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Terrorism in the textbook: A comparative analysis of terrorism discourses in Germany, India, Kenya and the United States based on school textbooks
Journal article   Open access   Peer reviewed

Terrorism in the textbook: A comparative analysis of terrorism discourses in Germany, India, Kenya and the United States based on school textbooks

T. Ide
Cambridge Review of International Affairs, Vol.30(1), pp.44-66
2017
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Abstract

This study traces the (geopolitical) knowledge on terrorism circulating in Germany, India, Kenya, and the United States based on an analysis of school textbooks. It contributes to the existing literature in three ways. First, it transcends the Western-centrism of International Relations by analysing discourses from the Global North and the Global South. Second, it introduces school textbooks as a crucial object of research in constructivist terrorism studies and International Relations. School textbooks indicate the (geopolitical) knowledge deemed essential in a given society, but are also widely distributed among young people. Third, I address the debate about a presumed homogenization and internationalization of terrorism discourses in recent years. Results show that all four discourses depict terrorists as evil, focus on external non-state groups as perpetrators and associate terrorism with Islam. But there are also considerable differences regarding the relative importance of terrorism as a security threat, the referent object affected and the countermeasures deemed appropriate.

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Citation topics
6 Social Sciences
6.27 Political Science
6.27.1435 Terrorism Dynamics
Web Of Science research areas
International Relations
Political Science
ESI research areas
Social Sciences, general
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