Terrorism as Communication: An Intercultural Communication Approach to the World's Biggest Political Threat

視恐怖主義為溝通：對世界最大政治威脅的跨文化溝通之研究方法

This paper argues that terrorism study, long the domain of political science and criminal justice, should be situated instead in the communication discipline generally, and the intercultural communication sub-discipline specifically. The paper argues that the nature of defining terrorism and differentiating it from legitimate forms of political violence requires acknowledgement of the limitations of disciplines (Gadamer, 1960; Burke, 1966) and application of semantic approaches (Johnson, 2008) native to communication studies, and that only through application of the hermeneutics (Gebser, 1949; Perelman & Olbrechts-Tyteca, 1958/69; Zuckerman, 2005) of terrorism can we hope to end what has become a truly global destabilizing phenomenon.

本文主張長期以來一直屬於政治科學與犯罪政治學範疇的恐怖主義研究應被歸納至溝通此一學門，尤其最適合是跨文化溝通此一次學門。作者認為定義恐怖主義本質以及將其與合法的政治暴力形式區分的本質都需要認知到這些學門的侷限性（Gadamer，1960；Burke，1966），而將屬於溝通研究的語意學（semantics）研究方法（Johnson，2008）應用至恐怖主義研究時，僅需著重於應用恐怖主義的注釋學（hermeneutics）（Gebser，1949；Perelman & Olbrechts-Tyteca，1958／69；Zuckerman，2005）就可使我們對終結此一堪稱是導致全球不穩定的現象抱有希望。