Browsing by Subject "terrorism"
Now showing items 1-7 of 7
-
(2021)Internet har under de senaste åren blivit vårt främsta kommunikationsmedel. Detta har även uppmärksammats av terroristgrupper och personer med en terroristisk agenda, och följaktligen har terroristiskt innehåll börjat spridas på internet, bland annat i form av propaganda samt utbildning och rekrytering av anhängare. Terrorism utgör ett allvarligt hot mot det demokratiska samhället, men åtgärder som vidtas för att bekämpa terrorism får trots allt inte inskränka de grundläggande fri- och mänskliga rättigheterna mer än vad som är nödvändigt. Avhandlingens syfte är att med hjälp av den rättsdogmatiska metoden granska hur innehåll på internet kan begränsas då syftet är att förebygga terrorism och hur detta förhåller sig till yttrandefriheten. Avhandlingen granskar hur tillgång till internet får skydd under yttrandefriheten särskilt med beaktande av spridning och mottagande av information. Vidare bedöms hur olagligt terroristiskt innehåll på internet regleras och hur regleringen förhåller sig till yttrandefrihetens inskränkningsgrunder. I avhandlingen granskas både informationsskaparnas och tjänsteleverantörernas ställning och skyldigheter. Avhandlingen innehåller tre huvuddelar. I avhandlingens andra kapitel granskas hur tillgång till internet får skydd som en grundläggande rättighet, särskilt med beaktande av yttrandefriheten. Vidare behandlas samma fråga från en människorättssynvinkel. I det tredje kapitlet beskrivs hur terroristiskt innehåll på internet kan begränsas i enlighet med strafflagen, yttrandefrihetslagen och lagen om tjänster inom elektronisk kommunikation. Dessutom behandlas rekommendationer och linjedragningar antagna av EU och riktade till tjänsteleverantörer på internet. I det fjärde kapitlet bedöms hur åtgärderna som beskrivits i det tredje kapitlet förhåller sig till yttrandefrihetens inskränkningsgrunder. I avhandlingens slutsatser kan märkas att regleringen mestadels är enhetlig med grunderna för en inskränkning av yttrandefriheten. Emellertid har det uppmärksammats att regleringen som en helhet är en aning komplicerad, vilket kan vidare utgöra ett hot mot de grundläggande rättigheterna. Dessutom är kriminaliseringen av mottagande av utbildning för terrorismsyften exceptionell, vilket utgör en utmaning för proportionalitetskravet vid en inskränkning av yttrandefriheten. I slutet av avhandlingen behandlas även kommande lagstiftningsändringar som innebär nya utmaningar för yttrandefriheten.
-
(2020)The purpose of this Master’s thesis is to analyse state-sponsored terrorism from the perspective of the doctrine of state responsibility. The aim of this work is to assess whether it is possible to hold a state responsible for the acts of non-state terrorist actors which originate from its territory. The term “state-sponsored terrorism” is used in this work to refer to situations where a state provides support to a terrorist organisation for the purpose of carrying out acts of international terrorism. State terrorism, which can be understood as terrorism practiced by states, falls outside the scope of this study. The methodology followed in this thesis is doctrinal research. As such, this thesis utilises international conventions, custom, academic literature and case law as sources. Particular attention is given to the International Law Commission’s 2001 Articles on Responsibility of States for Internationally Wrongful Acts which are utilised to conceptualise international responsibility and highlight some of the shortcomings of the existing state responsibility rules in the context of state-sponsored terrorism. The starting point of this research has been the view expressed in academic literature that the rules of state responsibility are unable to respond to challenges posed by state-sponsored terrorism. Thus, this thesis also considers the customary obligation of states to refrain from activities that may cause harm to the territory of other states as an alternative to state responsibility. The use of terrorist organisations as proxies has become more attractive for states seeking to avoid the increasing costs of traditional warfare and the risk of nuclear war. States support terrorist groups to evade international responsibility and deny their role in terrorist activities. Attributing responsibility for terrorist acts is imperative if states are to prevent international terrorism. State sponsorship of terrorism therefore poses a significant challenge to the international community. This study finds that establishing responsibility for state sponsorship of international terrorist organisations is often difficult, if not impossible, because the evidence linking the wrongful act to the actions or omissions of the state is lacking. Even if an injured state can show that another state has provided some logistical support, financing or sanctuary to the terrorist organisation that committed a terrorist act this is not enough to hold the state sponsor responsible for the consequences of wrongful private conduct that it has helped bring about in many cases.
