Terrorism, Asylum, and Exclusion from International Protection

Terrorism and asylum have been two of the most pressing issues of our time. They have preoccupied public international law and, specifically, international humanitarian law and international criminal law as well as international human rights and international refugee law. Not to mention the United Nations, regional organizations, and, of course, nation-states, for decades, but, obviously, most decidedly since September 11, 2001 or 9/11, that forever changed the course of modern history and everyone’s life.1 This edited collection seeks to examine both of these concepts and how they are inter-related and have impacted the course of public policy and, especially, migration policy, that is, asylum and refugee law and practice, across a number of Western liberal democracies, principally, in Europe and North America. What follows in this introduction is a review of the background and context of these two highly charged and emotive terms. It considers the direct and indirect relationship between these two terms through their predominately common origins in protracted armed conflict, particularly of a non-international character or intrastate conflict. It goes on to analyse briefly the relationship between these two terms. It then provides a brief summary of some of the main arguments presented in each of the contributions to this edited volume and offers a number of conclusions. The purpose of this edited collection is to make a contribution to the literature that covers both terrorism and asylum, that are largely quite separate and