Talk Overview

Responses to terrorism have frequently shaped world history and politics, from the emergence of the First World War to the post-9/11 War on Terror and beyond.

Crucial to our individual and societal responses to terrorism is the central question of whether, or to what extent, or how, or why, or when, terrorism works.

Drawing on over thirty years of research into terrorism and political violence, this talk will consider the question's importance, its difficulties, the appropriate frameworks within which to approach it, and the policy implications of our answer to one of the most significant questions we face in the twenty-first century. 

About the Speaker

Richard English is Director of the Senator George J. Mitchell Institute for Global Peace, Security, and Justice at Queen's University Belfast, where he is also Professor of Politics.  His books include the award-winning studies  Armed Struggle: The History of the IRA (2003) and Irish Freedom: The History of Nationalism in Ireland (2006). 

His most recent books are Does Terrorism Work? A History (2016), The Oxford Handbook of Terrorism (co-edited, 2019), and The Cambridge History of Terrorism (edited, 2021).  He is a Fellow of the British Academy (FBA), a Member of the Royal Irish Academy (MRIA), a Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh (FRSE), a Fellow of the Royal Historical Society (FRHistS), an Honorary Fellow of Keble College Oxford, a Faculty Affiliate at the University of Chicago, and an Honorary Professor at the University of St Andrews.  

In 2018 he was awarded a CBE for services to the understanding of modern-day terrorism and political history. In 2019 he was awarded the Royal Irish Academy's Gold Medal in the  Social Sciences.