Terrorism and Terrorism Studies (original) (raw)
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Introduction: Constructions of Terrorism
Constructions of Terrorism, 2019
Constructions of terrorism emanate from a wide range of sources. Governments and international organizations create criminal laws and administrative lists defining who is a terrorist or what acts constitute terrorism. In society, discussions among its members and the press play a major role in how the words terrorism and extremism are used and applied, which in turn influences public understanding and government policy. Terrorist groups themselves contribute to these constructions through the rationales and justifications they use for their actions. Today we are seeing the continual reference to terrorism in everyday language, government policy, news reporting, and international diplomacy and from various groups and uprisings. With the term being used to describe a wide range of violence, it is difficult to formulate effective government responses aimed at prevention and eradication. It further makes things difficult in societal settings for creating conducive environments for reconciliation. This volume seeks to establish appropriate research frameworks for understanding how we construct understanding(s) of terrorism. From the perspective of countering terrorism and extremism, if there is not a well-developed understanding of the object of these frameworks, they will not be effective. Assessments of the literature of terrorism have revealed consistent and troubling shortcomings. Lum, Kennedy, and Sherley and Andrew Silke carefully examined studies of terrorism published over the previous decades and the great explosion of terrorism research after 9/11. 1 The most germane findings about terrorism and counterterrorism research in their two studies help frame the contributions that have been reviewed here. The first finding is that most of the publications on terrorism have been contributions by scholars who were relatively new to the subject. These scholars discovered terrorism as a problem, usually after a particularly
In this paper, a two-fold strategy is carried out for gaining conceptual clarity in response to the question: What is terrorism? The first stage is to defend a broad working definition of terrorism that emphasizes the instrumental employment of terror or fear to obtain any number of possible ends. As proposed in this paper, Terrorism is an act or threat of violence to persons or property that elicits terror, fear, or anxiety regarding the security of human life or fundamental rights and that functions as an instrument to obtain further ends. This instrumentality relies upon either an explicit or implicit threat of separate acts of future violence. It is argued that such a functionalist approach to defining terrorism captures the core qualities that unite the broad family of both political and nonpolitical terrorist actions. At the same time, the proposed definition avoids the problems associated with other approaches that either focus upon the terrorist’s ‘unconventional’ tactics, or the ‘innocence’ of their targets, or their coercive intentions. The breadth of the proposed definition allows for the more nuanced typological analysis in the second stage. The typology is primarily an analysis of the modes of terrorism’s instrumentality. Thus, the broad phenomenon of terrorism is divided according to factors of targets, the degree of force employed, agency, and the geographic context of the action. It is only by drawing out the diverse types of terrorism that the projects of morally evaluating terrorism and formulating a just response to terrorism can take place in a concrete and meaningful way.
Terrorism: The nature of its history
Criminal Justice Studies, 2003
Terrorism has a history that is at least 2000 years old. Although targets, victims, perpetrators, causes and justifications for the use of terror have changed, the methods of terrorism have remained the same throughout history. This article will review the developmental stages of terrorism to demonstrate that history defines terrorism as the use of violence to cause fear in order to force change in societal behavior or to force a society to acquiesce to the goals of the terrorist. The nature and history of terrorism will be reviewed from Roman occupation to modern militant Islamic terrorism.
On Terrorism and its Typologies
Security Dimensions, 2020
The article refers to selected aspects of knowledge about terrorism and its typology. The introduction explains the etymology of this concept and highlights the problem of diversity in the definition of terrorism. The next part cites several definitions of terrorism, which, in the author’s opinion, reflect the essence of this phenomenon. The difference between terrorism and terror, which are two terms that should not be used interchangeably, is also explained. The next part of the article illustrates the source of the problem which makes it impossible to agree on a commonly accepted definition of terrorism by giving an example of the wording of the Arab Convention for the Suppression of Terrorism. Then, the inherent feature of terrorism is explained, which is its asymmetry. The last part of the article concerns a typology of terrorism. It presents in a synthetic way various categories of terrorism, distinguished according to such criteria as: actors, motives, strategic (final) goals...
PERSPECTIVES ON TERRORISM Volume II, Issue 4 How to Define Terrorism
Terrorist insurgencies, in all their configurations and local conflicts, constitute the primary warfare threat facing the international community. This is especially the case following September 2001, when al Qaida demonstrated that it had world class ambitions to inflict catastrophic damages on its adversaries. In other conflicts, such as the Palestinian-Israeli arena, terrorist rebellions are primarily localized. Because of the worldwide reach of al Qaida and its affiliates, including the spontaneous emergence of al Qaida-inspired groupings and cells in Western Europe, North America, and elsewhere, many nations have been upgrading their homeland security defenses and calling on their academic communities to provide analytical understanding of the nature and magnitude of the threat and how to counteract and resolve it. As a result, terrorism courses, research institutes and certificate programs have been proliferating at universities and other academic institutions around the world. Despite the great attention being devoted to terrorism studies; however, there is no consensus about the most fundamental starting point in terrorism studies: how to define terrorism.
Developing a sociological theory for the empirical understanding of terrorism
The American Sociologist, 2004
This article represents an attempt to construct a sociological theory of terrorism by means of six theoretical propositions. Taken together these six propositions attempt to explain counterhegemonic terrorism and the dynamics of organizations that participate in such political violence. The terrorism literature shows three emerging trends: spectacularization, criminalization, and fragmentation as explanations for terrorism. In contrast to these atheoretical trends, the theoretical propositions are offered around the themes of counterhegemony, resource mobilization, counter-institutionalization, power-prestige dynamics, ritualization, and social solidarity. The conclusion suggests that any predictions of terrorism are problematic but that these six theoretical principles outlined herein could offer deeper insight into the sociological phenomena of terrorism.
A Master's Thesis that attempts to unpack the trajectory of modern terrorism and the language that created and molded its forms.