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Counterterrorism and race

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Abstract

This article examines the field of counterterrorism and race in the context of international relations (IR) scholarship. The article identifies noteworthy texts for examining situated knowledge and individual experiences of counterterrorism as a form of IR-relevant inquiry. Drawing on the fields of postcolonialism, sociology, and legal and terrorism studies, this paper identifies the real-world challenges that academics of counterterrorism and race are responding to, the analytical frameworks they utilise, and the key questions they collectively pose for IR. The article finishes by presenting the problem of how to reconcile two understandings of race: one, upheld by those with state-endorsed counterterrorism knowledge with more academic understandings of race, and another disconnected from a wider politics and submerged in colonial/imperial histories.

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Notes

  1. This article does not engage with contestations concerning the existence of such fields [i.e. the case against critical terrorism studies or vice versa], but it does acknowledge that authors who are members of these distinct disciplines make significant contributions to inquiries regarding the ways in which governments of the Global North pursue counterterrorism.

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  1. Department of International Politics, Aberystwyth University, Rm: 0.10, Aberystwyth, Ceredigion, Wales, SY23 3FE, UK

    Amal Abu-Bakare

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Abu-Bakare, A. Counterterrorism and race. Int Polit Rev 8, 79–99 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1057/s41312-020-00074-x

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