Money, media and the anti-politics of terrorist finance

Abstract

This article offers a critical analysis of the anti-politics of terrorist finance, understood as the particularly depoliticized governing practices enabled in its name. The article conceptualizes 'terrorist finance' not as an unproblematic reality which has elicited a state response, but as a practice of government that works through a number of political or discursive moves. The article begins with an examination of the media battles over the names, numbers and definitions of terrorism finance. It then argues that the 'war on terrorist finance' is not so much about regulating global money flows as it is about governing practices of mediation and social affiliation.