Studies in Criminal Justice, Terrorism, and International Political Conflicts (original) (raw)
Introduction The topic of terrorism is both complex and emotive. It is complex because it combines so many different aspects of human experience, including subjects such as politics, psychology, philosophy, military strategy, and history, to name a few. Terrorism is also emotive both because experiences of terrorist acts arouse tremendous feelings, and because those who see terrorists as justified often have strong feelings concerning the rightness of the use of violence. Without a doubt, terrorism evokes strong feelings whenever it is discussed. A key challenge of understanding terrorism is both acknowledging the moral outrage at terrorist acts, while at the same time trying to understand the rationale behind terrorism. Terrorism is not a new phenomenon in human experience. Violence has been used throughout human history by those who chose to oppose states, kings, and princes. This sort of violence can be differentiated from what is termed as terrorism. Violence in opposition to a government is often targeted against soldiers and those who govern. Terrorism, however, is characterized by the use of violence against civilians, with the expressed desire of causing terror or panic in the population. Terrorism is not unique to the 20th and 21st centuries. Terrorism existed in 18th century revolutionary France during the reign of terror, as well as among the Zealots of Palestine in opposition to Roman rule some 2000 years ago. Arriving at a consensual definition of the phenomenon of terrorism has been a particularly difficult undertaking. Some definitions are either too specific or too vague, concentrating on some essential “terrorist” aspect of the actions, strategies, or types of non-state organizations that engage in terrorism. In this paper we draw on global approaches from international relations and world systems theories to propose a definition of terrorism that skirts these issues by concentrating on terrorist actors rather than terrorist behavior. Arguing that this approach has several advantages, including the dissolution of several empirical and analytical problems produced by more essentialist definitions, and the location of terrorism within a two dimensional continuum of collective-violence phenomena in the international system which discloses important theoretical insights. We proceed to examine the characteristics of terrorism by comparing it with other forms of violence in the international system. I propose that terrorism may be defined as being part of the cycles and trends of unrest in the world system, responding to the same broad families of global dynamics as other forms of system-level conflict. It is no secret that arriving at a consensual definition of terrorism is a difficult task. Some might say that constructing a characterization of terrorism that would be satisfactory for everyone is a downright impossible undertaking. It is much easier to point out the flaws in extant conceptions and usages of the term than to come up with a definition that would be free of those same faults, while being comprehensive enough to be both acceptable to most lay observers and useful for the conduct of academic research on the subject. Taking a birds-eye view of the field, it is clear what is wrong with current characterizations of terrorism: they are either too specific or too vague, they concentrate on particular (and theoretically arbitrary) aspects of the phenomenon while de-emphasizing others, or are too normatively oriented, mixing up descriptive and prescriptive terminology.
EXPC-6054 Terrorism and Conflict: Issues and Perspectives (Online Course)
1. Overview of the Course General description: Terrorism is one of the most elusive concepts to define. Definition of Terrorism is controversial for reasons other than conceptual issues and problems. Because labeling actions as terrorism promotes condemnation of the actors, a definition may reflect ideological or political bias. Once freedom fighters like Mahatma Gandhi or Nelson Mandela were also labeled as terrorists. In this course we will focus on terrorism and related forms of political violence from a comparative and global perspective. This course will provide a theoretical and empirical understanding and explanation of terrorism. It will try to look at definitions, the prevalence of terrorism, techniques, and the choice of targets, the effects of the media, and sources of support. The course will also look at different types of terrorist organizations including ones that are primarily seeking to attain ideological objectives, groups with an ethnic or nationalist agenda, organizations with religious motivations, and those groups with a mixture of motives that are difficult to disentangle. A portion of the course will also look at the state sponsored terrorism. In addition, it will look at counterterrorism and counterinsurgency techniques, including the effects that such activities can have on civil liberties. Finally, the relative success or failure of terrorist groups in achieving their objectives will be evaluated as part of the process of determining what the future is likely to hold. 2. Pre-or co-requisites Students should have the ability to read, understand and analyze complex material and to write in English. Students should also possess basic computer skills, including the ability to navigate the Internet, access their email and download documents.
