Citation

Egerton F. Eur. J. Int. Rel. 2011; 17(3): 453-474.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2011, European Consortium for Political Research, Publisher SAGE Publishing)

DOI

10.1177/1354066109350056

PMID

unavailable

Abstract

Terrorism, and particularly its militant Salafist form, remains an oft-discussed but often poorly understood phenomenon. There is an ever-expanding body of literature on militant Salafism in the West. A great deal of this offers some manner of alienation as an explanation as to why a path of militancy was pursued. This article explores what explanatory value alienation is felt to offer such accounts. It then considers some of the considerable problems that face these claims, difficulties that seriously undermine the usefulness of alienation as a concept that helps us to understand militancy.