Journal abstract
Proscription—the designation of non-state actors as terrorist organizations—operates as one technique of counterterrorism listing, whereby individuals and populations associated with armed non-state actors are targeted for disruption, stigmatisation, and prosecution. This article examines the effects of the globalised proscription of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) on the Kurdish conflict as a mode of counterinsurgency warfare. It argues that calling proscription a counterinsurgency strategy better connects its preemptive functions and objects with its deleterious effects on targeted populations. Moreover, this article argues that the transnational organization of the ban of the PKK casts light on how proscription extends and deepens colonial practices of counterinsurgency.