The ‘emotionalization of the “war on terror”’: Counter-terrorism, fear, risk, insecurity and helplessness
| Published date | 01 November 2015 |
| Author | Shamila Ahmed |
| DOI | 10.1177/1748895815572161 |
| Date | 01 November 2015 |
| Subject Matter | Articles |
Criminology & Criminal Justice
2015, Vol. 15(5) 545 –560
© The Author(s) 2015
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DOI: 10.1177/1748895815572161
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The ‘emotionalization of the
“war on terror”’: Counter-
terrorism, fear, risk, insecurity
and helplessness
Shamila Ahmed
Buckinghamshire New University, UK
Abstract
The ‘war on terror’ has marked the existence of exceptional measures involving military action
abroad and the introduction of counter-terrorism legislation in the United Kingdom. Within
this context fear, risk and insecurity have been intrinsic in legitimizing the measures created
as being necessary to maintain national security. This article presents the findings from a study
investigating the impact of the ‘war on terror’ on British Muslims’ emotions. The study revealed
how facets of the ‘war on terror’, including ‘human rights and policing’, ‘What if? and pre-emption’,
‘geopolitics and reflexive fear and risk’ and ‘fear from inside the binary’ impacted participants’
emotions. Through exploring how thepolicy measures implemented in the ‘war on terror’ have
influenced British Muslims’ emotions, the article takes a small step in addressing the analytical gap
in criminological research on emotions in the ‘war on terror’.
Keywords
British Muslims, criminology, ‘emotionalization of the “war on terror”’, emotions, terrorism
Introduction
The relevance of emotions to definitions of crime, the construction of the criminal and
the fear of crime have been well documented (Blackburn, 1993; Braithwaite, 1989;
Cohen, 2001; De Haan and Loader, 2002; Gray et al., 2008; Karstedt, 2002; Sykes and
Matza, 1957; Vaughan, 2007; Zinn, 2006). The inclusion of emotions in criminology has
Corresponding author:
Shamila Ahmed, Department of Criminal Justice and Social Studies, Buckinghamshire New University, Main
Building, Queen Alexandra Road, High Wycombe, Buckinghamshire HP11 2JZ, UK.
Email: sahmed02@bucks.ac.uk
572161CRJ0010.1177/1748895815572161Criminology & Criminal JusticeAhmed
research-article2015
Article
546 Criminology & Criminal Justice 15(5)
produced some of the most progressive work within the discipline. For example in States
of Denial, Cohen (2001) explores human suffering in relation to the emotional impact of
acknowledging war, starvation and so on. Similarly, if one examines the concept of
‘moral panic’ and ‘folk devils’, emotions of anxiety/ies and fear permeate through this
work (Cohen, 1972). However, even though the ‘fear of crime’ and the ‘culture of fear’
(Furedi, 2002; Hope and Sparks, 2000) are well-established themes within criminology,
the intersection of fear with other emotions and more generally an analysis of ‘emotions’
(as opposed to an ‘emotion’) in relation to crime (Farrall et al., 2000; Gray et al., 2008;
Walklate and Mythen, 2008) remains under developed (there are some notable excep-
tions – see Vaughan’s (2007) study on desistance and emotions).
Since 9/11 and the subsequent ‘war on terror’ there has been a renewed academic
interest in terrorism and criminology has been quick to discuss, explore and critique vari-
ous facets of the ‘war on terror’, including the construction of the ‘war on terror’, foreign
policy, counter-terrorism legislation and policing (Ahmed, 2014a; Hudson, 2009; Hudson
and Walters, 2009; Mythen and Walkate, 2006, 2008; Panthazis and Pemberton, 2009).
However, criminology has been slow to explore emotions in relation to the ‘war on ter-
ror’, even though the possible avenues of research available through incorporating emo-
tions have been well highlighted within the social sciences with disciplines including
psychology, political science and international relations studying the phenomenon of
emotions (Frijda et al., 2000; Hochschild, 1983; Petersen, 2010). As Gray et al. (2010: 2)
rightly contend ‘these contributions are noteworthy; not least because they offer a con-
ceptual vocabulary that may well have much to offer criminological research’. The lack
of criminological attention to emotions in the ‘war on terror’ seems surprising given that
as Silke (2001: 2) states ‘terrorism itself is an emotive subject’. As a small step towards
addressing this analytical gap, this article explores how the policy measures implemented
in the ‘war on terror’ have influenced British Muslims’ emotions. The article identifies
emotional patterns among British Muslims by looking at British Muslims’ perceptions of
the ‘war on terror’.
The Context: The ‘Emotionalization of the “War on
Terror”’
The very meaning and definition of emotions remains contested (Kleinginna and
Kleinginna, 1981). When defining emotions Scherer (2005: 706) states that emotions
are ‘anger, fear, joy, disgust, sadness, shame, guilt’ and these emotions constitute the
common variety of emotions usually studied. Within criminology emotions of ‘pleas-
ure, anger, fear, sadness, disgust, remorse, resentment, shame, and guilt’ have been
conceptualized as ‘states of emotional arousal’ (De Haan and Loader, 2002: 243). Given
the number of studies involving perceptions and the utilization of emotions in the social
sciences, the relationship between emotions and perceptions has been well documented.
According to Kleinginna and Kleinginna (1981: 355) emotions ‘generate cognitive pro-
cesses such as emotionally relevant perceptual effects, appraisals, labelling processes’.
Similarly Izard (2007) notes how emotions are an integral part of perception, cognition,
judgement and action. ‘Emotions combine with cognition to shape our perceptions,
memories and judgments’ (Feigenson, 2003: 959) and according to Tappolet (2005)
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