2024-03-29T12:02:22Zhttps://research-repository.st-andrews.ac.uk/oai/requestoai:research-repository.st-andrews.ac.uk:10023/65352019-04-01T08:18:14Zcom_10023_234com_10023_39com_10023_86com_10023_26col_10023_235col_10023_88
Terrorism and the state : intra-state dynamics and the response to non-state terrorism
McConaghy, Kieran
English, Richard
Rengger, N. J. (Nicholas J.)
Terrorism
Counter-terrorism
The state
Political violence
Northern Ireland
Spain
Basque
France
Algeria
Ireland
United Kingdom
Security
Ethno-nationalism
Nationalism
Although there has been a wealth of academic literature which has examined counter-terrorism, both in the general sense and in case study focused approaches, there has seldom been an engagement in terrorism studies literature on the nature of the state itself and how this impacts upon the particular response to terrorism. Existing literature has a tendency to either examine one branch of the state or to treat (explicitly or implicitly) the state as a unitary actor.
This thesis challenges the view of the state as a unitary actor, looking beneath the surface of the state, investigating intra-state dynamics and the consequences for counter-terrorism. I highlight that the state by its nature is ‘peopled’, demonstrating through comparative analysis of case studies from Spain, France, and the United Kingdom, how the individual identities and dispositions of state personnel at all levels from elites to entry level positions determine the nature and characteristics of particular states.
I show that if we accept that the state is peopled, we must pay attention to a series of traits that I argue all states exhibit to understand why campaigns of counter-terrorism take the shape and form that they do. I posit that we must understand the role that emotional and visceral action by state personnel in response to terrorism plays, how the character of particular state organisations can impact upon the trajectory of conflicts, and how issues of intra-state competition and coordination can frustrate even the best laid counter-terrorism strategies. Furthermore, I show how the propensity for sub- state political violence to ‘terrorise’ populations makes the response to terrorism a powerful political tool, and how it has been deployed in the past for political gain rather than purely as an instrument to improve security.
I conclude that future academic analyses of counter-terrorism must take this into consideration, and likewise, state personnel must be mindful of the nature and character of their state should they wish to effectively prevent terrorism and protect human rights and the rule of law.
2015-04-22T14:37:28Z
2015-04-22T14:37:28Z
2015-04-22T14:37:28Z
2015-06-23
Thesis
http://hdl.handle.net/10023/6535
en
234
The University of St Andrews
Centre for the Study of Terrorism and Political Violence
oai:research-repository.st-andrews.ac.uk:10023/164012023-12-05T03:02:32Zcom_10023_234com_10023_39com_10023_86com_10023_26col_10023_235col_10023_88
Dealing with nationalism in view of a human need to belong: the feasibility of narrative transformation in Northern Ireland
Englberger, Florian
Wilson, Tim
Muro, Diego
Handa Foundation
Nationalism
Ethnicity
Sociobiology
Ethnic conflict
Northern Ireland
Narrative change
Social psychology
Conflict resolution
This thesis seeks to delineate what change in divided societies such as Northern Ireland is possible. Two steps are necessary to answer this question: first, to explain the potency of nationalism. I contend that taking the evolutionary history of humans and a human need to belong into account is essential for an understanding of A.D. Smith’s ethno-symbolist approach to nationalism. We need to acknowledge that human beings emerged from small-scale settings and are therefore conservative beings who seek those patterns of familiarity that make up the ordinary ‘everyday’. They are also prejudiced beings, as prejudice helps to break down a complex world into digestible pieces. The ethnic state excluding an ethnic ‘other’ is an answer to these calls for simplicity. By establishing an apparent terra firma, a habitus, symbols of an ethnic past and national present speak of nationalist narratives that provide a sense of ontological security. In (Northern) Ireland, ethno-national communities based on prejudiced understandings of history have long been established. In this second step I maintain that change that violates the core potent national narratives cannot be achieved. The Provisional IRA’s change from insurrection to parliament became feasible because a radical break with republican dogmas was avoided. Sinn Féin, despite a rhetorical move towards ‘reconciliation’, still seek to outmanoeuvre the unionist ‘other’. The history of Irish socialism, on the other hand, has been a failure, as it embodied a radical attempt to banish the ‘other’ from the national narrative. Regarding ‘post-conflict’ Northern Ireland, I argue for a peacebuilding approach that leaves the confinements of hostile identity politics, as these mass guarantors of ontological security possess only limited potential for relationship transformation. We need to appreciate those almost invisible acts of empathy and peace that could be found even in Northern Ireland’s darkest hours.