-
(2019)The War on Terror has been waged for almost two whole decades now. President Barack Obama pledged to end the “boundless Global War on Terror” during his tenure but there are still US troops present in Middle East and North Africa. Despite the rhetoric on ending the war, the war got even more violent in terms of air strikes and the military budget kept on rising from that of president Bush under Obama’s first term as president. Since these circumstances suggest that there was no considerable change to be perceived in the outcome of the war from Bush to Obama, there seems to exist a process of political meaning-making through which the meanings attached to the US engagement in the Middle East are altered. Thus, this study aims at analysing the underlying fantasmatic logics through which the War on Terror was legitimized to the public during Obama’s presidency. This study contributes to the study of international relations through Lacanian-Žižekian framework, which has only recently been introduced to the study of international politics. The theoretical and methodological background of this thesis is rooted in Lacanian psychoanalysis, discourse theory of Laclau and Mouffe and Lacanian-Žižekian theorizations on ideological fantasies. By adapting the logics approach of discourse theory as a qualitative method, this thesis analyses 105 speeches on terrorism that Barack Obama delivered in 2009–2016. The analysis is focused at analysing discursive articulations, nodal points and master signifiers that partake in structuring the fantasies regarding War on Terror. In this thesis I will argue that it is through the fantasmatic logics that the ideological grip of Obama’s War on Terror becomes intelligible: By structuring the fantasmatic objects of desire at least on three levels, Obama succeeds at granting the illusion that the unachievable and impossible enjoyment – that the subjects of War on Terror desire – is achievable. However, Obama organizes the fantasy in a way that keeps the realization of the ultimate fantasy of lasting peace, safety, prosperity and security always at a distance. The desire is sustained by articulating enemies, such as al Qaeda, Taliban, Osama bin Laden, Assad’s regime and ISIL, as inferior objects of desire that are “forgotten” and replaced by one another in the signifying chain of enmity. In addition to this “forgetting” of inferior objects of desire, there exists a process of “reminding” or “remembering” that sustains the desire of War on Terror’s subjects. I then argue that some of these objects of desire are used to remind the subjects of what the possible enjoyment would feel like when it is finally achieved. These enemies are also articulated as “the constitutive othesr” that prevent the subjects of War on Terror to realize their fantasy of lasting peace. The results show that the signifier “terrorists” functions as a subtle epithet through which various and differential groups can be articulated as enemies.
-
(2021)The language we use when we talk about terrorism has an important role to play in the discursive construction of terrorism. Thus, how terrorism is perceived in the media, politics and official public discourses influences how we perceive terrorists to be. The constructive perspective of terrorism does not deny the existence of it: terrorism is real, but what it means depends on the interpretations. Counterterrorism also depends on these interpretations of terrorism. Therefore, it is argued that how states perceive ‘terrorism’ impacts their counterterrorism measures and policies. The overall aim of the study is to examine the interplay between terrorism and counterterrorism. The focus is on understanding how terrorism is perceived in the official public discourse of terrorism within the context of the UK’s counterterrorism strategy ‘CONTEST’ and contemporary terrorism since 9/11. Another layer of the argument concerns how the discursive practices constitute terrorist Other and thus, how the perceptions of terrorist Other constructed by the Self reproduce, reinforce and constitute behaviour, interests and identity of the Self. The aim is not to understand terrorist Other, but rather to analyse how Other is constructed by the Self and what effects this has on the Self. In this study, the UK occupies the role of Self, and contemporary terrorism, as perceived by the Self, represents the Other. The theoretical background of the study is on critical terrorism studies, constructivism by Alexander Wendt and securitisation theory. The research material consists of four different versions of the UK’s counterterrorism strategy CONTEST from the years 2006, 2009, 2011 and 2018. CONTEST provides comprehensive research material for this study because it sets the general agenda of counterterrorism aims, measures and policies in the UK. In the first part of the analysis, the study identifies five different perceptions of terrorist Other utilising critical discourse analysis by Norman Fairclough. The five perceptions of terrorist Other are active, different from the Self, radicalised, a non-state actor, and finally, an enemy. Based on these five perceptions of terrorist Other, the second part of the analysis then focuses on the interplay between terrorist Other and Self. The perceptions of terrorist Other are argued to reproduce, reinforce and constitute Self’s behaviour, interests and identity, and therefore influence on the counterterrorism practised by the UK. Analysing how terrorism is perceived through the construction of terrorist Other provides a broader understanding of the official public discourse of terrorism in the UK. In addition, the study argues that Self decides its actions by reflecting on the perceptions of terrorism it has created itself. Therefore, constructing terrorism as represented might partially explain counterterrorism measures and policies in the UK.
