This book offers a critical examination of the functions or ambitions - stated and otherwise - of the counter-terrorism policies of key Western states.

Lee Jarvis is a Senior Lecturer in International Security at the University of East Anglia. He is author of Times of Terror: Discourse, Temporality and the War on Terror (2009), and co-author of Terrorism: A Critical Introduction (2011).

Michael Lister is Reader in Politics at Oxford Brookes University. He is co-author of Citizenship in Contemporary Europe (2008) and co-editor of The State: Theories and Issues (2005).

Introduction: the ends of counter-terrorism, Lee Jarvis and Michael Lister 1. "There's a good reason they are called al-Qaeda in Iraq. They are al-Qaeda...in...Iraq." The impossibility of a global counterterrorism strategy, or the end of the nation state, Bob de Graaff 2. Counter-Terrorism: The Ends of a Secular Ministry, Charlotte Heath-Kelly 3. Spatial and temporal imaginaries in the securitization of terrorism, Kathryn Marie Fisher 4. Counter-terrorism as conflict transformation, Laura Zahra McDonald, Basia Spalek, Phillip Daniel Silk, Raquel Da Silva and Zubeda Limbada 5. Contemporary Spanish anti-terrorist policies: ancient myths, new approaches, Agata Serrano 6. "I read it in the FT": 'Everyday' knowledge of counter-terrorism and its articulation, Lee Jarvis and Michael Lister 7. Prosecuting Suspected Terrorists: Precursor Crimes, Intercept Evidence and the Priority of Security, Stuart MacDonald 8. Banishing the enemies of all mankind: the effectiveness of proscribing terrorist organisations in Australia, Canada, the UK and US, Tim Legrand 9. Britain's Prevent Programme: An end in sight?, Paul Thomas 10. How terrorism ends: negotiating the end of the IRA's 'armed struggle', Paul Dixon 11. From Counter Terrorism to Soft Authoritarianism: The Case of Sri Lanka, Neil Devotta