Knowing al-Qaeda: The Epistemology of Terrorism

by Andreas Behnke, Christina Hellmich, Keith Breen, Dan Bulley, Susan McManus

Overview

Despite a plethora of studies devoted to it, the current understanding of al-Qaeda and the threat it poses remains vague and ambiguous. Is al-Qaeda a rigidly structured organisation, a global network of semi-independent cells, a franchise, or simply an ideology? What role did Osama bin Laden play within the group and its terrorist campaign? What does it mean to talk about the "global Salafi-jihad" threat allegedly confronting the West? In addressing such questions many writers have sought to offer definitive answers, yet overall the truth about al-Qaeda remains elusive.

This book moves beyond this traditional approach in order to investigate and critically assess how such answers reflect the particular epistemological frameworks within which they are produced. Its chapters explore the varied contexts within which the obscure entity labelled al-Qaeda is constituted as a comprehensible object of political, strategic, cultural, and scientific knowledge, and within which 'terrorism' is rendered an experience of quotidian life.

This volume offers a much-needed critical reflection on Western ways of talking and of thinking about the frightening experience of global terrorism. In trying to know how we know al-Qaeda, it offers us an opportunity to try to know ourselves and our often hidden assumptions about legitimacy, violence, and political purpose.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781409456438
Publisher:	Ashgate Publishing Ltd
Publication date:	08/01/2012
Series:	Rethinking Political and International Theory
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
File size:	4 MB

About the Author

Christina Hellmich is a lecturer in International Relations at the School of Politics and IR at the University of Reading. She is specialist in Middle East politics with a particular research interest in Political Islam, International Security and Global Health. Andreas Behnke is a lecturer in Political Theory at the School of Politics and IR at the University of Reading. His research interests include the Political Theory of International Relations, in particular Carl Schmitt, Critical Security and Terrorism Studies, and Critical Geopolitics.

Andreas Behnke, Christina Hellmich; Anna M. Agathangelou; Lars Berger; Rashmi Singh; Ali Parchami; Nadya Ali; Alan Cromartie.

Table of Contents

Contents: Introduction: al-Qaeda and terrorism as a challenge to knowledge, Andreas Behnke and Christina Hellmich; 'Here come the Salafis': the framing of al-Qaeda's ideology within terrorism research, Christina Hellmich; Anxieties of global empire: politics of visibility epistemologies and 'terror', Anna M. Agathangelou; Conceptualizing al-Qaeda and US grand strategy, Lars Berger; Measuring al-Qaeda: the metrics of terror, Rashmi Singh; Fear as sovereign strategy and the popular tactics of laughter, Andreas Behnke; The friend of my enemy: al-Qaeda, Iran and the US, Ali Parchami; Terrorizing women: re-thinking the female jihad, Nadya Ali; Afterword: knowing Knowing al-Qaeda, Alan Cromartie; Index.

Editorial Reviews

'The death of Osama bin Laden has done nothing to dispel the widespread confusion over the nature and meaning of al-Qaeda. This important collection opens up new vistas in the search for a deeper understanding of how and what we know about terrorism. Interesting, incisive, and illuminating of contemporary counter-terrorist culture, this is critical social science at its very best.' Richard Jackson, University of Otago, New Zealand 'This book provides important new analytical ways of understanding the nature of al-Qaeda and 9/11 that challenges conventional wisdom in how we frame the terrorists, what they seek to achieve through violence and the pitfalls of responding to it. The book incisively and provocatively pushes new intellectual boundaries as to how we chose to analyze and respond to terrorism as a polymorpheous phenomenon in the post 9/11 period. A must-read for students of terrorism studies.' Magnus Ranstorp, Swedish National Defence College, Sweden

From the Publisher