Terrorising the Political: 9/11 Within the Context of the Globalisation of Violence

Abstract

The starting point for this paper is a general sense of intellectual dissatisfaction with liberal interpretations that place the event of 9/11 outside the realm of politics. Taking issue with this de-politisation of “Terrorism” and the invocation of a metaphysics of Good and Evil in explaining its occurrence, this article offers an alternative perspective that places this event within the context of a general globalisation of Violence. Drawing on Schmitt’s Theorie des Partisanen, I argue for the immanent rather than metaphysical nature of ‘terrorism’ in contemporary global politics as an expression of resistance to the universalist regime of truth that underlies globalisation.