Between Crime and War

The threat posed by the recent rise of transnational non-state armed groups does not fit easily within either of the two basic paradigms for state responses to violence. The civilian paradigm focuses on the interception of demonstrable immediate threats to the safety of others. The military paradigm focuses on threats posed by collective actors who pose a danger to the state's ability to maintain basic social order and, at times, the state. The book suggests, that we need not see the options as confined to this binary choice as it evaluates the philosophical and ethical implications of using both military and non-military frameworks for pursuing counterterrorism operations.