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A Linguistic Turn of Terrorism Studies Jørgen Staun DIIS Working Paper A Linguistic Turn of Terrorism Studies Jørgen Staun DIIS Working Paper 2009:02 JØRGEN STAUN PhD, Project Researcher, DIIS www.diis.dk/jst - [email protected] DIIS WORKING PAPER 2009:01 © Copenhagen 2009 Danish Institute for International Studies, DIIS Strandgade 56, DK-1401 Copenhagen, Denmark Ph: +45 32 69 87 87 Fax: +45 32 69 87 00 E-mails: [email protected] Web: www.diis.dk Cover Design: Carsten Schiøler Layout: Mikkel Krak Printed in Denmark by Vesterkopi as ISBN: 978-87-7605-302-4 Price: DKK 25.00 (VAT included) DIIS publications can be downloaded free of charge from www.diis.dk DIIS WORKING PAPER 2009:02 CONTENTS Introduction 3 Culture and terrorism 4 State of art 5 Radicalisation is a process of securitization 7 The prominence of language 8 Terror is a mode of communication 10 Terror is what is defined as being terror 11 Speech acts – an institutional approach to language-games 13 Communication-links 14 The importance of text 15 Literature 16 1 DIIS WORKING PAPER 2009:02 2 DIIS WORKING PAPER 2009:02 INTRODUCTION did he and his fellow bombers, Tanweer, “Your democratically elected governments continu- Hussain and Lindsay, all second generation ously perpetuate atrocities against my people all over British nationals, seemingly well integrated the world. And your support of them makes you di- and normal British youths, decide to be- rectly responsible, just as I am directly responsible come, what Khan describes as “soldiers” for protecting and avenging my Muslim brothers and give up their own lives and altogether and sisters. Until we feel security, you will be our kill 56 and wound over 700 people on that targets. And until you stop the bombing, gassing, morning in July? imprisonment and torture of my people we will not Questions and acts such as these have in- stop this fight. We are at war and I am a soldier”.1 spired terrorism researchers to look for cul- The post-mortem video-statement from tural- or ideology-related explanations. Cul- the alleged “ring-leader” of the London 7/7 tural theories applied to the study of violent bombers, Mohammad Sidique Khan, which radicalisation and Islamist militancy primar- was shown on Al Jazeera on 1 September ily focus on socio-cultural explanatory fac- 2005 leaves no doubt that he believed that tors when explaining why certain European he was “a soldier” at “war” with the West. Muslim youths adhere to commit terrorist A West, which in his mind was threatening activities. These factors range from integra- his so-called Muslim brothers and sisters, tion problems, feelings of humiliation and that is the Ummah– the community of their understanding of the world, i.e. their Muslim believers all over the world– and worldviews, perceptions and others. that this threat was so severe that he had to However, the focus on religion, culture act in defence of it by killing what he saw as and ideology as explanatory factors for (vio- supporters of a democratically elected gov- lent or non-violent) political activism is far ernment which was responsible for the so- from particular to terrorism studies. After called war against his fellow Muslims. And the Cold War one of the more remarking there can be little doubt that he thought features of political science, especially that being at war made it legitimate to kill within the realms of international relations and wound people, who accidentally hap- theory, was a surge of interest in questions pened to take the wrong car in the London of identity – notably national identity – re- Underground that July morning. ligion and other cultural spheres. Areas, But why did Khan, who is remembered which for years had been if not neglected, as a “quiet, studious” boy at school who then treated more or less as a minor rele- was “never in trouble”, commit such a hor- vant infringement on otherwise rationally rible act? A man, who as an adult was em- informed policy decisions, all of a sudden ployed as a learning mentor at a local pri- came to the forefront of research. With the mary school and was respected for his fall of the Berlin Wall and the withering commitment to the children2. Indeed, why away of the bi-polar ideological opposition between Western market-based democra- 1 Muhammad Sidique Khan’s post-mortem video-statement, cies and the Soviet state-controlled com- referred from Report of the Official Account of the Bombings munism, new explanations on the fault lines in London on 7th July 2005, House of Commons, HC 1087, p 19. traits of 3 bombers”, Washington Post, 15 July, 2005. 