The embrace of counter-terrorism techniques in the COVID-19 pandemic suggests that they has become part of the transnational muscle memory – a go-to solution when a new or immense challenge arises. Leveraging transnational counter-terrorism to respond to new crises in this way legitimates it as ‘useful’, ‘effective’, and a ‘normal’ part of governance, expanding and extending the reach of counter-terrorism actors and apparatus within the international and domestic systems. Eschewing optimism in the repairability of the transnational counter-terrorism order, this conclusion warns that mitigations such as institutional reforms, better and more precise references to human rights law, or the increased participation of civil society may allow for lawyers to mediate the fundamental problems of the practices of transnational counter-terrorism, but they cannot resolve them. The problems run too deep for that.

This introductory chapter lays out the context and enquiries for the study. It outlines how the post-9/11 characterisation of terrorism as a matter of international peace and security globalised counter-terrorism, laying the groundwork for the development of a vast institutional, legal, and political order of transnational counter-terrorism. It critiques the continuing failure to develop a binding, international legal definition of terrorism in this light, and foregrounds the practice and problems of transnational counter-terrorism further developed in the chapters that follow.