Terrorism, the City and the State Symposium

UCD Clinton Institute for American Studies

26 February 2007

Symposium Report

This symposium explored the role of cities as strategic sites of terrorist activity and the impact of political violence on urban life. It examined some of the intersections of urbanisation and political violence, from the late nineteenth century activities of anarchist dynamiters in London to the effects of military urbanism on the Israeli-Palestinian conflicts today.

The symposium provided a timely and informed discussion of the violence that is engulfing our increasingly urbanized world. Commentators documented the increasing militarization of urban life, evident in the design of buildings, in intensified surveillance, and in social policies relating to the movements of people and the regulation of public space.

The symposium presented the work of leading analysts on the urban effects of terrorism. Dr Brian Feeney (St Mary’s University College, Belfast) launched the event with a commentary on the transformation of Belfast from ‘Protestant town to Catholic city’ and the effects of violence on the city populace. The architect and scholar Eyal Weizman (Goldsmiths College, London) presented a richly illustrated lecture on the theories of ‘military urbanism’ at work in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Professor Scott Lucas (University of Birmingham) presented a wide-ranging talk on the development of ‘political warfare’, linking US foreign policy strategies in the Cold War and the War on Terror. Further themes were developed through separate panel discussions on urban bombings, media coverage of urban destruction and violence, and on issues of urban planning and governance in Irish cities.

The lecture by Mike Davis (University of California, Irvine), which closed the symposium, was co-sponsored by the Clinton Institute and the Humanities Institute of Ireland. The lecture was attended by a large audience in the Clinton Auditorium and received much media attention, including interviews with Mike Davis in the Irish Times and on RTE radio. Mike Davis’ global reputation is supported by a protean mix of scholarship and activism, and there was great interest in his new work, a study of the development and worldwide use of the car bomb (His book Budha’s Wagon: A Brief History of the Car Bomb, is published this week by Verso). In a stimulating lecture, he documented how this everyday object became a particularly adaptable and deadly threat to urban centres.

Programme

9.45am Introduction - Liam Kennedy (UCD)

10.00am Brian Feeney

(St. Mary's University College, Belfast)

'Belfast: From Protestant Town to Catholic City: Violence, Demographic Impact andSocio-Economic Change'

11.00am Tea/Coffee

(Clinton Institute, Belfield House)

11.30am Panel A & Panel B

Panel A: Anarchism and Dynamite in the 19th Century

Venue:-Clinton Institute, Belfield House
Chair: - Beverly Gage

Deaglan O'Donghaire (NUI Maynooth)

'The Anarchist Press and the "Voice of Dynamite"'

Niall Whelehan (European University Institute, Florence)

'Civilised and Uncivilised Warfare: Representations of Fenian Political Violence in London, 1876-1886'

Ann Larabee (Michigan State University)

'The Science of Revolutionary Warfard and the Nineteenth-Century City: Imaginative Dimensions and Tactical Operations'

Panel B: Media and Urban Terrorism

Venue: - Engineering Building, Room 317
Chair: - Scott Lucas

Harvey O'Brien (UCD)

'State of Siege: The City as Avatar in The Siege, Die Hard with a Vengeance, and Right at Your Door'

Tom Clonan (D.I.T and The Irish Times)

'Media Coverage of Urban Terrorism'

Paul O'Brien (NCAD)

'Theorising Terrorism'

1.00pm Lunch

(see options below)

2.00pm Eyal Weizman

(Architect and Goldsmith College, London) - Venue Engineering Building Room 135

'Lethal Theory'

3.00pm Tea/Coffee

(Clinton Institute, Belfield House)

3.30pm Panel C & Panel D

Panel C: Terror and Urban Bombing in the 20th Century

Venue: - Engineering Building, Room 216
Chair: - Ann Larabee

Beverly Gage (Yale University)

'The Day Wall Street Exploded: America in its Frist Age of Terror'

Andreas Hess (UCD)

'"Car Bombs for Peace": Can There Be a Peace and Reconciliation Process after ETA's Ts/Barajas Bombing?'

Panel D: Ireland: Urban Governance and Civil Liberties

Venue: - Clinton Institute, Belfield House
Chair: - Brian Feeney

Kieran Allen (UCD)

'Ireland, the War on Terror and the Erosion of Civil Liberties'

Rory Hearne (TCD)

'Terrorism, Dissent and the Changing Role of Central and City Governments'

5.00pm Scott Lucas

(University of Birmingham)
Venue: Engineering Building Room 216

'Terrorism, Political Warfare and the State'

6.30pm Mike Davis

(University of California, Irvine) -
Venue: Global Irish Institute, Clinton Auditorium

'The History of Car Bombing'