Risk, Security, and the War on Terror

Abstract

This chapter problematizes the conceptualization of political violence in sociological research on ethnicity through a genealogy of power and knowledge dynamics in the war on terror (WoT). The concept of a victimage ritual (VR) is proposed as a corrective. Political violence can generate intense forms of in-group solidarity and out-group hostility, victimage ritual, and reinforce ethnic identities. Ethnic group identity can be forged through VRs that target ethnically defined adversaries which heighten the sense of risk and insecurity, arrogance and triumphalism involved in violent political power struggles. A critical discourse analysis of the discursive formation that emerged around the problematic of terrorism reveals the extent to which “ethnicity” is represented as cause and effect of terrorism. Finally, the chapter reviews epistemological and ethical problems with the power and knowledge dynamic of the war on terror.