2018-11-05T15:38:02Z
2018-11-05T15:38:02Z
2018-11-05T15:38:02Z
2018-12-07
Thesis
http://hdl.handle.net/10023/16401
https://doi.org/10.17630/10023-16401
en
Embargo period has ended, thesis made available in accordance with University regulations
[6], 275 p.
University of St Andrews
The University of St Andrews
Handa Centre for the Study of Terrorism and Political Violence
oai:research-repository.st-andrews.ac.uk:10023/202772024-01-13T03:02:17Zcom_10023_234com_10023_39col_10023_235
The United Nations and terrorism : a long term assessment of changes and continuities
Müller, Johannes-Alexander
Blumenau, Bernhard
McConaghy, Kieran
Terrorism
United Nations (UN)
Multilateral counterterrorism cooperation
Multilateralism
Counterterrorism
Although terrorism continues to retain its localised nature in some respects, the threat has taken on an international character for some time now. Consequently, national efforts to curb terrorism are not sufficient in dealing with the threat, underscoring the importance of multilateral counterterrorism cooperation. The United Nations (UN) is perhaps the most visible and predominant international organisation for security issues and has thus built the prime case study for this research endeavour. The aim of this thesis has been to examine how the UN’s response to terrorism has changed since the 1970s. In doing so, the project has provided an empirical overview of 50 years of UN counterterrorism efforts and has analysed the empirical data to identify patterns, continuities, and disruptions in the UN’s response. The findings suggest that the United Nations has seen both change and continuity in its efforts to quell terrorist violence and it has been demonstrated that, while multilateral counterterrorism cooperation is possible at the UN, it is cumbersome and progress is best done away from the political limelight. The obstacles that have prevented swift action when the UN General Assembly first took up the issue in 1972 have remained remarkably consistent and are unlikely to be solved quickly. The step-by-step criminalisation of certain offences through treaty-making has however allowed the Assembly to make some progress. Following the Cold War, the Security Council has — although not spared from definitional short-comings — responded to terrorism in a more assertive (e.g. sanctions) and at times forceful manner. Finally, it has been highlighted that the politised nature of terrorism can greatly limit counterterrorism responses. Therefore, it has been suggested that future academic inquiry must explore the extent to which less politised organisations, those that are technical and regional in nature, might be better suited to address terrorism within their framework.
2020-07-17T13:15:05Z
2020-07-17T13:15:05Z
2020-07-17T13:15:05Z
2020-07-28
Thesis
http://hdl.handle.net/10023/20277
https://doi.org/10.17630/10023-20277
en
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/
Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International
199 p.
The University of St Andrews
oai:research-repository.st-andrews.ac.uk:10023/165592019-08-16T08:33:47Zcom_10023_234com_10023_39com_10023_86com_10023_26col_10023_235col_10023_88
Indiscriminate violence against civilians : an inquiry into the nature and the effects of group-selective violence
Brandsch, Jürgen
Wilson, Tim
Argomaniz, Javier
Konrad-Adenauer-Stiftung
Violence against civilians
Civil war
Insurgency
Indiscriminate violence against civilians is a recurrent problem in armed conflicts of all sorts. However, from a social science perspective this type of violence poses a puzzle. The literature on government and non-government violence mostly assumes that indiscriminate violence has counter-productive effect and is ultimately self-defeating. Yet, this begs the question as to why an actor should use indiscriminate violence at all?
This dissertation tries to solve at least part of the puzzle. First, it critically reviews the literature and points to some misunderstandings that have made progress in comprehending indiscriminate violence more difficult. Second, the dissertation provides a theory on the effects of indiscriminate violence that targets groups, i.e. group-selective violence. While most of the literature assumes that violence against groups seeks to coerce the groups that are attacked, this dissertation widens the view and includes non-targeted groups in the calculation as well. It thereby demonstrates that group-selective violence can be able to produce coercive effects among those groups that are not targeted while generating only limited counter-productive effects.
