Anxiety and the creation of the scapegoated other

Abstract

Abstract:This article examines how anxiety saturates the neo-Orientalist driven thesis of new terrorism, especially in how both anxiety and new terrorism are related to the unknown. Of particular importance is the description of al Qaeda as an amorphous and thus unknowable threat by Western academics and the media, which reifies the discursive neo-Orientalist binary of the West versus Islam. Scholars of International Relations are increasingly engaging with emotions and their impact on binary and hierarchical structures. Emotions operate relationally as they are the articulation of affect. The emotions discursively constitute identity and community structures, helping to inform ideas of self and other. The more specific study of anxiety reveals similarities, but anxiety also operates differently from other emotions as it is focused on future potentialities. Thus, terrorism and anxiety are co-constitutive in their conceptual dependency on futurity and uncertainty that sustain the neo-Orientalist binary. Thus, terrorism and anxiety are co-constitutive in their conceptual dependency on futurity and uncertainty that sustain the neo-Orientalist binary. Powered by Editorial Manager® and ProduXion Manager® from Aries

Anxiety politics: creativity and feminist Christian realism

“…Anxiety then becomes more about the unknown and the uncertain and less about actuality (Bowen 1993;Huddy et al 2005, 593, 595). Terrorism generates an anxious fear because of the anticipation of a possible attack or 'unknown knowns' in the words of Secretary Donald Rumsfeld (see Massumi 2005;Daase and Kessler 2007;Gentry 2015a).…”

“…The anxious response to terrorism is often far more destructive than creative. The anxiety over terrorism also generates problematic responses via overly destructive counter-terrorism responses (Huddy et al 2005;Gentry 2015a). In the past 15 years, the War on Terror, the human rights abuses at Abu Ghraib, Guantanamo Bay, and Thus, what might a creative response to a terrorist threat look like?…”

“…Terrorism is one of the most anxiety inducing security threats of this time (Ahmed 2004;Massumi 2005;Daase and Kessler 2007;Gentry 2015a). As anxiety is about the possibility of a feared future event and terrorism inspires fear/terror through the possibility of another attack (see Schmid and Jongman 2006, 5), terrorism and anxiety are intimately connected.…”

“…One way that anxious people deal with their anxiety is to create scapegoats; scapegoating is also often witnessed in terrorism (see Gentry 2015a). Thus, the Syrian refugees and indeed many people associated with Islam are scapegoated in the anxious fear that surrounds terrorism (Ahmed 2006;Gentry 2015a). Such a response is not helpful; scapegoating is an over-generalised reaction and the scapegoating of Muslims has led to further violence as mosques are vandalised or firebombed (ACLU 2016); women wearing hijab are assaulted (or barred from wearing it); and the rise in hate crimes against Muslims, such as the rise in the US after the San Bernardino shooting in December 2015 (Stack 2016).…”

The Fragility of Fear: The Contentious Politics of Emotion and Security in Canada

“…IR's nascent 'emotions turn' is a key contributor here with studies on humiliation (Callahan, 2004;Fattah & Fierke, 2009;Saurette, 2006), anger (Eznack, 2013;T. Hall, 2011), empathy (Crawford, 2014;Head, 2015), anxiety (Gentry, 2015), shame (Steele, 2007c), nostalgia (Sucharov, 2013), and beyond.…”