TERRORISM

◦ The word 'terrorism' has emerged from the Latin verbs 'terrere' and 'deterre' which means an
act to tremble and frighten respectively. It implies a strategy to achieve avowed objectives
via the systematic use of violence thereby undermining the lawful authority of a government
or a state.
◦ Historically, the term 'terrorism' described state violence against citizens during the French
Revolution.
◦ Over the past half-century, however, terrorism has come to mean the use of violence by
small groups aiming to achieve political change.
◦ Terrorism differs from criminal violence in its degree of political legitimacy
Terrorism is a pre-eminent security threat of the 21st century.
◦ Terrorism is a complex phenomenon whose first and foremost characteristic is the use of
violence.
◦ In the broadest term, terrorism is a form of political violence that aims to achieve its
objectives by creating a climate of fear and apprehension.
◦ It uses violence in a very particular way: not primarily to bring about death and destruction,
but rather to create unease and anxiety about possible future attacks.
◦ Terrorism is the threat or use of violence to intimidate or coerce in the pursuit of political or
ideological goals. It is usually understood to be done by non-state actors — individuals or
organizations not part of the government.
◦ Terrorism can take many forms, including bombings, armed assaults, hijackings, or
hostage-taking. Its targets can also vary and can be aimed at civilians, state actors, or public
infrastructure.
◦ Terrorist violence is therefore clandestine and involves an element of surprise, if not
arbitrariness, designed to create uncertainty and widening apprehension.
◦ Terrorism therefore often takes the form of seemingly indiscriminate attacks on civilian targets,
though attacks on symbols of power and prestige, and the kidnapping or murder of prominent
businessmen, senior government officials and political leaders, are usually also viewed as acts of
terrorism.
 History- The evolution of International Terrorism
◦ In the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, anarchists relied on revolvers and dynamite.
◦ However, terrorists and acts of terrorism, including bombings or assassinations in Austria-Hungary
(Empress Elisabeth of Austria, assassinated in Geneva in 1898), Tsarist Russia (Tsar Alexander II,
assassinated in Saint Petersburg, 1881), the United States (Wall Street bombing, 1920), and the United
Kingdom (the 1885 London Underground bombing) among others, rarely had an impact beyond national
borders.
◦ Three factors led to the birth of transnational terrorism in 1968:
◦ the expansion of commercial air travel,
◦ the availability of televised news coverage, and
◦ broad political and ideological interests among extremists that intersected around a common cause.
◦ Terrorism grew from a local to a transnational threat. Air travel gave terrorists unprecedented mobility.
For example, the Japanese Red Army (militant communist organization active from 1971 to 2001)
trained in one country and attacked in another, such as the 1972 Lod Airport massacre in Israel.
◦ The decade of terrorism (1980-90) included incidents such as suicide bombings
(Lebanon, 1983) and hijackings (TWA Flight 847, 1985).
◦ During this decade, three disturbing trends emerged: fewer attacks, that were more
deadly and indiscriminate; the increasing sophistication of attacks; and a greater
willingness to perform suicide attacks.
◦ Post Cold War:
◦ Transnational Marxist-Leninist groups discovered that their source of support
disappeared at the end of the cold war.
◦ Although Marxist- Leninist transnational terrorism was decreasing in scale and intensity,
militant Islamic terrorism, symbolized by the group Al Qaeda and enabled by
globalization, was growing into a global phenomenon.
 Definitions
◦ “The use of violence by sub -state groups to inspire fear, by attacking civilians and/or symbolic targets, for
purposes such as drawing widespread attention to a grievance, provoking a severe response, or wearing
down their opponent's moral resolve, to effect political change.”- James D Kiras in Globalisation in
World Politics.
◦ The central feature of terrorism is that it is a form of political violence that aims to achieve its objectives
through creating a climate of fear and apprehension (Goodin 2006).
◦ [More definitions have to be added]
◦ Terrorism, in its broadest sense, refers to attempts to further political ends by using violence to
create a climate of fear, apprehension and uncertainty. The most common forms of terrorist
action include assassinations, bombings, hostage seizures and plane hijacks, although the advent of
terrorism with a global reach, as demonstrated by September 11, has threatened to redefine the
phenomenon.
◦ The term is highly pejorative and it tends to be used selectively (one person’s terrorist can be
another’s freedom fighter).
◦ Terrorism and Conventional Violence: Terrorism differs from conventional warfare in that, as
a ‘weapon of the weak’, it is most often embraced by those who have no realistic possibility of
prevailing against their opponents in a conventional armed contest (Crenshaw 1983).
◦ Lacking the organizational strength or destructive capacity to engage in open conflict, terrorists
rely on strategies of provocation and polarization.
◦ International Terrorism- Can be described as warfare without territory, waged without armies. It is
warfare that is not limited territorially, sporadic battles may take place worldwide, It is warfare without
neutrals, with few or no civilian bystanders.
◦ It covers the categories of terrorist outfits outside the country of their origin or where they are active.
◦ It comprise of those incidents of terrorism that have clear international consequences: incidents in
which terrorists go abroad to strike targets, select victims because of their connections to a foreign
state, attack airliners on international flights, or force airlines to fly another to another country.
 Features
◦ Use of Violence: Terrorist acts/ Acts of Terror are associated with violence with the main
aim tocreate shock in the minds of the people at large as well as the ruling elite.
◦ Psychological Impact and Fear: The terrorists aim to break the morale of the people by
raising insecurity in their minds.
