A Dangerous Balance: Indiscriminate Counterterrorism Measures and Mobilization against the State

This paper explores the unintended consequences of counterterrorism measures by reconceptualizing them as forms of state repression. In line with the study of state repression, this paper distinguishes between two types of counterterrorism measures—selective and indiscriminate. Therefore, I argue the impacts of both forms of counterterrorism measures mirror those of selective and indiscriminate state repression. This paper is particularly concerned with the relationship between indiscriminate counterterrorism measures and consequent mobilization against the state. Drawing on cases of indiscriminate counterterrorism measures in Northern Ireland and Bosnia and Herzegovina, this paper argues that indiscriminate counterterrorism measures, like indiscriminate state repression, exacerbate divisions between the state and its citizens, increasing the risk of the violence that counterterrorism measures are assumed to prevent.