Terrorist Networks

Defining Terror

The English word terrorism, first appearing in 1795, comes from the French terrorisme, originating in the Latin terrere, “to frighten.” It was first applied in the French Revolution to the Jacobin Club's arrests and executions of its political opponents. In the 1793–94 Reign of Terror (la Terreur), the Committee on Public Safety killed between 15,000 and 40,000 citizens and ultimately some of its own leaders, including Georges Danton and Maximilien Robespierre. Although the French revolutionary state terrorized its own citizens, later connotations of terrorism largely emphasized nonstate actors. Historical analyses of terrorism identified several waves of activity, such as 19th-century social revolutionaries and anarchists; mid-20th-century nationalist and anti-colonial uprisings; and leftist revolts of the late 20th century. Space limitations prevent examination of those earlier periods; instead, this discussion concentrates on the predominant wave, international Islamist terrorism, since the 1979 Iranian Revolution and Soviet invasion of Afghanistan.

Achieving a consensual definition of terrorism is perhaps impossible. It has become a pejorative term, as implied by the generic cliché that one man's terrorist is another's freedom fighter, rebel, liberator, revolutionary, militant, guerrilla, jihadi, or mujahideen. No group has publicly described itself as a terrorist organization for the past 60 years, possibly since the Stern Gang, and even then, its formal name was Freedom Fighters for Israel. Observers differently interpret various actions as terrorism depending on whether they take a legal, moral, or behavioral perspective. Extracted from numerous proposed behavioral definitions, a common set of elements could designate terrorism as consisting of violent acts (or threats of violence) that are politically motivated, targeted against noncombatants, conducted by subnational or clandestine groups, and intended to create fear in the minds of a larger audience. Similarly, the U.S. State Department defined international terrorism as politically motivated violence against noncombatants by subnational groups or clandestine agents. More than 40 foreign terrorist organizations, and a comparable number of groups of concern, were designated by the State Department as threatening U.S. national security interests.

Terrorism often cannot be easily distinguished from two closely related forms of asymmetric or irregular warfare—insurgency and guerrilla war—as each may involve similar covert tactics deployed by a less-powerful group. Insurgents participate in a broad internal uprising aimed at overthrowing a constituted national government, while guerrillas typically operate as small groups using unconventional ambush and mobile surprise tactics against national armed forces. The Iraq and Afghanistan conflicts in the early 21st century could be plausibly described as insurgencies, guerrilla wars, or counterterror campaigns, depending on the types of armed formations, targets, and violence occurring in their various stages. In addition to regional Sunni and [Page 856]Shiite militias in Iraq and national Taliban insurgents in Afghanistan, Al-Qaeda, the international terror organization responsible for the 9/11 attacks inside the United States, also operated within both war theaters as well as in Pakistan's autonomous tribal areas.

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