What is "terrorology"?
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As CAMPACC puts it:
- Academic terrorism 'experts' - or terrorologists - are deeply embedded in the elite power structure. They conveniently blur distinctions between political dissent, resistance to oppressive regimes, and violent threats to populations. These experts advise governments on counter-terrorism, thus sanitising Western state terror as legitimate techniques for self-defence. Where did these terrorologists come from? How do they gain influence and credibility? How can they be countered?'[1]
According to journalist Kevin Toolis:
- Throughout academia, the study of terrorism is booming. But in reality... these "experts" represent an ideology that has its roots in the cold war and in Israeli conservatism'[2].
- A new field of "terrorology" emerged, with its own journals, conferences, and research institutes. This popular and scholarly literature informed the discourse of the first American "war on terrorism" during the mid-1980s.Middle East Studies Association members, to our everlasting shame according to some pundits, did not participate much in the scholarly field of terrorology. In my view, there was great wisdom in this abstention. The terrorologists have not accomplished a great deal of practical or intellectual significance. Their studies have not noticeably decreased the incidence of acts of violence against civilians throughout the world. Nor have they enhanced our understanding of the causes of such acts. What they have done is to focus attention on tactics and symptoms, thereby impeding investigation into historical and social causes. This is an ostensibly pragmatic, but fundamentally misguided, approach to understanding terrorism. If the term is to be understood in any useful rather than propagandistic way, terrorism must be regarded as a social and historical phenomenon, not a moral or political epithet.[3].
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Latest articles on 'Terror Spin' on Spinwatch
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References and Resources
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External links on Terrorology
- Abraham, Nabeel, The Running Dogs Of Terrorology, Lies Of Our Times, May 1993, pp. 6-8.
- Jonny Burnett and Dave Whyte 'Embedded Expertise and the New Terrorism' Journal for Crime, conflict and Media culture, 2004 [1]
- Chomsky, N. 'International Terrorism: Image and Reality' In Alexander George (ed.), Western State Terrorism, Polity, 1991. http://www.chomsky.info/articles/199112--02.htm
- Herman, Edward S. The Real Terror Network, excerpted from the book, published in 1982 by South End Press.
- McClintock, Michael Instruments of Statecraft: US Guerilla Warfare, Counterinsurgency, and counterterrorism, 1940-1990, New York: Pantheon Books.
- Toolis, K. 'Rise of the terrorist professors', New Statesman, 14 June 2004.
- James Petras, The Anatomy of "Terror Experts", Counterpunch, 7 August 2004.
- Edward Herman and David Peterson, There Is No "War on Terror", ZNet, 18 January 2008.
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