The aim of this volume is to 'bring the state back into terrorism studies' and to fill the gap that currently exists in our understanding of the ways in which states employ terrorism as a political strategy of internal governance or foreign policy.

In response to the growth of a critical perspective on contemporary issues of terrorism, this edited volume brings together a number of leading scholars to debate the new subfield of 'critical terrorism studies'.

In the years since the 9/11 attacks, terrorism studies has undergone a major transformation from minor subfield of security studies into a large stand-alone field, and is probably one of the fastest expanding areas of research in the Western academic world. However, much of the literature is beset by a number of problems, limiting its potential for producing rigorous...

'Writing the war on terrorism' examines the public language of the war on terrorism, and the way that rhetoric has been used to justify the global counter-terrorism offensive as a response to 9/11. It discusses how language has been used to deliberately manipulate public anxiety about terrorist threats to gain support for military action, and how the abuse of Iraqi prisoners has been normalised through rhetoric and practice. . It explains how the war on terrorism has been reproduced and amplified by key social actors and how it has become the dominant political narrative in America today,...

The unsustainable federal budget outlook will inevitably push entitlement reform to the forefront of the national policy debate. As America's leaders consider reform options, they will have much to learn from the experience of other developed countries, several of which have recently enacted far-reaching overhauls of their state pension systems that greatly reduce the long-term fiscal burden of their aging populations. "Lessons from Abroad for the U.S. Entitlement Debate" places America's aging challenge in international perspective, examines the most promising reform initiatives in nine...