The Problems with the Term Terrorism within the Western World
Abstract
This article aims to analyze the definitions of terrorism that prevail in occidental academic discourse. The stated examination shows an intrinsic impossibility of formulating the consensual definition of such a term. The following theses are supported: a) The analyzed definitions of terrorism describe in a general way how capitalist relations of production operate in their current historical stage. b) Such definitions constitute the projection onto the enemy of the unsustainable elements of the social world itself since the figure of the Islamic terrorist is constructed as its reflection. It is argued that the dispositive of “Islamic terrorist” answers the urge for stabilizing the existing power relations displaying the difficulties of capitalist societies to operate without the figure of enemy.
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