Building “Terrorism Studies” as an Interdisciplinary Space: Addressing Recurring Issues in the Study of Terrorism

Abstract

Over the years, there have been many debates regarding the state of research into terrorism and whether "terrorism studies" constitutes an academic discipline in its own right. Such reflections, coupled with the natural evolution of what is still a relatively new area of research, have arguably led to significant improvements in quality and rigour. At the same time, the status of terrorism studies itself remains somewhat ambiguous: it is both discussed as a distinct field and simultaneously evades criticism by pointing to the difficulties of defining its boundaries. There are undoubtedly a number of advantages to forming a separate discipline, which would go some way to helping the field address some of the recurring problems that terrorism research faces. However, this article ultimately argues that scholars are better served by deliberately moving in the other direction and developing the field as a space for interdisciplinary engagement.

Topics in terrorism research: reviewing trends and gaps, 2007-2016

“…Hopefully, this will serve to broaden the field's topical focus by bringing about greater attention for developments among non-jihadist extremist and terrorist groups, as well as for states own roles in using or supporting terrorism. Again, the point is by no means that it is wrong to pursue state-funded research or to focus on groups like al-Qaeda, but researchers should more carefully assess what the potential side effects of pursuing government-aligned research agendas could be, for instance in terms of promulgating one-sided perception of what terrorism is (Youngman 2018). Not just because these can impute one-sidedness into the academic debate, but because how terrorism is perceived and discussed by politicians, the media and pundits has much broader and far-reaching societal implications.…”

“…Of course, none of these points are particularly novel. Terrorism researchers have been raising these issues for years (Ranstorp 2007;Silke 2004a;Youngman 2018). So why do they persist?…”

“…The considerable attention that terrorism is given in Western politics and journalism also creates space for academics and other experts to deliver advice to policymakers and provide media commentary (Youngman 2018). Again, however, the ability to do so is predicated to at least some extent on a willingness and ability to maintain "relevance" by working on and speak to those topics currently making headlines.…”

How can the literature inform counter-terrorism practice? Recent advances and remaining challenges

“…McCauley and Moskalenko briefly reviewed the literature since 9/11 and suggested that steady progress in this area is being made. This view has been echoed by others (Gill & Corner, 2017;Gruenewald, Chermak, & Freilich, 2013;Schuurman, 2018;Silke & Schmidt-Petersen, 2017;Stern, 2014;Taylor, 2014;Youngman, 2018), and there have been a number of studies published since 2014 that have applied empirical methods to examine realworld data, for example, via the collation and analysis of open source data (e.g. Corner & Gill, 2015;Ellis et al, 2016;Knight, Woodward, & Lancaster, 2017).…”

The Development of the Framework for Research Ethics in Terrorism Studies (FRETS)

“…The reviewing committee must ensure that they are set-up to adequately and appropriately review the ethical nature of research in this area. For those individual institutional IRBs/HRECs that do not have the adequate institutional knowledge, or training, to appropriately review terrorism research proposals, the establishment of cross-institutional advisory mechanisms 52 and national IRBs 53 have been mooted to assist in the review processes. It has been proposed that such mechanisms can greatly assist in the development and application of appropriate expertise.…”