The study of terrorism and the problem of “apocalyptic”

Abstract

The term “apocalyptic” is regularly used to describe various contemporary manifestations of terrorism. The way it is employed, however, is far from unproblematic. Not only is it used in a range of inconsistent and incompatible ways by many terrorism scholars, but they too often make assumptions about both its character and its relationship to acts of violence that do not stand up to scrutiny. Given the cultural force of the term, its deployment inevitably hampers the analysis of terrorism and precludes understanding the phenomenon. There are good grounds for a moratorium on the use of the term “apocalyptic” to describe any form of terrorism.