The dispositive of terrorism during the war on terrorism: the UNSC’s approach to concrete terror emergencies in the Middle East

This study adopts a constructivist approach to reveal the function of the dispositive of terrorism in the UN Security Council. While some CTS studies focus on genealogies of terrorism at the UN based on a general “global terrorism” discourse, this study focuses on concrete emergencies. The methodology compares 652 states’ deliberations and resolutions during a surge in violence between 2006 and 2009 in four cases: Afghanistan, Iraq, Israel-Palestinian, and Israel-Lebanon. This study argues that the UN discourse in the Security Council on terrorism functions as a way of reifying states, by employing a dyad of self-other, terrorists, and counter-terrorism, which in practice is constructive for state stability and state-building. It bypasses concrete instrumental disputes in favour of a comprehensive approach centred around the sovereign state. This construction sidelines global terrorist organisations such as al-Qaida, and state-terrorists such as Iran.