘politics’ pre-exist each other, I explore how these fields co-constitute each other in the act of labelling violence. Going beyond the idea that ‘terrorism’ is a way to either contest or confirm the political nature of violent action, I explore how the use of ‘terrorism’ to label certain movements politicises (rather than depoliticises) them, in a specific way. This article identifies three categories of politics that the ‘terrorism’ label helps construct. First, ‘terrorism’ refers to a ‘savage’ form of politics, where violence takes the place of politics itself. Second, the ‘terrorism’ label reduces the politics of ‘the terrorists’ to the pursuit of self-interest. Finally, the ‘terrorism’ label is used to identify a sphere of ‘diseased’ politics, a politics that has gone too far beyond the rational. To support these claims, I engage in an in-depth exploration of the way the ‘terrorism’ label is deployed in the context of colonial Indochina. Following recent interventions showing how the ‘terrorism’ label has a long colonial genealogy, and furthering efforts to historicise the study of terrorism, I focus specifically on an under-studied colonial context in order to explore the work ‘terrorism’ does in shaping the space of the political.
