This book examines domestic extremism and what is popularly referred to as radicalization. The fear of domestic extremism has been used to dismantle democracy and erect national security states throughout North America, Western Europe, and beyond. Yet, despite the enormous costs citizens have paid in the name of security, society has become less secure and less safe. In many respects, this situation has resulted from the misapprehension of the conditions that make the emergence of this threat probable. Kowalski focuses on the macro social relations and structures that make radicalization probable. As demonstrated through an analysis of the so-called Toronto 18¿an extremist group arrested in June of 2006 for activities that contravened the Canadian Anti-Terrorism Act (ATA)¿macro social relations and structures served a significant role in creating the conditions through which the process of radicalization became probable. If a comprehensive understanding of the processes of radicalization are to be reached and effective counter-terrorism policies developed, then the consideration this book provides of greater macro social relations and structures that make the emergence of extremist subjectivities probable is needed.

Jeremy D. Kowalski is Adjunct Professor at York University, Canada. He teaches courses on violence and terrorism, popular geopolitics and the war of terror, geopolitics, and the geography of Canada. He obtained his PhD in Geography from York University, Canada.

Prologue .- Introduction .- 1. Islamic, Islamist, Islamitic: From Conceptual Violence to a Conceptual Break .- 2. Displacement and Condensation: The Internationalization of the Clash and the Construction of the Homo Terrorismus .- 3. Through a Looking Glass Darkly: the Symmetry of Competing Discursive Formations .- 4. A Condition of Transgression: The Transnational Sphere of Influence .- 5. A Condition of Transgression: The State Sphere of Influence .- 6. A Condition of Transgression: The Group Sphere of Influence .- Conclusion .- Epilogue.