◦ Perpetration for a Political Goal: The terrorist attacks have the achievement of a political
purpose. Hence terrorism is also a political tactic to give shocks to the government
succumbs under pressure.
◦ Deliberate Targeting of Non-Combatants: Terrorists aim to target soft targets like
civilians as their suffering accomplishes the terrorists’ goals of instilling fear.
◦ Use of Disguise:
◦ Unlawfulness or Illegitimacy
Different Forms of Terrorism
◦ Insurrectionary terrorism – aimed at the revolutionary overthrow of a state (examples
include anarchist and revolutionary communist terrorism).
◦ Loner or issue terrorism – aimed at the promotion of a single cause (examplesinclude
the 1995 sarin nerve gas attack on the Tokyo subway by the religious cult Aum
Shinryko).
◦ Nationalist terrorism – this aims to overthrow colonial rule or occupation, often with
the goal of gaining independence for an ethnic, religious or national group (examples
include the FLN in Algeria, and the Tamil Tigers of Tamil Eelam in Sri Lanka)
◦ Transnational or global terrorism – this aims to inflict damage and humiliation on a
global power or at transforming global civilizational relations (examples include al-Qaeda
and other forms of Islamist terrorism).
Importance of Terrorism as a threat in the
st
21 century
◦ First, due to globalization, terrorism has acquired a genuinely transnational if not global
character. Together with other non-state groups, terrorist organizations have proved to be particularly
adept at exploiting the potential of the modern, hyper-mobile world with its ‘porous’ borders, creating the
impression that they can strike anywhere, at any time.
◦ Second, the potential scope and scale of terrorism has greatly increased as a result of modern
technology, and in particular the prospect of weapons of mass destruction (WMD) falling into the hands
of terrorists. Specifically, concern has been expressed about the possibility of nuclear terrorism.
◦ Third, some argue that modern terrorists, increasingly inspired by a radical politico-religious ideology,
such as Islamism, are more willing to countenance widespread death and destruction than the largely
secular terrorist of old.
◦ Terrorism has thus become a religious imperative, even a sacred duty, rather than a pragmatically selected
political strategy.
 Non-State Actors and Terrorism
◦ What is a Non-State actor?
◦ The term non-State actors is a superordinate concept that encompasses all those actors in
international relations that are not States. It comprises individuals (→ Individuals in
International Law) as well as entities, the latter spanning a large range of
organizations and institutions on the global, regional, sub-regional as well as the
local levels.
◦ These institutions/ organisations include, inter alia, international organizations (→
International Organizations or Institutions, General Aspects), corporations (→
Corporations in International Law), → non-governmental organizations (‘NGOs’), → de
facto regime[s], trade associations, and transnational corporations, terrorist groups (→
Terrorism) and transnational criminal organizations (→ Transnational Organized Crime).
◦ The 9/11 event brought to light the ability of non-State actors—not de facto regimes or
local insurgency groups—to inflict a large number of casualties.
 State Terrorism and Non-State Terrorism
◦ While terrorism is often portrayed as an antigovernment activity, governments may also
employ terror against their own or other populations, as in the case of ‘state terrorism’.
◦ While terrorism is generally associated with non-state actors, there are instances when
states are also accused of being directly involved in conducting acts of terrorism.
◦ State Terrorism is different from legitimate forms of violence that a state’s military
and/or security agencies employ to protect their citizenry and ensure security.
◦ State terrorism refers to that kind of terrorism with which a state illegitimately
targets certain individuals or groups in order to instill fear in a target audience
beyond the direct victim.
◦ Political scientists regard the Soviet police state and German Nazi regime in 1930s and
1940s as early examples of state terror, while others point to World War II bombings of
civilian populations in London, Dresden, Pearl Harbour and Hiroshima/Nagasaki as their
more violent manifestations.
◦ State sponsored terrorism is a term used when a terrorist group receives
support from a state.
◦ This support could be in the form of funding, training, supply of weapons,
providing shelter within its borders, as well as other ways of logistical and
intelligence assistance.
◦ Pakistan is notorious internationally as a state-sponsor of terrorism. The country
has been accused by India, the United States, Iran, and previous regimes in
Afghanistan for being a sponsor of terrorism. Its sponsoring of jihadi groups such
as Hizbul Mujahideen, Lashkar-e-Taiba, Jaish-e-Mohammad, etc
 ‘New’ Terrorism Post 9/11
◦ Proponents of the idea of ‘new’ terrorism suggest that since the 1990s a more radical and devastating
form of terrorism has emerged whose political character, motivations, strategies and organization
differs from ‘traditional’ terrorism, particularly in the growing importance of religious motivation.
◦ The impact of terrorism has increased supposedly because of the advent of new terrorist tactics and
because of easier access to, and a greater willingness to use WMD. However, critical theorists argue
that the threat of terrorism has been greatly overstated, usually through discourses linked to the ‘war
on terror’ and often to promote the ‘politics of fear’.
◦ Key counter-terrorism strategies include the strengthening of state security, the use of military
repression and political deals. State security and military approaches have often been
counter-productive and have provoked deep controversy about the proper balance between freedom
and security.
◦ Effective solutions to terrorism have usually involved encouraging terrorists to abandon violence by
drawing them into a process of negotiation and diplomacy. Although such an approach has
sometimes worked in the case of nationalist terrorism, it has been seen as an example of appeasement
and as inappropriate to dealing with Islamist terrorism.