Defining the terrorist threat in the post-September 11 era

Tsoukala, Anastassia

doi:10.4324/9780203926765.ch3

Cited by 16 publications

(17 citation statements)

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“…In the context of terrorist attacks, the place of an attack may influence assessments of threat controllability. Literature distinguishes between diffuse terrorist attacks—which are dispersed and uncontrollable or very hard to control, since they have no solid form in spatial or in organizational terms (Tsoukala, )—and nondiffuse terrorist attacks that are to some extent predictable, as they are limited to places where the odds of a terrorist attack occurring are rather high, such as central metro or train stations, concerts, airports, or symbolic places (Herzenstein et al, ). Based on previous terrorist attacks, individuals can develop perceptions of where and when terror attacks may occur.…”

Section: Emotional Responses To Terrorism Threatmentioning

confidence: 99%

Terror, Terror Everywhere? How Terrorism News Shape Support for Anti‐Muslim Policies as a Function of Perceived Threat Severity and Controllability

Matthes

Schmuck

Sikorski

2019

Political Psychology

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Terrorist attacks committed by the so‐called Islamic State are rising in Western countries. How the news media portray these attacks may crucially influence emotional responses and support for anti‐Muslim policies such as immigration bans. Based on the Extended parallel response model (EPRM, Witte, 1992), we theorize that specific features of terrorism news such as threat severity (e.g., high vs. low number of potential terrorist offenders) and threat controllability (e.g., nondiffuse, controllable threat vs. diffuse, uncontrollable threat) influence individuals’ emotional reactions and policy support. A quota‐based online experiment (N = 501) reveals that news articles featuring a high number of offenders increase individuals’ fear of terror irrespective of whether the threat is portrayed as controllable or not. News articles featuring a low number of offenders only evoke fear of terror if the threat is portrayed as diffuse. Additionally, news articles emphasizing a high number of offenders combined with a controllable terrorism threat elicit anger on the government. Both anger and fear of terror subsequently increase anti‐Muslim policy support.

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Section: Emotional Responses To Terrorism Threatmentioning

confidence: 99%

Terror, Terror Everywhere? How Terrorism News Shape Support for Anti‐Muslim Policies as a Function of Perceived Threat Severity and Controllability

Matthes

Schmuck

Sikorski

2019

Political Psychology

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“…This has generated research on the importance of anti-terrorist discourses and their successive or simultaneous deployments and conflicts around the notion of danger, emergency, security and freedom. Extending established critiques of the notion of a balance between security and freedom, some researchers have specialised in the analysis of the public sphere and the role of the media in this respect (Bonelli 2005;Palidda 2007;Tsoukala 2006aTsoukala , 2006b and have shown how the general suspicion and the development of technologies of surveillance is connected in public and media narrative. The discourses of reassurance are limited in their long-term effects, even if the discourse of mobilisation to war was effective at the beginning.…”

Section: Logic Of Suspicion and Practices Of Exceptionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The changing landscape of European liberty and security: the mid‐term report of the CHALLENGE project

Bigo¹,

Carrera²,

Guild³

et al. 2008

Int Social Sci J

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The article offers a critical assessment of the liberties of citizens and others living in the EU and the way in which they are affected by the proliferation of discourses about insecurity, and government and transnational agencies practices of reassurance, protection and coercion enacted in the name of the safety of citizen or their collective security, in which information about their identity is exchanged through new techniques of surveillance and control. It analyses first the apparent radicalisationisation of specific forms of transnational political violence and its effects on liberal policies. Next it assesses the threat assessments produced through technologies of risk management and the development of new technologies of surveillance. Third it describes the changing forms taken by the logic of suspicion and practices of exception and derogation, especially in relation to established understandings of the rule of law, to the multidimensional and continuous reframing of the enemy. It then discusses the impact of this on the rights and freedoms of citizens and foreigners, and finally it assesses the relation between the internal and external impact of illiberal practices, especially in the context of transatlantic relations but also of an increasingly interconnected world order, and the place of the EU in this world.

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“…For Tsoukala, the promotion of the idea of an 'omnipresent, unpredictable, enduring and infinite … threat' is in large part the outcome of a 'fear-fuelling strategy [designed] to justify the present counterterrorism policy'. 43 The de-localization of Olympic security…”

Section: The Games In An Environment Of Hyper-insecuritymentioning

confidence: 99%