Against state terror: lessons on memory, counterterrorism and resistance from the Global South

Furtado, Henrique Tavares

Abstract

© 2015, © 2015 Taylor & Francis. Critical theory avows that “where there is power there is always resistance”. However, the practical implications and consequences of particular modes of resistance remain, within World Politics, under-theorised. In critical terrorism studies (CTS), this critical imperative to resist has recently emerged in the proposal to remember state terrorism. With this move, CTS aims to disturb the legitimacy of forms of violence/terror that emerge from the state. In this article, I argue that such an agenda of “resistance through memory” has already been put forth in the Global South (specifically, Latin America). Drawing on this historical experience, I elucidate some problems with the critical imperative to resist. More specifically, I show how in Brazil the Global South counter-memorial narratives of state terror share a common ground with the Global North counterterrorism discourses. I do so by analysing three underlying tropes of Brazilian remembrance that replicate Global North representations of terrorists: bestialism, pathology and dehumanisation.

• Journal Article Type: Article
• Acceptance Date: Dec 15, 2014
• Publication Date: Jan 1, 2015
• Deposit Date: Jul 28, 2017
• Journal: Critical Studies on Terrorism
• Print ISSN: 1753-9153
• Electronic ISSN: 1753-9161
• Publisher: Taylor & Francis (Routledge)
• Peer Reviewed: Peer Reviewed
• Volume: 8
• Issue: 1
• Pages: 72-89
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/17539153.2015.1005936
• Keywords: resistance, truth and reconciliation, Brazil, terrorism and political violence, critical terrorism studies, politics of memory
• Public URL: https://uwe-repository.worktribe.com/output/844749
• Publisher URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/17539153.2015.1005936
• Related Public URLs: http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/17539153.2015.1005936
• Contract Date: Jul 28, 2017