This chapter provides a Marxist critique of the state and its counter-terrorism apparatus, arguing that they function not as neutral protectors of public safety but as instruments for reproducing class domination and inequality. It explores divergent Marxist theories of the state, instrumentalist, structuralist, and strategic-relational, to demonstrate how state power is fundamentally embedded within capitalist social relations. The analysis posits that counter-terrorism policies, such as the UK’s Prevent strategy, are prime examples of racialized state control that pathologize and criminalize Muslim communities to legitimize structural exclusion and divert attention from the failures of neoliberalism. These security measures are shown to be a modern form of biopolitics, managing and disciplining populations deemed a threat to the established order14. The chapter further exposes the security-industrial complex, where private military companies and defense contractors profit from global instability and lobby for militarized solutions that entrench cycles of violence. By examining the expansion of surveillance and the militarization of policing, it contends that the state’s counter-terrorism function is ultimately a form of class warfare, designed to suppress dissent and secure capitalist hegemony.