Terrorismitutkimuksen lähtökohdista ja nykytilasta

Authors

• Leena Malkki

Abstract

This article draws attention to the influence that political discussion and interests have had on terrorism studies. Financing from governmental agencies and industry has directed much of the research at producing information useful for combating terrorism. At the same time, the study of terrorism has remained quite a peripheral field in the academe. Studies have tended to concentrate on groups and phenomena perceived as a threat in western countries, while largely similar but less threatening cases have been insufficiently explored. Partly resulting from this, theoretical understanding of terrorism has remained underdeveloped. The biggest problem is related to the concept of terrorism. The term is normally used to refer to certain kind of acts and their perpetrators. However, rather than any characteristics of these perpetrators, it seems that what most unites the cases described as terrorism are the reactions the acts provoke.