Empirically, this dissertation provides two types of supporting evidence. First, it will provide several case studies as a plausibility probe. These cases are designed to highlight that group-selective violence is used in the way proposed by the theory and has the hypothesized effects. Second, the dissertation will test the hypotheses of the theory of group-selective violence with data on violence against civilians in ethnic wars. Here quantitative methods are used to investigate the patterns and the consequences of violence. Both empirical investigations provide support for the notion that group-selective violence can be beneficial for the perpetrator and that it is used to achieve those benefits. In sum, this dissertation puts forth the theoretical background and empirical support for the effectiveness of group-selective violence.
2018-11-27T14:40:32Z
2018-11-27T14:40:32Z
2018-11-27T14:40:32Z
2018-06-26
Thesis
http://hdl.handle.net/10023/16559
en
2020-04-05
Thesis restricted in accordance with University regulations. Electronic copy restricted until 5th April 2020
xi, 319 p.
The University of St Andrews
oai:research-repository.st-andrews.ac.uk:10023/291082024-02-10T03:07:16Zcom_10023_234com_10023_39com_10023_86com_10023_26col_10023_235col_10023_88
The "no-go" areas in Northern Ireland 1969-1972
Turner, Robert Cormack John
Wilson, Tim
The purpose behind the thesis is to explore a little studied (and indeed little known) phenomenon of
grassroots popular politics that took place in Northern Ireland between the years 1969-1972, during
the early years of the conflict there. In several working-class communities on both sides of the
communal divide, barricades were erected and the state was effectively excluded. These communities
took political and social control of their own districts. It was, in many respects, albeit non-ideological, “an accidental experiment in anarchism”. How this worked out in the no-go areas, and
what they have to tell us about the relationship of people to the state, are the subjects of this thesis.
In the introduction I shall ask why the study of the no-go areas is relevant to us; and what, if anything,
it has to tell us about popular politics, and people's relationship with the state. Due to the fact that
this is in many ways a very little known subject I will be looking in some detail at its narrative history:
looking at the first phase of the no-go areas of 1969, and the conditions between 1969-1971 that
were to lead to the second phase of the no-go areas in August 1971 in Chapter One. In Chapter Two
I take up the narrative again to look at the development of the far more revolutionary nationalist
second phase of the no-go areas from 1971-1972, and their loyalist counter parts in the summer of
1972. In Chapter Three I look at how: the no-go areas were actually run; their internal politics; what
ideologies underpinned them; and what tensions existed within them. This is also the chapter in which
I explore comparative events from other periods in history, both international and Irish. In Chapter
Four I see how in the absence of the state the no-go areas dealt with crime and kept order. In Chapter
Five I look at the military aspects of the no-go areas; the role of the paramilitaries within them; and
how the British state and army viewed them from a military perspective. In the Conclusion I bring
the story together and see what can be learned from the political and experiment that was the no-go areas: a unique event in the western Europe of the last half of the twentieth century, when people
expelled the state and initiated an experiment in direct democracy.
Overall, I conclude that the no-go areas drew upon local traditions of self-reliance and were the
products of the prevalent fear of the time. But they both represented, and worsened, the destabilisation
of Northern Ireland: and the nationalist no-go areas allowed a republican insurgency to gather
momentum. Internally, nationalist and loyalist no-go areas differed substantially. Nationalist no-go
areas were – at least, initially – strikingly liberal in their own administration of ‘law and order’: and
showed a capacity for informal self-organisation that was robust. The second Free Derry survived for
about a year with no overall organised governing structure to speak of. By contrast, loyalist areas
were firmly under the control of the UDA.
2024-01-30T15:01:23Z
2024-01-30T15:01:23Z
2024-01-30T15:01:23Z
2022-06-14
Thesis
http://hdl.handle.net/10023/29108
https://doi.org/10.17630/sta/717
en
2027-05-17
Thesis restricted in accordance with University regulations. Restricted until 17th May 2027
282 p.
University of St Andrews
The University of St Andrews