Terrorism

What is Terrorism?

Defining terrorism is a difficult task, with more than a hundred definitions proposed by various governments and their laws. For many years, violence of one form or another has been included in the definition, and some see most violent action as terrorism. Any war may be considered as an act of terrorism, and since World War II, violent actions by nationalist groups have been defined as terrorism.

Two widespread definitions of terrorism define it on the basis of violence, or the use of force, and the object or point of focus of that violence. The first defines terrorism as the use or the threatened use of violence to bring about political change. The second argues that terrorism is defined by the “illegitimate” use of violence by targeting “innocent” people for political objectives. Within debates on terrorism and antiterrorism, terrorism is viewed primarily as the use of violence by groups independent of a state in the furtherance of a particular cause.

Terrorism and violent extremist groups have a long history. For example, the Ku Klux Klan, a right-wing extremist group that attacked African Americans following the Civil War in the United States and continuing into the 20th century, might be categorized as terrorist according to some definitions. There have been terrorist groups based on right-wing philosophy, communist revolutionary ideology, religion, and nationalist movements. Some groups have very little support and act primarily in isolation, but other groups become well established. The Irish Republican Army, for example, had significant support over a prolonged period in its attacks against the British and Protestants, both in Northern Ireland and England. Among Irish Catholic supporters, it was seen as a popular nationalist movement.

Terrorism can also be perpetrated by governments, such as the Soviet Union under Joseph Stalin, Nazi Germany, or more recently, the Khmer Rouge regime in Cambodia. Similarly, drives for ethnic cleansing, attempts to eradicate people of a particular ethnic identity from a territory, can be seen as a form of large-scale state-sponsored terrorism.

Definitions of terrorism and terrorists often change with time or perspective. The French Revolution of [Page 1298]1789–1795, now viewed as an uprising to secure democracy, was seen as an act of terrorism by the established government of the time. Similarly, although Nelson Mandela was once arrested as a leader of a terrorist group, he has been heralded as a national hero since the end of the apartheid regime in South Africa.

Terrorism since 2001

Until the attacks by the radical militant organization Al Qaeda on New York City and the Pentagon on September 11, 2001, terrorism had little direct impact on most people living in the United States, Britain, Canada, Australia, and other Western nation-states. Those events established the idea that terrorism was a threat to people in the West. The bombing of tourist-oriented nightclubs in Bali in 2002, killing more than 200 people, and bombings in the London transport system in 2005, with more than 50 deaths and several hundred injuries, increased that sense of danger.

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