What does Critical Terrorism Studies contribute to the study of Terrorism?
of the political agenda provide a sustained challenge to the dominant
knowledge structures that colour research and viewpoints on terrorism.
The accepted knowledge of the field is in many instances politically
biased, but more importantly, it functions ideologically to reinforce
and reify existing power structures of power in society, particularly
that of the state, and to promote particular elite political projects
(Jackson 2009: 67).
Attempts by CTS to defy the prevailing discourse(s) on terrorism, therefore, embody one of the most potent contributions to the study of terrorism, through the portrayal of how conceptions of terrorism are moulded
by political elites, with judgements of terrorism being almost predestined. Through identification and revelation, avoiding these structures in
research becomes easier and as a result CTS can cater for the emergence
of suppressed knowledge, narratives and genealogies (Edkins 2006).
Methodological Framework
CTS offers the study of terrorism an alternative methodological framework that works to escape the limitations of positivism that have come
to define orthodox approaches. Indeed, traditional studies have been
lambasted for being too shallow, methodologically weak and founding
theories on simple narratives of singular events, even being labelled as
an “a-theoretical undertaking” (Weinberg and Richardson 2004: 138).
Thus, the methodological commitments of CTS strives to sidestep this
affliction plaguing orthodox research; that is, “core, epistemological and
political-normative problems…ranging from lack of conceptual clarity
and theoretical sterility to political bias and a continuing dearth of primary research data” (Gunning 2007: 363).
Therefore, by unearthing pervading discourse(s) that distort how terrorism is studied, CTS brings an alternative framework for conceptualising
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