This is an excerpt from Critical Terrorism Studies: A Dictionary by Lee Jarvis and Alice Martini. Available in all good book stores, and via free download from E-International Relations.

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Capitalism is an economic and political system organised around private ownership of the means of production and the perceived autonomy of markets as the primary mechanisms for allocating resources. With its origins in the industrial revolution, capitalism is today usually coupled with (neo) liberal discourses of individualism, free markets, and liberal state interventions. For Marxist and other scholars, capitalism is primarily organised around the accumulation of capital. It is critiqued, amongst other reasons, for generating significant economic inequalities, for concentrating power and wealth in the hands of particular social classes, and for commodifying social relations.

In relation to terrorism, capitalism has been linked to the creation of the socio-economic conditions that contribute to the emergence of political violence. While the causal link between economic inequality or impoverishment and terrorism is debated within CTS, some scholars argue that structural inequalities and economic exploitation inherent in capitalist systems exacerbate grievances, particularly in regions marginalised by global economic dynamics. Despite this, dominant understandings of terrorism often obscure the economic dimensions of political violence, diverting attention from the structural violence perpetuated by capitalist systems around the world.

At the same time, CTS has been criticised by some for focusing too heavily on political discourse and for therefore neglecting the structural violence that capitalism entails (Joseph 2011). Other scholars have gone further and argued that CTS needs to scrutinise ‘the ways in which capitalist development, capitalist imperialism and international class dynamics intersect not just to enable state terrorism but to actively produce it’ (McKeown 2011, 75). Related to this is capitalism’s role in shaping the global counterterrorism industry, which has become a lucrative sector in its own right. Surveillance technologies, private military contractors, and security apparatuses are deeply embedded in capitalist markets, creating financial incentives for the perpetuation of counterterrorist violences and practices such as those associated with the war on terror. Work in CTS and related fields highlights how industries such as these benefit from securitisation processes that justify increased surveillance and militarisation, often targeting marginalised communities.

Work within CTS has also emphasised how counterterrorism as a state policy may have differential effects on social classes (Boukalas 2014). For dominant classes with significant capital, it signifies appropriation of public money; for others, counterterrorism may imply material dispossession and political exclusion (Boukalas 2014). Despite disagreements around the importance of capitalism for political violence, many critical terrorism scholars agree that there is a need to focus on macro rather than micro dynamics and to understand the economic systems in which acts of violence and their responses are situated.

Marxism is a........

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