Gilbert Ramsay

Bio: Gilbert Ramsay is an academic researcher from University of St Andrews. The author has contributed to research in topics: Terrorism & The Internet. The author has an hindex of 6, co-authored 17 publications receiving 97 citations.

Why terrorism can, but should not be defined

Abstract: This article seeks to turn the debate about the definition of terrorism on its head by arguing: (1) that the definitional debate has served to obscure the substantial scholarly consensus that actually exists on what terrorism is; (2) that this consensus is, however, largely unnecessary and irrelevant to the effective use of the term in the heterogeneous contexts within which it is employed; and (3) that by focusing on the quest for a definition of terrorism, terrorism scholars have largely missed the really interesting question about the word, namely, why it is that, given the heterogeneous purposes and contexts for which the word is used, we nonetheless continue to use a single word for all. In other words, how is it that we continue to know terrorism when we see it?

“Terroristic Content”: Towards a Grading Scale

Abstract: In this article we offer a first attempt at providing a set of universal grading criteria for determining on what basis, and how far, an item of discursive content can be considered “terroristic.” In doing so, we draw loosely on the existing COPINE scale for child abuse images. The scale described in the article is not intended to reflect actual risk of engagement in terrorist violence, nor is it intended to have evidential validity in relation to offenses in certain jurisdictions relating to “terrorist publications.” Rather, by formalising assumptions which seem already to be latent in the literature on terrorist use of the Internet, it aspires to serve as a starting point for a more methodologically coherent approach to relationships between content—particularly online content—and terrorism.

The representation of violence by insurgent political actors: the “violent” part of “violent extremism”?

Abstract: Terrorism is often held to be “violence as communication”. However, terrorism studies has had very little to say about how violence as such is specifically represented by insurgent “extremist” or transgressive political actors. Informed by social movement theories of framing and the literature on virtualization, this paper sets out to offer a preliminary typology of representations of violence by such groups, and the ways in which subcultural engagement with mediated representations of violence may represent a missing dimension in our understanding of “violent extremism” or “violent radicalization”.

Dehumanisation in religious and sectarian violence: the case of Islamic State

Abstract: It is often taken more or less for granted that perpetrators of mass killings and other acts of violent atrocity dehumanise their victims in order to justify killing them. Drawing on the past decade of developments in psychological theories of dehumanisation, and on representations and explanations of killing provided by Islamic State, this paper argues for a more complex understanding of the role of notions about humanity and inhumanity in the legitimation of violence.

Radical distinctions : a comparative study of two jihadist speeches

Abstract: Work on contemporary instances of “violent extremist” texts tends to see these primarily as more or less instrumental extensions of political (or political-religious) movements. As a result, there are few studies that devote close attention to individual examples of the texts themselves. In this article, we offer a detailed analysis of two jihadist speeches by the prominent ideologues Adam Gadahn and the late Anwar al-Awlaki. We argue that Al-Awlaki’s work ultimately succeeds where Gadahn’s seemingly fails because it is underpinned by a form of fundamentalism which, paradoxically, is inherently premised on the survival of possibilities for dialogue and polyglossia.

Dying To Win: The Strategic Logic of Suicide Terrorism

Abstract: Robert Pape thoroughly examines the misperceptions about and motivations behind suicide terrorism in his book, Dying to Win: The Strategic Logic of Suicide Terrorism. He uses empirical data and a multidisciplinary approach to support his argument that suicide terrorism is used to meet the secular and strategic goal of compelling the withdrawal of military forces.

Why Tough Tactics Fail and Rapport Gets Results: Observing Rapport-Based Interpersonal Techniques (ORBIT) to Generate Useful Information From Terrorists

