Anxiety about terrorism: do scapegoating and revenge offer resolution?
After 9/11 US national security was high on the agenda, and people were fearful; 72% of US citizens reporting anxiety over perceived imminent attacks. Later bombings in Madrid and London and the rise of al Qaeda from centralised group to ‘amorphous’ network added to the collective disquiet. In her recent article in Critical Studies on Security Caron Gentry explores the role of anxiety in society, politics, counter-terrorism and the construction of Western self vs. radical Islamist ‘other’. Anxiety: an emotion which can split or unify society to form ‘insider’ and ‘outsider’ groups