2 Craig Whitlock, “Trail from London to Leeds Yields Por- 3 DIIS WORKING PAPER 2009:02 in international politics were in demand. CULTURE AND TERRORISM Within IR-theory the inspiration from post- Culture is a concept used in day-to-day lan- structuralist philosophers such as Foucault guage which contains a long list of different and Derrida in the late 1980s and early meanings and social practices. Accordingly 1990s lead IR-scholars such as Richard culture can be defined as including elements Ashley, R.B.J. Walker, Jens Bartelson, James as different as: language, ideas, beliefs, cus- Der Derian, David Campbell and Ole toms, codes, institutions, rituals and cere- Wæver to study the history of significant monies. It also usually holds an aesthetic concepts (such as the concept of sover- meaning, such as the supposed ‘high cul- eignty, state, nation or security) and ask ture’ of music-forms such as classical. In questions concerning how culture and iden- the context of an international relations de- tity might affect foreign policy. Outside IR- bate on how to operationalize security pol- theory an author such as Robert Kaplan ar- icy culture Ronald L. Jepperson, Alexander gued that the new world order would be Wendt and Peter J. Katzenstein defines cul- characterized by enhanced anarchy, whereas ture as: “a set of evaluative standards, such Francis Fukuyama claimed the Western as rules or models defining what entities democracy as the End of History. One of and actors exist in a system and how they the more influential concepts to float in the operate and interrelate”.5 If we look at cul- mid 1990s was Samuel Huntington’s “Clash ture from a more philosophical point of of Civilizations”, the title of a Foreign Af- view, Michel Foucault defines culture in fairs article and a later book3 in which the terms of a social episteme as described by a author somewhat rigidly argued that con- worldview or a paradigm of thinking that flicts after the Cold War where not so much “defines the conditions … of all knowl- ideologically or economically driven, or the edge”.6 Ludwig Wittgenstein speaks of cul- result of raw power games, but instead in- ture as “a use of language” 7 , and the way creasingly related to culture and civiliza- the concept of culture is used here is very tions, which he largely defined by the close to his concept of “worldview”. Thus, world’s major religions. The prominent according to Wittgenstein, language is em- clash, he contended, would be between the bedded in mythologies, conceptual systems Western world and Islam, since the domi- and old lines of thought, which in a way nant trend was a revitalization of religion in keeps language locked. In his Über Gewis- world affairs. Thus, religion – and thereby sheit from 1969 Wittgenstein writes the fol- culture – had all of a sudden returned to the lowing on the concept of worldview: “94. centre of social science, from where it had been put aside in the general predisposition 5 Jepperson, Ronald L., Alexander Wendt and Peter J. Katzen- of secularization, whereby tradition and su- stein, ‘Norms, Identity, and Culture in National Security Pol- perstition gave way to science and rational- icy’, in Peter J. Katzenstein (ed.) The Culture of National Se- 4 curity: Norms and Identity in World Politics, 1996, p. 56; here ity. referred from Dalgaard-Nielsen 2006, p. 13. 6 Michel Foucault’s The Order of Things: An Archaeology of Human Sciences, 1973; referred from (Juergensmeyer, 2000, 3 Huntington, 1993, 1997. pp. 12-13) 4 Laustsen and Wæver, 2000, p. 706. 7 Wittgenstein 1958, p. 134. 4 DIIS WORKING PAPER 2009:02 But I do not have my worldview because I Osama bin Laden.11 However, Der Derian, have convinced myself of its truthfulness; Weber and Wæver are all more focused on neither because I am convinced of its truth- overall processes concerning the concept of fulness. On the contrary it is the back- terrorism. As was for many years the ten- ground handed over (from history, J.S.), dency within IR, the post-structuralist or upon which, I distinguish between true and constructivist approach is more often used false.” 8 Cultural studies in this sense thus in overall philosophical considerations than encompass studies which focus on identity, in more practical, down-to-earth studies of cultural or ideological explanations for be- for example how discourses from an or- haviours and action. And one of the defin- ganisation like the al-Qaeda affect the radi- ing features of cultural studies is the promi- calization of groups and individuals in nence this leaves to language. Europe. From German sociology we have “risk- society” thinker Ulrich Beck’s focus on how STATE OF ART traditional state-based concepts such as Authors working within a social- “war” and “peace”, “friend” and “foe”, or constructivist or post-structuralist frame- “war” and “crime” have been challenged by work are not the most prominent among international terrorism12. And we have au- terrorism-scholars.
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