Anarchism, Terrorism Studies and Jihadism

The period following 9/11 saw those looking for historical precedent to explain Al Qaeda rediscover the Anarchist terrorists of the nineteenth and early twentieth century. Coincidentally this seemed to coincide with the emergence of Islamo-Anarchism, an attempt by some to marry a spiritual Islam with the decentralised anti-governmental approach of Anarchism.This article firstly rejects these developments, but goes on to contend that such narratives are perhaps not surprising given the paucity of debate in the fast developing academic field of Terrorism Studies, dominated as it is by either statist and security industry tendencies, or a Critical Terrorism Studies perspective that risks becoming the mirror opposite of its opponent.