A Gramscian Analysis of Terrorism with Reference to Iraq

Abstract

The aim of this article is to deconstruct the United States of America’s (USA) narrative and conceptualisation of terrorism with regard to the Middle  East in general and Iraq in particular. Among other things, the article examines the foreign policy of USA in relation to Iraq. This article uses a  qualitative literature assessment; meaning that the analysis is both descriptive and explorative. The article adopts Gramsci’s notion of hegemony to  grapple with the question: How was ‘terrorism’ ideologically conceptualised by the USA after the end of the Cold War in relation to events in the  Middle East, and what was the material basis for this conceptualisation? There is a knowledge gap in the domain of social sciences regarding the  conceptualisation and deconstruction of terrorism and the ‘war on terror’. In bridging this gap, our main line of argument is that terrorism is an  ideological construct and an initiative of the US as part of its soft power in pursuit of its political objective of hegemony.