The Impact of Economic Interests and Oil on ‘Terror-labeling’ :   A qualitative study examining the process of ‘terror-labeling’ from a state-perspective

Sammanfattning: This thesis recognizes the complexity of the ‘terrorism’ phenomena, whereas specifically ‘terror-labeling’ is of interest, as the different patterns of state-labeling are acknowledged. Specifically, this paper aims at understanding what might matter for the process of ‘terror-labeling’, hypothesizing that: states with economic interests in a foreign country are more likely to label a NSAG active, or based in that country, as ‘terrorist’. The argument is laid out upon the basis of the Securitization Theory and the interconnectedness of ‘terrorism’ and oil. This study, aspiring to examine a causal mechanism between the variables of interest, is conducted through a qualitative, comparative, case study while purposely selecting cases through the Most Similar Systems Design and structuring the research via a Structured Focused Comparison and parts of Discourse Analysis. The selected cases for analysis are the US and the UK, comparatively analyzed to the ELN and the SL – depicting four cases for research.  Evidently, the results indicate support for the hypothesis, while elaborations are made for the causal mechanism. Nonetheless, the generalizability of the evidence, limitations of the research design and potential alternative explanations are appreciated – tending to avenues for future research. Conclusively, this thesis provides additional insights into processes of labelings, as arguably required in a limited and debated research field.