BibTeX

@article{broden-2026-violence-366066,
	title        = {Violence from abroad: the cultural imaginary of terrorism in Swedish parliamentary debate and anti-terrorist legislation, 1970–1973},
	abstract     = {This article examines the emergence of the Swedish 1973 Terrorist Act by situating it within the evolving domestic parliamentary debate on terrorism from 1970 to 1973 and within its broader historical and cultural contexts. Drawing on the concept of the cultural imaginary of terrorism, the study shows how armed political violence was constructed as a foreign phenomenon at odds with the dominant Swedish self-image as a peaceful exception in an otherwise conflict-ridden world. As the concept of terrorism acquired new meanings in parliamentary discourse around 1970, Croatian separatist attacks in Sweden 1971–1972 prompted the Social Democratic government to act, balancing its humanitarian policy of international solidarity with its efforts to address rising concerns about terrorism “spilling over” into the country from abroad. The analysis traces how the swiftly drafted proposal for the 1973 Terrorist Act, and the broader notion of terrorism, generated parliamentary debate and controversy marked by ideological and party-political divisions but also by overlaps between opposing positions. The article concludes that the Swedish Parliament largely imagined terrorism as a contested yet primarily foreign form of political violence, while also highlighting the analytical value of approaching anti-terrorist legislation as part of a broader imaginary shaped by specific historical and cultural contexts.},
	journal      = {Critical Studies on Terrorism},
	author       = {Brodén, Daniel},
	year         = {2026},
	volume       = {19},
	number       = {3},
	pages        = {670--691},
}