Abstract: This field observation examines 58 police interrogators’ rapport-based behaviors with terrorist suspects; specifically, whether rapport helps elicit meaningful intelligence and information. The Observing Rapport-Based Interpersonal Techniques (ORBIT; Alison, Alison, Elntib & Noone, 2012) is a coding framework with 3 elements. The first 2 measures are as follows: (i) 5 strategies adopted from the motivational interviewing (Miller & Rollnick, 2009) literature in the counseling domain: autonomy, acceptance, adaptation, empathy, and evocation and (ii) an “Interpersonal Behavior Circle” (adopted from Interpersonal theories, Leary, 1957) for coding interpersonal interactions between interrogator and suspect along 2 orthogonal dimensions (authoritative-passive and challenging-cooperative); where each quadrant has an interpersonally adaptive and maladaptive variant. The third (outcome) measure of ORBIT includes a measure of evidentially useful information (the “interview yield”) and considers the extent to which suspects reveal information pertaining to capability, opportunity and motive as well as evidence relevant to people, actions, locations and times. Data included 418 video interviews (representing 288 hours of footage), with all suspects subsequently convicted for a variety of terrorist offenses. Structural equation modeling revealed that motivational interviewing was positively associated with adaptive interpersonal behavior from the suspect, which, in turn, increased interview yield. Conversely, even minimal expression of maladaptive interpersonal interrogator behavior increased maladaptive interviewee behavior as well as directly reducing yield. The study provides the first well-defined and empirically validated analysis of the benefits of a rapport-based, interpersonally skilled approach to interviewing terrorists in an operational field setting.

Research on Terrorism, 2007–2016: A Review of Data, Methods, and Authorship

Abstract: Research on terrorism has long been criticized for its inability to overcome enduring methodological issues. These include an overreliance on secondary sources and the associated literature review methodology, a scarcity of statistical analyses, a tendency for authors to work alone rather than collaborate with colleagues, and the large number of one-time contributors to the field. However, the reviews that have brought these issues to light describe the field as it developed until 2007. This article investigates to what extent these issues have endured in the 2007–2016 period by constructing a database on all of the articles published in nine leading journals on terrorism (N = 3442). The results show that the use of primary data has increased considerably and is continuing to do so. Scholars have also begun to adapt a wider variety of data-gathering techniques, greatly diminishing the overreliance on literature reviews that was noted from the 1980s through to the early 2000s. These positive changes should not obscure enduring issues. Despite improvements, most scholars continue to work alone and most authors are one-time contributors. Overall, however, the field of terrorism studies appears to have made considerable steps towards addressing long-standing issues.

Less Than Human: Why We Demean, Enslave, and Exterminate Others

Abstract: LESS THAN HUMAN: Why We Demean, Enslave, and Exterminate Others, David Livingstone Smith, St. Martin's Press, New York, 2011, 326 pages, $16.49. [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] If you harbor any doubts about man's capacity for inhumanity to his fellow man, you will lose them when reading this disturbing, important book. In Less Than Human, David Livingstone Smith unblinkingly describes the darker side of mankind's history. He focuses on horrors perpetrated upon "Jews, sub-Saharan Africans, and Native Americans" due to their "immense historical significance" and because they are "richly documented." But the awful tales he relates come from across the world and some date back to prehistory. There are stories of mass murder, rape, slavery, and torture. But most poignant are the stories of individual victims. There is, for example, the heart-rending tale of Ota Benga, a Batwa ("pygmy") tribesman whose family was killed in the Congo Free State by the mercenary forces of King Leopold II of Belgium, who was sold into slavery and purchased by an American entrepreneur, who was put on display in 1904 in the Bronx Zoo (where he shared a cage with an orangutan), and who, freed but longing to return home, killed himself with a bullet to his own heart. What makes it possible for us homo sapiens to treat other members of our species so horrifically, Smith argues, is our unique mental ability to "essentialize" the world around us. We divide living things into species, and species into kinds. We then rank species and kinds from highest to lowest. There are very good evolutionary reasons we are built to view living beings this way. Considering animals and insects as inferior things enabled our ancestors to thoroughly exploit these creatures, while seeing other groups of homo sapiens as either human or inhuman gave our forebears a potent psychological prop for choosing either trade or war as a means to acquire resources. Smith convincingly argues that, since all homo sapiens have the capacity to dehumanize other homo sapiens, each of us also possesses the potential to commit atrocities--and even to take pleasure from such acts. We should not think of, say, German troops and New World settlers as "monsters" for what they did to Jews, Native Americans, or African slaves. Instead, what we should find troubling is just how ordinary many of them were. As distressing as this idea may be for some, for U.S. service members, the most disturbing facet of this book will be reading the words of fellow service members and realizing just how neatly these words fit into humanity's dark tradition of dehumanization. There is the Gulf War pilot who, in language reminiscent of that used by the Hutus during the Rwandan genocide, said, "It's almost like you flipped on the light in the kitchen at night and the cockroaches start scurrying, and we're killing them. …