Liberal Terror: Global Security, Divine Power and Emergency Rule (PRIO New Security Studies)

This book offers a genealogical investigation into the phenomenon of terror in the 21st century. Terror has become the defining political emblem of our globally inter-connected age, resulting in an unprecedented global security effort which has given renewed purpose to the Liberal cause. This book charts these developments, moving beyond attempts at either establishing a universal definition or seeking to resurrect outdated Realist modes of analysis, arguing instead that the phemonenon's transient and elusive nature is unavoidable given its alignment with changing Liberal attempts to strategise species life. The book argues that the tendency to write of terror in morally inclusive terms reveals to us the political-theology at work in which Liberalism affords itself divine status. Terror as such is the generative principle of its very formation, providing us with the truest diagnostic of modern Liberal societies, along with the rationalities which underwrite its very reasoning. Thus, the book argues that while terror is widely recognised to be a complex, adpative and emerging phenomenon, displaying many of the hallmarks of Liberal societies, the conceptual significance of these parallels continues to be overlooked. This book will be of much interest to students of critical terrorism and security studies, political sociology and IR in general.