Money Talks, Money Walks: The War on Terrorist Financing in the West
* Donncha Marron, School of Applied Social Studies, Faculty of Health and Social Care, The Robert Gordon University. E-mail: d.s.marron{at}rgu.ac.uk
This article sets out to examine the phenomenon of ‘terrorist financing’ in an attempt to sketch out some of the key dimensions of how and why it has emerged as an issue of concern, bound up in the phenomenon of global ‘Islamic’ terrorism. A brief overview is offered in terms of how the concept has come to be defined in law. It is presented that its novelty lies in how it is conceived in terms of the frictionless circulation and flow of money within global financial systems. These systems are believed to be exploited by rational and enterprising militant Islamists and terrorists in order to fund the pursuit of violent political ends. In consequence, the ordered ‘West’ is rendered exposed and vulnerable, through globalization, to the perceived disorder and irrationality of the ‘non-West’. Finally, it is shown how states attempt to combat terrorist financing through engaging in transnational cooperation and ‘deputizing’ financial service providers to be its intelligence gatherers.