Framing Terrorism and the Consequences of it in Counterterrorist Policy: Spain as a Case Study

Abstract

With the aim of going into depth of the critical perspective on terrorism, this project analyses how the term terrorism has been framed in Spain, and which consequences this has had in the counterterrorist response implemented by the Government. Spain is an interesting case study due to its wide experience in dealing with terrorism, both old (separatist) and new (transnational), which might help to reflect the different approaches to this term. Spain was affected by the independentist terrorist organization Euskadi Ta Askatasuna (ETA) for more than 40 years. Furthermore, it was targeted by an Islamist cell, pertaining to Al-Qaeda, 11th March 2004. More recently, 18th August 2017, a group of young radicalised Islamist accomplished an attack in the centre of Barcelona under the umbrella of the Islamic State (ISIS). Following a critical perspective, the objective of this research is to analyse how terrorism has been framed in Spain and the by-product consequences of it in the counterterrorist measures applied by the government. Due to the vast material available about terrorism in Spain, I focus on three cases studies that changed the way terrorism was framed in this country: The Madrid attacks in 2004, The Madrid-Airport attack in 2006, and The Catalonia attacks in 2017. Therefore, the aims of this...