http://orcid.org/0000-0003-0513-4422
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Abstract
This article presents a study of the ‘wars of words’ among selected parties involved in the Syrian conflict. Based on a combination of content analysis and critical discourse analysis (CDA), it examines actors’ discourses within the United Nations Security Council (2011–2015), the global arena of confrontation and international legitimisation of armed actions. Here, it investigates their instrumentalisation of the word ‘terrorism’ and the war on terror narrative, and it explores the dynamics of discursive (de)legitimisation of the use of violence in Syria. The article shows how parties instrumentalised this narrative to criminalise their enemies while legitimising their own violent actions. By doing this, the paper also offers a broader reflection on the global narrative on terrorism, and its different reception and instrumentalisation by core and peripheral actors.
Acknowledgements
I wish to thank Francisco J. Peñas, Francesco Strazzari, Alessandro Tinti, Raquel de Silva and Samer Abboud for their comments on the first drafts of this paper. I also wish to thank the anonymous reviewers whose comments helped me improve it, and Emma Smith for editorial assistance. Many thanks also to the Sant’Anna School of Advanced Studies for supporting the first stage of this research, and to the Beirut School of Security Studies Summer Institute for providing the first forum to debate these ideas.
Disclosure statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.
Notes
1 Barrinha, “Political Importance of Labelling”; and Bhatia, “Fighting Words.”
2 Welsh and Zaum, “Legitimation and the UN Security Council.”
3 Álvarez-Ossorio, Siria; Yassin-Kassab and Al-Shami, Burning Country; Sorenson, Syria in Ruins; and Abboud, Syria.
4 Lister, Syrian Jihad; and C. Phillips, “Sectarism and Conflict in Syria.”
5 Barrinha, “Political Importance of Labelling”; Bhatia, “Fighting Words”; Nadarajah and Sriskandarajah, “Liberation Struggle or Terrorism?”; Russell, “Terrorists, Bandits, Spooks and Thieves”; and Schroeder, “Bandits and Blanket Thieves, Communists and Terrorists.”
6 Abboud et al., “Towards a Beirut School.”
7 Ibid., 278–80.
8 Jackson, Writing the War on Terrorism.
9 Ibid.; Barrinha, “Political Importance of Labelling”; Bhatia, “Fighting Words.”
10 Kalyvas, “Ontology of ‘Political Violence’”; and Jackson and Dexter, “Social Construction of Organised Political Violence.”
11 Cuadro, “De Enemigos Reales y Absolutos.”
12 Jabri, “Revisiting Change and Conflict”; as quoted in Barrinha, “Political Importance of Labelling.”
13 Hoffman, Inside Terrorism, 23.
14 Schmid, “Definition of Terrorism,” 74.
15 See, among others, Baele et al., “What Does the ‘Terrorist’ Label Really Do?”; and Woods, “Framing Terror.”
16 Townshend, Terrorism A Very Short Introduction.
17 Stohl, “Old Myths, New Fantasies,” 9.
18 Martini, “International Barbarians and Global Civilisations.”
19 Jackson, Writing the War on Terrorism.
20 Fernández de Mosteyrín, “La Guerra Contra El Terror.”
21 Martini, “International Barbarians and Global Civilisations”; and Kundnani and Hayes, “Globalisation of Countering Violent Extremism Policies.”
22 Jackson, Writing the War on Terrorism; Holland, Selling the War on Terror; Pérez Herranz, La Lógica de la Fuerza; and Clausen, “Justifying Military Intervention.”
23 Barrinha, “Political Importance of Labelling”; and Jackson, Writing the War on Terrorism.
24 Toros, “‘We Don’t Negotiate with Terrorists!’”
25 Jackson, Writing the War on Terrorism, 157.
26 Barrinha, “Political Importance of Labelling,” 167.
27 Aurobinda Mahapatra, “Mandate and the (In)Effectiveness.”
28 See eg article 32 or article 37 of the UN Charter.
29 Imber, “Reform of the UN Security Council,” 330.
30 Welsh and Zaum, “Legitimation and the UN Security Council.”
31 The Geneva Talks on Syria took place in 2012, 2014, 2016, 2017 and 2018 (to date, ie 2019).
32 Martini, “International Barbarians and Global Civilisations.”
33 Abboud, Syria, 2.
34 For example, the Kurds and the Kurdish ethnic group are almost never mentioned within the discourses. Only one reference was registered in relation to the ‘Kurdish volunteers’ when referring to the militias on the ground.
35 Achcar, Morbid Symptoms; and Sorenson, Syria in Ruins.
36 Yassin-Kassab and Al-Shami, Burning Country, 39; and Achcar, Morbid Symptoms, 32.
37 Álvarez-Ossorio, Siria, 64–8; and Achcar, Morbid Symptoms, 33.
38 C. Phillips, Battle for Syria.
39 Hokayem, Syria’s Uprising and the Fracturing of the Levant; and Abboud, Syria, 120–61.
40 Álvarez-Ossorio, Siria, 61; Lister, Syrian Jihad, 163.