One would think that in the age of electronic data retrieval the compilation and publication of a bibliography like the present one is out of date. Everyone in possession of a network computer accessing the World Wide Web through the Internet can, after all, directly reach into the catalogues of the great libraries of the academic world and produce within hours if not minutes a tailor-made bibliography for his or her own special research purposes. The same take would take days if not weeks for the human bibliographer working without powerful eclectic search engines. However, bibliographic search engines can only assist and supplement human judgement as to what is likely to be a worthwhile title and what is not. This is especially true for unpublished "grey" literature that does not appear in Books in Print - type compilations. Academic Masters Theses are rarely published and even most PhD Theses never make it into the commercial market. This special bibliography on "Academic These on Terrorism and Related Forms of Violence", containing nearly 800 titles, is therefore particularly welcome and fills a void. I was pleased to learn that it took the structure of my own bibliography on terrorism as framework to fit in the titles since this adds to cumulativeness and comparability in the field. Scanning through the titles makes one realizes that many of the seminal turns in the study of terrorism were initiated - or are at least reflected - in the choice of topics of these young scholars. There is also a university index at the end which indicates to the user which universities devote most attention to the study of terrorism and political violence. For both students and experts of terrorism this bibliography offers a door to a wealth of knowledge which will - as things now stand - be bitterly needed for years to come. Prof A. P. Schmid - Leiden University
“The Road to Kabul” epitomes the romance involved in the freedom struggle of the Afghan Fighters against the Soviet Union occupation. The soap opera was aired during the festive season of Ramadan in the year 2004, but after airing for eight episodes the opera was cut off due to “technical difficulties” . Nonetheless, “The Road to Kabul” is a perfect parable narrating the contemporaneous violent paradigm shift from “Foreign Fighter” to “Foreign Terrorist Fighters.” Through a budding romance, it introduces the audience to many complex characters, which highlights the contemporary fragile status of “Foreign Terrorist Fighters.” Over the decades of the failure of the UN Conflict resolution , the problem of “FTF” from national transcending to the Balkans and then Iraq and Syria, a transnational phenomenon now attracts the immediate attention of the International Community. The status of “FTF” is no longer transnational concern, rather it is the International crisis have to be dealt by the UN. The TV show centers on the influx of “Arab Afghan” volunteering from the various parts of the Arab world to fight for freedom against a forceful foreign occupation, and then the narration triggers the contemporary violent transformation from “Freedom” to “Terrorism”. The fight for “Kabul” always seen as a perfect tunnel through which the “Arab Afghan” metamorphosed Into “Al Qaeda” fighting against the Western invasion and injustice onto the Islamic world. The Contemporary legislation, treaties, agreements, committees has transpired the immediate attention of “FTF” under International Law. The paper through the origin of “Freedom Fighters” forth the reader to understand the emergence of “FTF,” It also tries to settle the status of “FTF,” through differentiating between romance and establishment of cohesive Islamic world order. Due to lack of efficacy to curb the emergence of “FTF,” unacceptable has become the UN’s “Urgent Global Security Matter” . As a student of International Law and Politics, I view the hegemony of the West and the Europeans to be defining the terms of International crisis to serve their purpose. The Contemporary International crisis in Syria draws the immediate action, but Russia permanent member of the UNSC always vetoed ‘quash broadly supported draft UN Security Council (UNSC) resolutions designed to censure the Assad regime.’ Such abuse of International power not only creates an imbalance in “equal status for nation-states” under Public International Law but also, in consequence alleviate the crisis. From a transnational identity of Islam, through decades of consolidation, and civil wars, fanatically transformed “Freedom” to “Terrorism”. To substantiate my proposition, observation made by Andreas and Nadelmann, that ‘International crime control is one of the most important – and one of the most overlooked – dimensions of US hegemony in world power.’ With power play mostly by the US and Russia in the present political unrest in Syria, has only resulted in causalities of innocent civilians. The UN’s primary concern is the protection of the civilians. But, the UN sadly but expectedly failed to protect civilians, history of failures in Rwanda, Sierra Leone, Sudan and now in Syria, civilians always have to suffer. The current world politics is biased and limited, and no sense of justice and equality; however, there still exist Western and Middle East imperialism and therefore, resulted in the foundation of “terror,” now triggering the gun at them, and so the conscience effort arise to deal with the crisis immediately.
In their 2004 book Multitude, political theorists Michael Hardt and Antonio Negri discuss the early years in the Global War on Terrorism, writing: “the concept of terrorism does not (any more than the concept of evil) provide a solid conceptual political anchor,” adding that, “The current meaning of the term is a recent invention. Terrorism has become a political concept.” The sociological study of political violence and terrorism is faced with this particular challenge. Amongst scholars, practitioners and all those in between, a great diversity of opinion exists as to what constitutes terrorism. Furthermore, much of the research in this field lacks the empirical rigor and independent review common within the social sciences. Though a lens grounded in the sociological tradition, and borrowing from Communication, Conflict Analysis, Cultural Studies, Security Studies, Political Science, and Psychology, this course will examine violent non-state actors through a focus on radicalization, recruitment, targeting, organizational structure, media production, ideology and membership. Students will learn how to investigate political extremism, terrorism and radical social movements through the design, implementation, and sharing of original research projects focused on the excavation of data from movement ephemera, and practice the collaborative production of knowledge. Through an investigation based in primary source documents (e.g. communiqués, videos, magazines, autobiographies, etc.) students will be challenged to investigate political violence, and how such incidents are interpreted from both state and non-state positions. Students will leave the course with not only a knowledge of contemporary, violent, non-state actors, but also new methodologies for investigating socio-political phenomena with special attention paid to issues of language, communication, and discourse.