Article published In:
Controversies, Communication and the BodyEdited by Joseph Lehmann
[Pragmatics & Cognition 23:3] 2016
► pp. 461–471
Edited by Joseph Lehmann
[Pragmatics & Cognition 23:3] 2016
► pp. 461–471
Terror and the Leviathan
Recognition, ordeal and discourse in dispute resolution
The article surveys the history of “terror” vis a vis the development of international humanitarian and human rights law. During the French Revolution, the word “terror” was coined to describe a deviation from the laws of war. Justified by a mixture of ideology and necessity. People who resort to terrorism either suspends or rejects the laws of war (jus in bellum) in the name of an alternative and heightened sense of truth. However, the terrorists’ strong sense of probity and mission is also an opening for re-establishing communication, arbitration and mitigation of cruelty and destruction. This paper represents International Humanitarian Law (IHL) as an “abstract Leviathan”, submission to which is the contemporary norm of pacification. From the perspective of radical terrorism, it is tyrannical. From other perspectives, it is open to criticism and change. Most importantly, it is on the side of rational arbitration rather than arbitrary ordeal. Even radical terrorism, which refuses to recognize the legitimacy of the abstract Leviathan, seeks to communicate its radical messages rather than to seek victory my means of physical annihilation of its opponents.
References (23)
Blau, A. 2009. Hobbes on corruption. History of Political Thought 301. 596–616.
Burleigh, M. 2009. Terrorism and the state. New York: Harper Collins.
Dascal, M. 1998. Types of polemics and types of polemical moves. In S. Cmejrkova, J. Hoffmannova, O. Mullerova & J. Svetla (eds.), Dialogue Analysis VI (= Proceedings of the 6th Conference, Prague 1996), vol. 11, 15–33. Tubingen: Max Niemeyer.
Garrison, A.H. 2006. Defining terrorism. Criminal Justice Studies 171. 259–279. 
Girard, R. 1977. Violence and the sacred. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press.
Heinzen, K.P. 1881. Murder and liberty. Indianapolis: H. Lieber.
Hobbes, T. 1651. Leviathan. St. Paul’s Churchyard: Andrew Crooke.
Horne, A. 1978. A savage war of peace: Algeria 1954-1962. New York: Viking.
Kennedy, H. 2016. Caliphate: The history of an idea. New York: Basic Books.
Liston, R. 1977. Terrorism. New York: Thomas Nelson.
McPhee, P. 2016. Liberty or death: The French revolution. New Haven: Yale University Press.
Mesquite and Dickson. 2007. The propaganda of the deed.
Niebuhr, R. 1941. Nature and the destiny of man, vol. 11. New York: Scribners.
Parry, A. 1976. Terrorism: From Robespierre to Arafat. New York: Vangaurd.
Porter, B. 1987. Origins of The Vigilant State. London: Weidenfeld and Nicolson.
Robertson, G. 2006. The Tyrannicide brief: The story of the man who sent Charles I to the Scaffold Knopf Doubleday. New York: Vintage Books.
Robespierre, M. 1794. Report upon the principles of political morality. Philadelphia: Benjamin Franklin Bache.
Taussig, M. 1992. The Nervous System. New York: Routledge.
Teitel, R.G. 2011. Humanity’s law. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Tuck, R. 1989. Hobbes. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Whelehan, N. 2012. The dynamiters: Irish nationalism and political violence in the wider world, 1867-1900. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Whitman, J.Q. 2012. The Verdict of Battle: The law of victory and the making of modern war. Cambridge: Harvard University Press.
Wills, G. 1995. To keep and bear arms. New York Review of Books. September 21.
Cited by (1)
Cited by one other publication
Barilan, Y. Michael & Oren Asman
2017. Research Ethics, Military Medical Ethics, and the Challenges of International Law. The American Journal of Bioethics 17:10 ► pp. 53 ff. 
This list is based on CrossRef data as of 15 july 2024. Please note that it may not be complete. Sources presented here have been supplied by the respective publishers. Any errors therein should be reported to them.