41 Achcar, Morbid Symptoms, 25.
42 Abboud, Syria, 137.
43 Ibid., 144; and Hughes, “Syria and the Perils of Proxy Warfare.”
44 Yassin-Kassab and Al-Shami, Burning Country, 112.
45 Hughes, “Syria and the Perils of Proxy Warfare.”
46 Álvarez-Ossorio, Siria, 81.
47 In July 2016, detaching itself from al-Qaida, the organisation renamed itself Jabhat al-Fateh al-Sham.
48 Lister, Syrian Jihad, 185; and Abboud, Syria, 107.
49 Abboud, Syria, 106–7; and Martini, “El Terrorismo Global.”
50 Yassin-Kassab and Al-Shami, Burning Country, 208; and Álvarez-Ossorio, Siria, 169.
51 Fairclough and Wodak, “Critical Discourse Analysis.”
52 Neuendorf, Content Analysis Guidebook; and Weber, Basic Content Analysis.
53 Neuendorf, Content Analysis Guidebook, 53.
54 Eriksson and Giacomello, “International Relations, Cybersecurity, and Content Analysis”, 211; and N. Phillips and Hardy, Discourse Analysis.
55 Weber, Basic Content Analysis, 3.
56 Ibid., 44.
57 Eriksson and Giacomello, “International Relations, Cybersecurity, and Content Analysis,” 214.
58 All tables and figures are provided in the online Supplementary material for editorial reasons.
59 Schmid, Routledge Handbook of Terrorism Research; and Hoffman, Inside Terrorism.
60 Jackson, “Ghosts of State Terror.”
61 Martini, “International Barbarians and Global Civilisations,” 317–8.
62 Álvarez-Ossorio, Siria, 10; and Sorenson, Syria in Ruins.
63 S/PV.6711, 14.
64 S/PV.7605, 18.
65 S/PV.7180, 16.
66 S/PV.7369, 5.
67 S/PV.7452, 5.
68 S/PV.7369, 5.
69 Abboud, Syria, 139–43.
70 S/PV.7394, 22.
71 S/PV.7452, 5.
72 S/PV.7560, 24.
73 S/PV.7476, 6.
74 Álvarez-Ossorio, Siria, 116.
75 Abboud, Syria, 132.
76 Adib-Moghaddam, Iran in World Politics.
77 S/PV.6816, 13.
78 S/PV.7096, 31.
79 Álvarez-Ossorio, Siria, 13.
80 Abboud, Syria, 130.
81 Charap, “Russia, Syria and the Doctrine of Intervention.”
82 Abboud, Syria, 130–2.
83 Álvarez-Ossorio, Siria, 13.
84 S/PV.6734, 10.
85 S/PV.6627, 4.
86 S/PV.7164, 14.
87 S/PV.7222, 19.
88 S/PV.7588, 5.
89 S/PV.7281, 16.
90 S/PV.7394, 16.
91 S/PV.7180, 12.
92 S/PV.7490, 21.
93 S/PV.7588, 5.
94 S/PV.7180, 12.
95 S/PV.7096, 24.
96 S/PV.7560, 12.
97 S/PV.7588, 5.
98 S/PV.7281, 17.
99 Abboud, Syria, 121–6; C. Phillips, Battle for Syria.
100 Álvarez-Ossorio, Siria, 122.
101 Ghoble, “Saudi Arabia–Iran Contention”; and Nuruzzaman, “Qatar and the Arab Spring.”
102 Yassin-Kassab and Al-Shami, Burning Country, 122; Álvarez-Ossorio, Siria, 120. The Arab countries supported other groups too. For example, Saudi Arabia supported the FSA when it was considered a secularist organisation to counter the spread of Islamist trends in the Syrian opposition.
103 Qatar, S/PV.6757, 16.
104 Saudi Arabia, S/PV.7419, 69.
105 Qatar, S/PV.7360, 56.
106 Qatar, S/PV.7007, 46.
107 Qatar, S/PV.7540, 3.
108 Ibid.
109 Martini, “International Barbarians and Global Civilisations,” 317–8.
110 Abboud, Syria, 135–38.
111 Martini and Estébanez, “El Rechazo Del Conflicto.”
112 Marrero Rocha, “La Responsabilidad de Proteger.”
113 Achcar, Morbid Symptoms, 205.
114 France, S/PV.7419, 8.
115 UK, S/PV.7222, 18.
116 UK, S/PV.7007, 27.
117 Abboud, Syria, 139–43.
118 USA, S/PV.7540, 20.
119 France, S/PV.7540, 28.
120 France, S/PV.7164, 16.
121 USA, S/PV.7038, 4.
122 USA, S/PV.6710, 14.
123 Jackson, Writing the War on Terrorism; Holland, Selling the War on Terror; Pérez Herranz, La Lógica de la Fuerza; and Clausen, “Justifying Military Intervention.”
124 France, S/PV.7560, 23.
125 USA, S/PV.7281, 11.
126 UK, S/PV.7540, 30.
127 France, S/PV.7360, 32.
128 France, S/PV.7560, 23.
Additional information
Notes on contributors
Alice Martini
Alice Martini is an associate researcher at the Autonomous University of Madrid, Spain, and co-convenor of the Critical Studies on Terrorism Working Group (CTSWG-BISA). She is the author of multiple publications on global discourses on international terrorism and co-editor of Encountering Extremism (Manchester University Press, 2020).