What was the War on Terror?

More than 20 years after the launch of the US-led War on Terror, do we understand what the war was and why it took place?Academic research has been piecemeal while critical journalists have offered moral outrage rather than structural explanation.

In this lecture, Arun Kundnani probes the War on Terror’s anti-Muslim racism, and locates its origins in a broader process of neoliberal restructuring. With the US now supporting another genocidal War on Terror — carried out by Israeli forces in Gaza — it is crucial that we properly acknowledge and address a recent past that continues to haunt us.