Over the past century and a half, terrorism has established itself as a feature of political relations that most societies in Europe and beyond have encountered. While none of these terrorist organisations have posed a vital danger to the countries, they have nevertheless spread fear and violence and were thus very important to governments and people alike. Yet many times these terrorist groups had sponsors that resided abroad.

In some cases terrorists were even supported or directed by foreign governments. In other cases, regimes themselves have employed domestic (and arguably international) terrorism to solidify their rule.

This conference will address state terrorism and state sponsored terrorism and look at examples, causes, and consequences. States and terrorists have an ambivalent relationship. States want to beat terrorists or use them as a tool whereas terrorists attack states but also need them as a source of support. This conference will tackle this ambiguous rapport. As we are interested in a diverse range of papers, we are not limiting paper topics to particular regions or time periods but rather encouraging the submission of paper proposals with either a more general or very specific perspective.

Paper proposals can include but are certainly not limited to:

• state (sponsored) terrorism in Africa and the Middle East (Libya, Iran, Idi Amin's Uganda, etc);
• state (sponsored) terrorism in Asia (North Korea, Aghanistan, etc);
• state (sponsored) terrorism in Latin America (Argentina, Chile, Paraguay, etc);
• state (sponsored) terrorism in the Cold War (Socialist governments and Western terrorist groups; Western support to guerrilla organisations/national liberation movements employing terrorist methods);
• state (sponsored) terrorism before the Cold War;
• "wannabe states" and the use of terror (terrorism as a strategy of liberation movements/guerrillas etc)
• new forms of state (sponsored) terrorism (for instance ISIS);
• as well as papers on the reactions of societies, countries, and the international community at large to state (sponsored) terrorism

Interested scholars are invited to submit a brief paper proposal of roughly 300 words as well as a CV to conference.state.terrorism@graduateinstitute.ch by 8 December 2014.

Queries can also be addressed to this email address.

Selected participants will be notified by 17 February 2015. Participants will be asked to submit draft papers 2 weeks prior to the conference.

We intend to publish polished final papers in an edited volume and/or a special issue of an academic journal.

The Fondation Pierre du Bois pour l'histoire du temps présent supports this conference.

Organisers: Jussi Hanhimäki, Mohammad-Mahmoud Ould Mohamedou, Bernhard Blumenau