413 Studies in Conflict & Terrorism, 26:413–428, 2003 Copyright  Taylor & Francis Inc. ISSN: 1057-610X print / 1521-0731 online DOI: 10.1080/10576100390242929 Regions of Risk: Western Discourses on Terrorism and the Significance of Islam GREG BANKOFF Disaster Studies Wageningen University Netherlands School of Asian Studies University of Auckland Auckland, New Zealand Terrorism is a word that everyone across the globe has become familiar with in the wake of the events of 11 September 2001. The rhetoric about these events, however, is more than mere commentary seeking to understand the cause of or apportion blame for such attacks and forms part of a much wider western discourse invoked to describe unfamiliar cultures and landscapes. In fact, terrorism is only the most re- cent in a long line of dangerous conditions that have come to represent how certain areas of the non-western world are usually imagined and subsequently depicted as regions of risk. This article argues that “tropicality,” “development,” and “vulner- ability” form part of one and the same essentializing and generalizing cultural dis- course with “terrorism” that historically denigrate large regions of the world as disease-ridden, poverty-stricken, disaster-prone and terrorist-spawning. Terrorism is a word that everyone across the globe has become familiar with in the wake of 11 September 2001. It is not, of course, a new phenomenon; there were 11,415 such incidences recorded between 1977–2001 (Figure 1). Despite a statistical trend that shows a non-uniform but a relative decrease in the actual number of such attacks over this period, the rising rate of casualties, especially fatalities, gives cause for much less optimism. The nature of terrorism has changed; its activities are more lethal. Prior to 1990, most terrorist organisations had clearly defined political objectives that were best achieved through agendas that balanced inflicting sufficient bloodshed to gain interna- tional media attention but not such as to completely alienate public support. Recent attacks, on the other hand, seem carefully planned to cause the maximum possible in- jury. Aside from the attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon, the 1998 bombing of the U.S. embassies in congested downtown areas of Nairobi and Dar es Received 14 January 2003; accepted 16 July 2003. Address correspondence to Greg Bankoff, Disaster Studies, Wageningen University, Hollandseweg 1, 6706 KN, Netherlands. E-mail: g.bankoff@auckland.ac.nz or gregory.bankoff@wur.nl