On the pedagogy of ‘small wars’

Abstract

This article argues that flawed western strategies for ‘small wars’, those fought in the non—European world, have been informed by illusions concerning the cultural, military and political superiority of the West. With 9/11, such wars ceased to be small. The main threat to the western powers no longer emanates from other states organized along lines similar to their own, but from a transnational network enterprise that has its origins in the global South and the Islamic world. Nonetheless, old imperial and orientalist constructions continue to inform western and particularly US perceptions of the war on terror. ‘Knowing thy enemy’ and ‘knowing thyself’, Sun Tzu's formula for victory, requires abandoning flattering accounts of western identity and learning to empathize with those we call terrorists.

An analysis of EU counterterrorism discourse post-September 11

“…Major studies on suicide terrorism (Pape 2005;Bloom 2005;Holmes 2005), the religious orientation of individual 'Islamic terrorists' (Sageman 2004) and the statements of terrorist groups themselves suggest that religion is a secondary factor next to political grievances and nationalism-that the religious language of terrorists is instrumental and culturally idiomatic rather than causative. Fred Halliday, for example, argues that Islamist discourse, although often expressed in religious terms, is a form of secular or nationalist protest at external and internal domination and forms of exclusion (Halliday 2002;Burke 2003;Barkawi 2004). In the end, the weight of research over many decades suggests that terrorism is primarily a politically driven phenomenon and emerges as a fringe activity within broader political movements and struggles.…”

the core commitments of critical terrorism studies

“…Specifically, this entails a willingness to try to understand and empathise with the mindsets, world views and subjectivities of non-Western 'others' and a simultaneous refusal to assume or impute their intentions and values (Barkawi, 2004). CTS scholars recognise that in relation to the 'terrorist other', this is a taboo stance within Western scholarship.…”

Beyond Belief: Islamist Strategic Thinking and International Relations Theory

“…73 Taraq Barkawi, for example, perceives that ''the root causes of the current situation lie in the working out of long-term histories of western expansionism and their dynamic interaction with the Islamic world.'' 74 In this understanding, a generic West is solely responsible for both the creation of the Islamist threat and its baleful consequences. From this perspective, the centuries of Western colonialism's ''violent, rapacious and dominating'' oppression results in the inevitable retaliation of the more militant members of the ''global South.''…”