Terrorism and counter-terrorism policy and research in UK universities (1997–2017): an analytic-structural review of the literature and related sources

Journal article

Against a backdrop of acute global terrorist actions and international counter-terrorist initiatives, and newly marked involvement of UK universities in counter-terrorism with the Counter-Terrorism and Security Act 2015, this article reviews a wide multidisciplinary literature to provide a structural analysis of terrorism and counter-terrorism policy and research in UK universities over a 20-year timeframe (1997–2017), identifying three phases in terrorism and counter-terrorism legislative and related policy contexts: temporary; permanent and normative permanence.

These three periods correlate with a vast expansion of academic terrorism research which is multidisciplinary, rapidly diversifying and expanding in direct correlation to the intensification of terroristic action. Mindful of a complex context of intensified global terrorism, the article identifies shifting patterns in the aims and manifest impacts of terrorism and counter-terrorism policy and research in UK universities. This article concludes by proposing a working analytic-structural framework for framing the disciplinary-epistemological, institutional and operational impacts on UK higher education of terrorism and counter-terrorism policy and research, including a critical and little explored relationship between universities and security and intelligence agencies.

Authors: Gearon, L

• Publication status: Published
• Peer review status: Peer reviewed
• Publisher: Taylor and Francis
• Journal: Policy Reviews in Higher Education
• Volume: 2
• Issue: 1
• Pages: 32-60
• Publication date: 2018-01-22
• Acceptance date: 2017-12-30
• DOI: 10.1080/23322969.2018.1424561
• EISSN: 2332-2950
• ISSN: 2332-2969
• Keywords: security; terrorism; intelligence agencies; universities; counter-terrorism