Disciplining Terror How Experts Invented 'Terrorism'

Since 9/11 we have been told that terrorists are pathological evildoers, beyond our comprehension. Before the 1970s, however, hijackings, assassinations, and other acts we now call 'terrorism' were considered the work of rational strategic actors. Disciplining Terror examines how political violence became 'terrorism', and how this transformation ultimately led to the current 'war on terror'. Drawing upon archival research and interviews with terrorism experts, Lisa Stampnitzky traces the political and academic struggles through which experts made terrorism, and terrorism made experts. She argues that the expert discourse on terrorism operates at the boundary - itself increasingly contested - between science and politics, and between academic expertise and the state. Despite terrorism now being central to contemporary political discourse, there have been few empirical studies of terrorism experts. This book investigates how the concept of terrorism has been developed and used over recent decades.

1. Introduction; 2. The invention of terrorism and the rise of the terrorism expert; 3. From insurgents to terrorists: experts, rational knowledge, and irrational subjects; 4. Disasters, diplomats, and databases: rationalization and its discontents; 5. 'Terrorism fever': the first war on terror and the politicization of expertise; 6. Loose can(n)ons: from 'small wars' to the 'new terrorism'; 7. The road to pre-emption; 8. The politics of (anti)knowledge: disciplining terrorism after 9/11; 9. Conclusion: the trouble with experts.

Lisa Stampnitzky is Lecturer in Social Studies at Harvard University. She earned her Ph.D. in Sociology at the University of California, Berkeley, and has also held fellowships at Harvard University, the University of Oxford, Ohio State University and the European University Institute.