-
(2018)The theatrical and dramatic nature of terrorism makes it a suitable topic for the media, which aims to attract as wide an audience as possible. The media remains a fundamental source of public information on terrorism and terrorist attacks, therefore playing a crucial role in the shaping of the public’s understanding of the phenomenon. The aim of this thesis is to examine how the perception of the threat of terrorism constructed by Helsingin Sanomat has changed in Finland during 2001-2017. The method of this research is qualitative content analysis. The primary source of the thesis is articles of Helsingin Sanomat newspaper that were published in 2001-2017. The material consists of 171 articles that include the keywords “Finland” and “terrorism”, and deal with the threat of terrorism in Finland. It should be noted that the database was searched with the whole keywords, excluding possibly hundreds of articles that include derivative forms of the mentioned keywords. This may be considered as one of the main limitations of this research. One of the key findings of this research is that Helsingin Sanomat has extensively used external experts when assessing the threat of terrorism in Finland. The percentage of the usage of experts, when directly assessing the threat of terrorism in Finland, was 81%. Furthermore, the assessment of the threat of terrorism has been largely outsourced to SUPO, by the public as well as by Helsingin Sanomat. The most dominant discoursed identified from the primary source articles were lone wolf terrorism, “lintukoto” thinking, intelligence legislation as well as immigration and Islam. Moreover, the turning points of the development of the threat of terrorism constructed by Helsingin Sanomat were largely in parallel with the terrorist threat assessments of SUPO. The identified turning points of the threat were 2006, 2011, 2015 and 2017. Furthermore, the far majority of the terrorism portrayed in the articles was jihadist terrorism. All in all, one of the central observations was that the perception of the threat of terrorism portrayed by Helsingin Sanomat has gained an increasing amount of news coverage towards the end of the examined time frame, and that the constructed threat may be considered as more pressing than the threat itself.
-
(2018)Syftet med min avhandling är att utifrån teoribildningen om sociala representationer söka förståelse för hurudana självrepresentationer unga muslimer som rest till Syrien under konflikten och återvänt har av sig själva samt hur de upplever att de positioneras av omvärlden. Jag är även intresserad av hurdana behov de anser sig själva ha efter hemkomsten. Vidare granskar jag hur aktörer inom Finlands Exit-verksamhet ser på de unga vuxna samt hurudana behov de professionella uppfattar att dessa unga har. Avhandlingen avser redogöra för eventuella skillnader och likheter mellan de ovannämnda gruppernas uppfattningar samt diskutera möjliga konsekvenser av dessa i kontexten politiska åtgärder mot radikalisering och terrorism. I dagens läge är forskningsfältet gällande Syrienresenärer bristfälligt, trots ständigt pågående diskussioner gällande myndighetsåtgärder och stödtjänster för återvändande Syrienresenärer. Därmed är syftet att bidra med kunskap inom socialt arbete gällande återvändande Syrienresenärers livssituationer och behov av stöd. Som datainsamlingsmetod valde jag kvalitativ intervju. Fyra intervjuer gjordes med professionella involverade i Finlands Exit-verksamhet. Därtill intervjuade jag tre unga vuxna som återvänt från Syrien till Finland och en ung vuxen som fortfarande befann sig i Syrien. Av de fyra professionella som jag intervjuat till min studie arbetar tre personer inom den tredje sektorn och en för finska myndigheter. De unga vuxna jag intervjuat har alla finländskt medborgarskap, gruppen består av både män och kvinnor och samtliga är muslimer, en del berättar att de börjat praktisera religionen först i tonåren eller vuxen ålder. Alla de unga vuxna jag intervjuat har tillbringat kortare eller längre tider i Syrien. Studien visar att de personer som intervjuats rest med intentioner att hjälpa de lidande i Syrien genom humanitär hjälpverksamhet. En del av de unga vuxna var beredda att delta i militär krigsföring mot Bashar al-Assads regeringsstyrkor inför resan till Syrien, men deltog aldrig i strider på plats. De huvudsakliga motiven bakom samtliga informanters resor till Syrien verkar ha varit ett starkt medkännande med lidande muslimer samt upplevelser av ett hårt samhällsklimat, känsla av utanförskap och islamofobi i hemlandet Finland. De centrala teman som framträdde i de unga vuxnas berättelser om tiden efter hemkomsten var upplevelser av behov, möten med myndigheter, vikten av kulturell och