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This paper presents a case against the current formulation of ‘Critical Terrorism Studies’ (CTS). We will examine some of the core features of CTS, and in doing so identify what we suggest are mistaken assumptions about the nature and extent of contemporary research on terrorism. Our case against the current formulation of CTS is predicated on the view that aspects of its research programme are based on a superficial reading of the current literature that creates an image of the field of study unrecognizable to scholars working within it. As a result, the characterization of terrorism studies implicit in much of the current CTS work is not representative of the existing breadth of research activity in this field. The concluding assertions are that while the concerns that might have initially given rise to CTS are to be lauded (though these concerns are not exclusive to it), what has emerged as explicitly ‘critical’ terrorism studies in fact shares the concerns of many ‘traditional’ terrorism scholars, and that in particular the claims to novelty or to a distinctively critical focus are exaggerated or misplaced.