Simon Cottee

Terrorist (E)motives: The Existential Attractions of Terrorism

This article describes a number of possible existential motivations for engaging in terrorism. Three in particular are identified: (1) the desire for excitement, (2) the desire for ultimate meaning, and (3) the desire for glory. Terrorism, according to the argument set out here, is as much a site of individual self-drama and self-reinvention as a tactical instrument for pursuing the political goals of small groups. The conclusion explores the concept of “existential frustration,” and suggests that terrorist activity may provide an outlet for basic existential desires that cannot find expression through legitimate channels.

Jihadism as a Subcultural Response to Social Strain: Extending Marc Sageman's “Bunch of Guys” Thesis

My aim in this article is to extend Marc Sagemans seminal research on Al Qaeda by re-articulating it through the prism of Albert Cohens theory of delinquent subcultures, an approach which came to prominence in Criminology in the 1960s, but has since then been largely eclipsed by other approaches in that field. Drawing on Sagemans findings and observations, I suggest that Al Qaeda-affiliated or -inspired groups in the West can be best understood as a collective response or “solution” to the strains encountered by the members of these groups, and that these strains are imposed on them by the circumstances in which they find themselves. My broader aim is to show that although Criminology, with a few exceptions, ignores the subject of terrorism, terrorism studies can appreciably benefit from an engagement with Criminology as a source of theoretical inspiration.

Folk devils and moral panics: ’Left idealism’ reconsidered

This article is intended as an attack on Jock Young’s use of the term ‘left idealism’—that distillation of every 1960s hysteria and radicalchic inanity—to describe and to castigate the moral, political and intellectual assumptions of the emergent ‘paradigm’ of radical criminology in Britain of the late 1960s and early 1970s. Young’s synopsis, I shall argue, is not only premised on an inadequate approach to the history of ideas; it is also highly selective in its interpretation of the early history of radical criminology in Britain.

Mind Slaughter: The Neutralizations of Jihadi Salafism

This article focuses on the neutralizations of the jihadi Salafi ideology. It is divided into three parts. The first describes the various rhetorical accounts that ordinary people use to neutralize conventional moral controls against inhumane conduct. The second traces how these accounts inform and drive the jihadi Salafi worldview. The third, and concluding, part of the article sketches out the policy implications of the analysis set out here, arguing that any attempt to derail the global Salafi jihad must critically undermine the core neutralizations of the jihadi Salafi ideology, since it is these which enable jihadi combatants to escape conventional moral constraints and perpetrate acts of inhumanity.

The Jihadist Solution

On one night in October 2007, at an event organized by The New Yorker and chaired by Bill Buford, Martin Amis and Ian Buruma convened to discuss the theme of “the monster” in politics and literature.3 Amis was provocative, original, witty, insouciant, irreverent, digressive, resolute, and brilliantly articulate: an utterly compelling and luminous presence. That trademark mid-Atlantic drawl, the wonderfully rhythmic and flamboyant speech, his deep sense of irony: these, too, were conspicuously present. Sitting immediately to his left was Buruma, an altogether different proposition. Buruma is erudite, even-handed, systematic, controlled, subtle, and patiently analytic. He is also dressed in a grey suit, and is wearing a tie. Amis, on the other hand, is decked out in a black leather jacket and boots.

Sir Leon’s shadow

Sir Leon Radzinowicz was one of the last great exemplars of modern criminology. Yet he remains, 32 years since his retirement from the Wolfson chair of Criminology at Cambridge, an almost unrecognizably distant figure, largely unexamined, if not completely eclipsed, in the existing histories of the discipline. This, partly, is because many of the questions which Radzinowicz himself confronted are quite different from those which exercise criminologists today. But it is also, more decisively, because Radzinowicz’s status as a thinker has never quite recovered from the critical assault to which his radical antagonists subjected it. My aim in what follows will be to re-examine the validity of that assault and to clarify the significance, if any, of Radzinowicz’s ‘pragmatic position’ for contemporary criminological thought.

“What ISIS Really Wants” Revisited: Religion Matters in Jihadist Violence, but How?

ABSTRACT In his influential and provocative article on “What ISIS Really Wants,” published in The Atlantic in March 2015, Graeme Wood argued that “the Islamic state is Islamic. Very Islamic.” He also sought to challenge what he diagnosed as a “western bias” among academics and policymakers toward religious ideology, whereby religious doctrines or beliefs are relegated to the status of epiphenomena rather than taken seriously as causal properties in their own right. Woods article sparked a wider—and still ongoing—debate over the relationship between Islam and jihadist violence. For one side in this debate, Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) is inexplicable without reference to Islamic scripture; indeed, some commentators and politicians have even argued that it represents the “true” face of Islam; for the other side, ISIS is a hideous distortion of Islams “true” teachings, and is inexplicable without reference to the wider political circumstances in which it emerged and to which it is a response. This article attempts to forge a middle way between these two polarized viewpoints by arguing that any comprehensive account of ISIS must recognize both its secular and theological bases. More specifically, and drawing on the work of the intellectual historian Quentin Skinner, it argues that Woods critics, in their understandable but misplaced eagerness to detach Islam from jihadist violence, fail to accord proper causal weight to the legitimizing role of revolutionary Islamic ideas—and the innovating ideologists who develop these—in the commission of this violence.

The Culture of Denial: Islamic Terrorism and the Delinquent Left

My aim in what follows will be to argue that a culture of denial exists on the left1 about the problem of Islamic terrorism. This takes four key forms: mystification (the failure or refusal to acknowledge its true character); displacement (the transformation of the perpetrators into avengers and the victims into wrong-doers); evasion (the reluctance or unwillingness to recognize its significance); and minimization (the unwillingness to recognize the scope of the problem). All of the above, I shall argue, are strongly present in the responses of its leading protagonists to the most spectacular of all the recent Islamist terror attacks: that of September 11, 2001.

Watching ISIS: How Young Adults Engage with Official English-Language ISIS Videos

ABSTRACT Research on jihadist online propaganda (JOP) tends to focus on the production, content, and dissemination of jihadist online messages. Correspondingly, the target of JOP—that is, the audience—has thus far attracted little scholarly attention. This article seeks to redress this neglect by focusing on how audiences respond to jihadist online messaging. It presents the findings of an online pilot survey testing audience responses to clips from English-language Islamic State of Iraq and Syria videos. The survey was beset at every stage by ethical, legal, and practical restrictions, and we discuss how these compromised our results and what this means for those attempting to do research in this highly sensitive area.

Fear, Boredom, and Joy: Sebastian Junger's Piercing Phenomenology of War

This review article explores the emotional attractions of war and military combat. Using Sebastian Jungers recently published book War as a central point of reference, it elucidates and supports the idea that, for combatants, war is often experienced as a profoundly exciting and existentially rewarding human activity. By bringing into focus and helping to conceptualize the raw appeal of combat, Jungers account of war can be enlisted as a resource for understanding the positive emotional drives behind acts of terrorism.