About Critical Studies on Terrorism (CST)
The CST working group aims to create and maintain a community of scholars that will function to broaden and deepen the study of terrorism from critical perspectives, and beyond a narrow security-oriented focus. We are committed to the promotion of rigorous and internationally-recognised scholarship, and to the effort of fostering creative responses to the security-driven discourses being generated around the world. This is alongside greater dialogue between critical terrorism studies scholars and security officials and practitioners, in order to widen and deepen the public debate on responses to terrorism. Related to this, there is a genuine need to promote public education of terrorism-related issues so that a better-informed citizenry can properly participate in democratic public debate.
Our primary aims include:
- to explore the ways in which terrorism is acted upon by law and in politics. This includes the uses which terrorism serves in security policy, and the consequences of the War on Terror.
- to provide a forum through which to establish links between terrorism research and cognate areas including Peace Studies, Political Science, International Relations, Sociology, Human Geography, and beyond
- to serve as a forum for scholars with a critical emphasis in their work, albeit with a broad, pluralistic approach to the category of ‘critique’
- engagement beyond the scientific community, including with policy-makers, civil society groups, think tanks and beyond. This ensures relevance within but also importantly beyond narrow academic debates in areas of public policy.