religiös förståelse, vikten av rätt terminologi, upplevelser av skam samt konstruktionen av en positiv själv-identitet. Sammanfattningsvis visar resultatet i studien att den mediala och samhälleliga representation av Syrienresenärer upplevs som ensidig, stigmatiserande, felaktigt vinklad och en stereotyperad syn på Syrienresenärer som kriminella, potentiella terrorister och dehumaniserade individer. Syrienresenärer kategoriseras som ”den Andra”, en representation som både de unga och de professionella tar tydligt avstånd från. De unga vuxna positionerar sig genom sina tal som vanliga unga vuxna i förhållande till representationen om unga Syrienresenärer som hot mot samhällets säkerhet och som riskindivider. De positionerar sig som individer med mångfacetterade motiv bakom sina resor, i motsats till den upplevda ensidiga och misstolkade framställningen av dem som ett kollektiv av radikala och kriminella individer. På basen av de unga vuxnas berättelser kan man dra slutsatsen att alla återvändande Syrienresenärer inte behöver stödåtgärder efter hemkomsten. Dock kan man konstatera att en del av de återvändande kan befinna sig i en extra sårbar situation vid hemkomsten. De största behoven bland återvändande ungdomar efter hemkomsten framträder dock som behov av ett gott och neutralt bemötande från myndigheter, oavsett personens bakgrund och eventuella brottsutredningar. Behovet av praktisk hjälp och handledning framträder även som en vital del för en del av de återvändande. En del av de professionella motiverar stödåtgärderna för unga efter hemkomsten med en minimering av säkerhetsrisk, en representation om unga återvändande förankrade i en riskdiskurs, vilket de unga i sin tur tydligt tar avstånd från i sina uttalanden.
-
(2020)Terrorism reporting is a contradictory practice for the media: terrorist events are inherently newsworthy but disseminating information about attacks defined as terrorism also provides attention to perpetrators. Without a universal definition terrorism is a pejorative term that can be used for political effect. In public discussion, whether an act of violence should be defined terrorism or not is a common debate in the aftermath of an incident. While the interplay of terrorism and the media have been examined from various perspectives, less attention has been given to the journalistic and editorial practices that precede content. The aim of this thesis is to gain insight into how Finnish journalists perceive the roles and responsibilities of the media in terrorism reporting. The approach of the study is qualitative and empirical, and the thesis follows the discursive and social constructionist understandings of terrorism. The theoretical framework builds on literature about terrorism as a social construct, the interplay of terrorism and the media, critique on terrorism coverage and frames, framing as the interaction of journalists and sources, and the professional values and self-perceptions of journalists. The research material consists of 9 semi-structured interviews. Interviewees are Finnish journalists and editors that take part in terrorism reporting in national media. The interview material is analysed using qualitative content analysis. Based on a theory-bound analysis of the interviews, four roles and three areas of responsibility are designated for the media: the roles of the reporter, explainer, transmitter and analyser and responsibility for attention, context and balance. The findings of this thesis illuminate how journalists perceive the practical tasks, leeway and autonomy of the media in terrorism reporting. In addition, they explain previous findings about, for instance, the media’s dependence on official sources, conventional frames and prevalent terrorism narratives. The roles and responsibilities indicate that the journalists perceive contextualising, independent reporting, confronting authorities and initiating discussion as important duties. However, these aspects are discussed conditionally, and during the early stages of reporting the media disseminate information and transmit official interpretations of events. A contradiction lies in how journalists value the status of the media as the public’s source of information but find that circumstances preclude fixing issues identified in terrorism reporting. In sum, the journalists are aware of the issues but do not have the necessary means or mindset to tackle them. Journalists need sufficient knowledge about terrorism, initiatives to define the phenomenon more broadly and coherently, and guidelines to support practical work. The thesis concludes that approaches that hear out the actors in terrorism reporting are called for in order to deepen terrorism and media scholarship.
Now showing items 1-7 of 7