Critical Perspectives on Legislative and Policy Approaches to Counter-Extremism and Counter-Terror

Dear Colleagues,

Over the past two decades, the proliferation of counter-terrorism and counter-extremism legislation and policies has been as relentless as it has unprecedented, leaving few parts of the globe untouched and unaffected. For some, this proliferation has been a necessary response to the threat posed by modern-day terrorism, evidenced by a paradigmatic shift that has transformed not only terrorism per se but so too those who perpetrate it, the way they organise and mobilise and the tactics and approaches they seek to employ. For others, this has resulted in certain communities and identities being unduly targeted and securitised, the infringement of individual and societal human rights and the use of military force by some governments. Add in the broadening of legislative definitions of terrorism and relatively newly conceived notions and definitions of extremism—both violent and non—and the picture becomes ever more complex and contested.

The Special Issue investigates counter-terrorism and counter-extremism through the lens of legislative and policy approaches. Nested within the established scholarly canon relating to counter-terrorism while simultaneously developing the rather more embryonic counter-extremism equivalent, the Special Issue affords a timely opportunity to critically reflect and engage on the legislation and policies as indeed the social, political or cultural impacts and consequences of either, as well as, importantly, the intersection and overlap between counter-terrorism and counter-extremism.

We therefore invite submissions from scholars, as indeed practitioners that have the potential to contribute new critical perspectives to this salient discussion. While necessarily broad in its remit, some indicative topics of interest to this Special Issue might include: points of convergence and divergence between counter-terrorism and counter-extremism legislation and policies; definitions of extremism, both legal and scholarly; counter-terrorism and counter-extremism in the various settings of the Global South; newly emergent extremist ideologies and/or the groups/movements associated with them; state–community tensions in relation to counter-terrorism and counter-extremism legislation and policies; and the exclusion of certain “extreme” ideologies from counter-terrorism and counter-extremism approaches. These are far from exhaustive, however, and submissions may engage with any aspect of the theme of the Special Issue, be they empirically, theoretically and/or conceptually informed and argued. Submissions are welcome from both established and early career scholars from any discipline and geographical location.

Dr. Chris Allen
Dr. Alex Oaten
Dr. Ilda Cuko
Guest Editors

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• counter-terrorism
• counter-extremism
• extremism
• terrorism
• Islamism
• extreme right wing