Introduction : counter-terrorism and the terrorist state

of terrorism to that committed by nonstate actors, or by otherwise ignoring or overlooking state terrorism, develops a way of thinking about terrorism that effectively constructs states, particularly Western states, always as the victims and never the perpetrators of 'terrorism' (Herman and O'Sullivan, 1989; Chomsky and Herman, 1979; Herman, 1982; Schlesinger, 1978; George, 1991). This book is firmly located in this critical tradition of 'bringing the state back in' to the study of terrorism, and is likewise building upon a more recent body of work which revives and updates this literature (Blakeley, 2007, 2009; Jackson et al., 2009, 2010). This book, however, is not merely part of a growing critical mass, but it also sets out to make a distinctive contribution to this literature. The chapters collected in this volume address a particular form of state terrorism: one that results directly from 'counter-insurgency' and 'counter-terrorist' operations. As the contributions herein testify, there is always a hidden solidarity between the terrorism of the state and the techniques states use under the broad rubric of the 'war on terror'.