Citation

Clément M. Crit. Stud. Terror. 2021; 14(2): 247-270.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2021, Informa - Taylor and Francis Group)

DOI

10.1080/17539153.2021.1902611

PMID

unavailable

Abstract

From the perspective of emotion and affect research, a double paradox structures the study of terrorism. The first paradox consists in assuming terrorist violence's clear psychological impact without unpacking its affective workings. The second relates to the presumption of organisations' strategically rational turn to terrorist violence, thereby emptying accounts of non-state actors' motivations of complex, intersubjective emotional dynamics. The article argues that an epistemological shift is necessary in terrorism research to question the relationship between emotions/affects and knowledge/power. Drawing on concepts and theoretical engagements from emotion and affect research in global politics, the article interrogates how emotions/affects inform political agency and how researchers may explore their complex, diffuse, and partly contradictory sociopolitical effects. The article illustrates the value of such theoretical engagements by turning to two examples, in which the performance of (non-state) collective emotions, on one side, and the state politics of emotion, on the other, highlight the ambiguous political effects of emotions/affects.

Language: en

Keywords

affective investments; collective emotions; dissonance; epistemological shift; governance of emotions; performativity; political agency; politics of emotion; Terrorism research; terrorist and counterterrorist violence