Terrorism

Historically, terrorism has been practiced in virtually all corners of the world, yet a common definition of what constitutes terrorism continues to elude scholars. The FBI has officially defined it as “an unlawful force to intimidate a government to further political or social goals.” A French dictionary published in 1796 described terrorism as a positive activity, but after the 9th of Thermidor, the term terrorist took on a negative connotation and was associated with criminal activity. Today, the concept still poses a definitional dilemma. Terrorism is a pejorative term. It is ill-defined. Scholars tend to avoid the problem of defining terrorism by placing emphasis on dictums such as “today's terrorist is tomorrow's freedom fighter,” or “terrorism to some is heroism to others,” or “one man's terrorist is another man's freedom fighter,” and so on. One scholar, for example, cited over one hundred definitions of terrorism in the literature from 1936 to 1983. Terrorism has been used as a tool by underground organizations, by ethnic nationalists, by revolutionaries seeking to subvert governments, and by armies and secret police cults of governments to destabilize opposition groups.

The earliest use of terrorism was to intimidate groups into retreating from the threat of violence. Ancient Roman emperors, such as Tiberius (14–37CE) and Caligula (37–41 CE), relied on banishment and executions to eliminate political opponents. During the Middle Ages, arrests, torture, and executions were used against individuals and groups accused of heresy, witchcraft, and sexual offenses. The church justified cruel reprisals as a means of saving the unfortunate sinner from the devil. This zealous movement to stamp out heresy led to the Inquisition. Thousands and thousands of people were tortured and executed by the inquisitors. Spain and Holland were especially affected. But the terms terrorism and terrorist were not coined until centuries later during the French Revolution and the Jacobin Reign of Terror. Robespierre's “Reign of Terror” lasted from 1793 to 1794. An important feature of his regime was his open advocacy of terror as a legitimate means to achieve revolutionary goals. Since then, both states and their opponents, and various nineteenthand twentieth-century anarchist groups in Europe, Latin America, the Middle East, and other parts of the world have utilized acts of violence to attain political goals.