Terrorism And Counterterrorism

Prior to the 9/11 attack on the World Trade Center, terrorism was not a widely discussed topic in sociology- with most existing studies not being conducted by sociologists. It was mostly seen as a foreign problem that had no direct implications to many western nations and hence, faired fairly low on the political agenda. However, following the incident, a lot more importance was placed on the subject and this led to many radical changes. In the following essay, I would be examining the different ways that sociologists have researched and theorized terrorism, counterterrorism, as well as the impact that it had on society, predominantly in America and United Kingdom.

For example, it was observed that in America, with the increased focus on counterterrorism, other crimes received much less attention and hence, started rising (Deflem, 2004). Furthermore, budget cuts had to be implemented in other aspects of society in order to fund the increase in counterterrorism efforts, such as job training facilities, federal payments to public hospitals, and highway programs (US Department of state 2002b). Likewise, despite the UK government’s effort to effectively communicate with the public about the risks of terrorism and to put their minds at ease, a research conducted by Kearon, Mythen and Walklate (2007) showed that 86% of the public felt that the booklet provided “common sense advice” and was not needed. Furthermore, 34% of the people felt that they were more at risk after reading the booklet and 68% had chosen not to follow the advice given in

Governments are extremely wary about the public being sympathetic towards terrorists, even if the grievances arise from oppression or injustice. This can be seen as the “inclination in counterterrorism policy making is to deny legitimacy to oppositional violence and to discourage the media from granting too public a voice to those who resort to sympathize with terrorism” (Turk, 2004). For example, a study of major terrorist attacks in the United States showed that they were a result of American involvement in other countries, which led to despair and adverse human conditions (Eland, 1998). However, this study was not widely publicized in the US media in order to curb the amount of empathy given to terrorist groups.

In conclusion, this essay shows how different sociologists have different viewpoints towards terrorism, as they attempt to theorize the difficulties as well as the implications that terrorism has on society, such as increased fear and racial discrimination. Through their studies, it shows that evidently, much effort has been instigated in order to attempt to curb terrorism, but also shines a light as to how much more still needs to be