Terrorism and the Politics of Response

The book explores both how responses to terrorism – by politicians, authori- ties and the media – legitimise particular forms of sovereign politics, and how terrorism can be understood as a response to global inequalities, colonial and imperial legacies, and the dominant idioms of modern politics. The investigation is made against the backdrop of the 7 July 2005 bombings in London and their aftermath, which have gone largely unexamined in the acad- emic literature to date. The case offers a provocative site for analysing the diverse logics implicated in the broader context of the War on Terror, for exam- ining how terrorist events are framed, and how such framings serve to legitimise particular policies and political practices.