Terrorism
Sunday 28 October, 9.45pm until 10.30pm, Upper Gulbenkian Gallery Rethinking...

Launching his new book Invitation to Terror at the Battle of Ideas, Frank Furedi calls for a fundamental reorientation of the way that terrorism and global threats are conceptualised. He will argue that the impact of terrorism depends entirely on how society responds to it. Terrorism is a problem, but it is a threat whose source lies in the midst of our culture rather than in the hills of Afghanistan or the slums of Baghdad. Furedi’s argument is that risk-averse Western attitudes represent an invitation to risk-taking ‘fear entrepreneurs’, who are able to take advantage of Western fears with minimal effort. Invitation To Terror shows how the events of 9/11 and the subsequent conflict both express and give shape to society’s crisis of meaning and lack of purpose.

Signed copies of the book will be on sale throughout the weekend at a special festival price.

 Speakers

Frank Furedi
professor of sociology, University of Kent, Canterbury; author, Wasted, Politics of Fear and On Tolerance: in defence of moral independence
Chair:
Patrick Hayes
head, press and promotions, Institute of Ideas; reporter, spiked; co-founder, IoI Current Affairs Forum

 Produced by

Patrick Hayes head, press and promotions, Institute of Ideas; reporter, spiked; co-founder, IoI Current Affairs Forum

Beyond the war on terror, Alex Gourevitch

 Recommended readings

Explosive reactions
Reckoning with suicide bombing must involve looking not just at the tactic itself, but perhaps, more importantly, the reactions it provokes
Aziz Huq, American Prospect, 27 July 2007

If we don't call them names, the terrorists win
'Aren't "bastards," "scum," and so on precisely the right terms for people who seek to maim and kill presumably innocent others to make a political point?'
Carlin Romano, The Chronicle, 20 July 2007

Liberty in the balance
The near incalculable nature of risk, particularly as regards terrorism, makes Gordon Brown's raft of increasingly illiberal counter measures the only sensible course of action
Anthony Giddens, Guardian, 26 July 2007

Apocalyspe now
By comparing Bush to Julius Ceasar, and America's foreign policy to Roman imperialism, Chalmers Johnson is able to grasp terrorism as America's very own nemesis
Stephen Holmes, Nation, October 2007

recommended by spiked

Al-Qaeda’s ‘terrorism of complaint’
Brendan O’Neill, 10 July 2007

Crawley plot: an 'Anti-Social Behaviour Outrage'?
Brendan O'Neill, 1 May 2007

Is London still stressed out about 7/7?
Bill Durodié, 2 April 2007

 Session partners