The Bankruptcy of Humanism? Primordialism Dominates the Agenda of International Politics CARSTEN WIELAND A fter September 11 many people spoke of a»new era,« a»watershed moment,« and even a new chapter of modern history. It seemed that the world had been at a loss for the previous ten years, and that the search for a new foreign policy paradigm had finally come to a close. Hence­forth,»terrorism« has moved political discussions, strategies, and deci­sion-making. However,»terrorism« has become a catch-all term whose contours have been considerably distorted since September 11. In particular, the lines between resistance and terrorism have been blurred, which has had its strongest impact on power relations in the Middle East. On the other hand, the term»state terrorism« has regained momentum in an attempt to set comparable legal standards in relation to attacks on innocent civil­ians by either side(Shukri 1991 proposed this term in an early work). There is no space here to develop definitions of terrorism. It has always been a flexible concept, and neither scholars nor politicians have reached a consensus(Hoffman 2001). With regard to the political impact of this concept, Hezbollah leader Sheikh Hassan Nasrallah is certainly right when he says:»Defining terrorism is one of the most difficult problems in the world today.« When people talk of»terrorism« post September 11, most have»inter­national« and/or»Islamic fundamentalist« terrorism in mind. This helps us to roughly narrow down the phenomenon for the purposes of this dis­cussion. The lack of consensus on the definition of terrorism, however, has not prevented use of the term. Few foreign policy speeches made these days do not mention terrorism. Numerous political decisions in both foreign and domestic politics, from immigration laws to wars, are justified in its name. Therefore, to speak of a terrorism paradigm in inter­national politics after September 11 looks plausible at first glance, even if the definition is not clear. Dialectically speaking, frequent references to »terrorism« have made it a dominant concept, and have thus led to a range of political outcomes in real terms(from new domestic legislation 142 Wieland, The Bankruptcy of Humanism? ipg 4/2005