Terrorism, Democracy and Human Security: A Communication Model

This book examines the relationship between terrorism and counterterrorism and how it operates within the broader context of communication, control, power, and democratic governance at the national, international, and transnational level.

A culmination of decades of research on the challenges that liberal democracies face in dealing with terrorism, this work provides an innovative framework that maps out the broader context in which terrorism and counterterrorism interact and co-evolve – the terrorism–counterterrorism nexus. In a series of models moving from local to global perspectives, the framework places this nexus within the broader context of social, cultural, political, and economic life. This framework provides a tool for maintaining situational awareness in a multi-tiered, networked world where geography and history are splintering into a rainbow of perspectives and locales, revealing the contested nature of space and time themselves.

This book will be of much interest to students of political violence, terrorism studies, communication studies, and international relations, as well as security professionals.

Ronald Crelinsten is an Associate Fellow at the University of Victoria, Canada, and was Professor of Criminology at the University of Ottawa for over 20 years.