Global Terrorism

Modern terrorism, as deduced from this literature, is acts to violence strategically used by secular groups spanning international borders with the aim of achieving a desired outcome. Further, it can be seen as organized activity whose genesis can be traced back to the 1880’s. From then to now there are identifiable traits and patterns observed from different (terrorist) groups which have allowed for the conceptualization of the term modern terrorism. This concept therefore, can be best explained in the context of being a wave or having a life cycle. That means it is a cycle of activity demarked by phases from inception and expands along the way then eventually it declines. The world, thus far, has experienced four waves of modern

The Report of the Task Force on Disorders and Terrorism, assembled by the National Advisory Committee, provides the following typology of terrorism: Political Terrorism - “violent criminal behavior designed

The terrorist attacks in America have since publicized controversial attitudes in understanding and defining terrorism. There is a misconception of terrorism as it was only in actuality brought to light after the attacks in America on 11 September 2001 (Best & Nocella, 2004); this has guided many to assume that terrorism arose in light of the 11 September attacks, when actually terrorism did not begin in 2001; nor is it restricted to extremists in the Middle East. Here is where much of the difficulty lies in defining terrorism; thus the now famous quotation, “One person’s terrorist is another person’s freedom fighter’.

September 11, 2001 is a day that lives in infamy for American people. Every year Americans remember the how for the first time in history, multiple aircrafts were hijacked and used as weapons to destroy American landmark buildings such as the Twin Towers and the Pentagon. The 9/11 terrorist attacks marked the first instance of globalized terrorism. 9/11 and every act of terrorism after like Je suis Charlie and the November Paris attacks represents the economic and political nexus of emerging terrorist groups like al-Qaeda. This paper will compare the perspectives of two scholarly journals on terrorism, Dirk Haubrich’s “Modern politics in an Age of Global Terrorism: New Challenges for Public Policy” and Alan Krueger’s “Education, Poverty and Terror: Is there a causal connection?” to compare how terrorism is addressed politically and economically from each discipline. The paper “Modern politics in an Age of Global Terrorism: New

The terrorist of the so called "age of terrorism" roughly, 1968 through 1990 was perceived to be an individual who functioned within the international system as it was then understood. Fundamentally, terrorists were seen as rational calculators of self interest. Like guerrillas and sovereign states, these traditional terrorists used violence as a political tool, in a manner calculated to draw support for their cause. (Segaller, 1986). As such, they were bound by political restraints. When one seeks to influence an audience, it is imperative that the audience survive the performance. Such practical constraints kept terrorists of the past from seriously contemplating the use of weapons of mass destruction (WMD).

“Sociology had little to tell the world about the nature and causes of organized attacks by civilians against other civilians” (Roche, 2004), attacks such as the event that took place September 11th, 2001 caught the interest of sociologist and implored them to turn their attention to the subject of terrorism. “Terrorism is a form of collective violence”, against civilians, critical infrastructures, or natural resources, in an attempt to pursue a political agenda (Roche, 2004). The word terrorism Extremist and extremist groups are those that commit acts of violent extremism and have very different ideologies than those they have targeted. The definition of terrorism is broad and changes from agency to agency and even government. All terrorists

The notion that we are in a “new” era of terrorism is a concept frequently discussed by many scholars. Despite the term being coined in the 1990s, it has quickly gained significance after 9/11. This ‘New’ era is presumably characterized by many factors such as(Duyvesteyn,2010,p443); religious fanaticism rather than the political motivations of traditional Right Wing Dissident Terrorists(RWDT’s); the deliberate targeting of innocent civilians; shift to the use of loosely organised networks as opposed to RWDT’s vertically organized hierarchical structure; tendency of ‘new’ terrorists to operate along transnational lines; and the potential of Weapons of Mass Destruction(WMD’s), with the intention to distribute maximum destruction. However, this concept has been challenged by the fact that traditional RWDT’s have conducted indiscriminate acts of violence; as well as there being evidence of ‘New’ terrorists not being purely religiously oriented. This suggests that there are several ideological similarities that ‘new’ terrorism may share with traditional RWDT. Despite this there are also inconsistencies with its characteristics, such as the lack of WMD’s in the tactics of ‘New’ terrorists. Sceptics argue that this terrorism may not necessarily be ‘new’ but rejuvenated and could potentially be ‘artificial’(Kurtulus,2011,p479). Spencer (Kurtulus, p479) captures the possibility of ‘New’ terrorism being used profoundly at a time of peril and heightened concerns (9/11) in order to

Terrorism, within modern society, has become a common strategy employed by various radical groups throughout the world. The utilization of terroristic tactics originated in Russia during the 19th century as a response to an autocratic Russian system that was believed to be well overdue for refinement. During this time, terrorism remained within its place of origin and was a carefully directed phenomenon. Thus, most acts of terror were aimed at specified targets who were chosen systematically, ensuring the message being conveyed was clear and no harm occurred to civilians. With the progression of society, terrorism has evolved into a more horrific strategy. Evolving from a once directed phenomenon to an increasingly unsystematic style of attack, that can occur anywhere at anytime. This change has caused many to believe that terrorism itself is a mindless act that serves no purpose other than to instill fear within society. This assumption is partially correct, but contrary to popular belief the use of terrorism by radical groups does serve a purpose. By instilling fear within society through violent acts, terrorists attempt to usher change. This is because “Terrorism is based on the idea that the kind of change desired can be achieved only with violence” . With this belief, many radical organizations choose to utilize terrorism as a tool to cause change, as they believe it is the only way to bring about change. Another effect of this belief is radical groups are

As shown by the British security service MI5 and the French government’s estimations of the current threat level of international terrorism, respectively defined as SEVERE in the United Kingdom (Security Service MI5, 2016) and HIGH in France (French Government, n.d.), terrorism is considered to be among the most significant security threat nowadays. Understanding what encourages the development of terrorism and being able to develop effective counterterrorism strategies is therefore a central goal to many governments and policy makers today. As a result, an entire field of study has emerged dedicated to analyzing and researching the evolution of terrorism. Bruce Hoffman (2006:40) defines terrorism as “the deliberate creation and

Cordesman, A. (2017). The Patterns in Global Terrorism: 1970-2016. [online] Csis.org. Available at: https://www.csis.org/analysis/patterns-global-terrorism-1970-2016 [Accessed 16 May 2018].

The history of terrorism can be traced back as far as the French revolution. Some of these acts of terrorism only seem as distant reminders of our past, but at the same time, are not a far cry from today’s brutal acts; and although these acts seem distant, it doesn’t also mean they are no longer in the thoughts of individuals in today’s time.

There continues to be a widespread scholarly debate on the concept of “new” and ‘old’ terrorism, where ‘new’ terrorism phenomenon is predominately linked with ‘religious’ terrorism. David Rapoport, also known as one of the most well known founding figures of terrorism studies, joined UCLA in 1962 as a political theorist and later he became a founder and editor of Terrorism and Political Violence (UCLA). The idea of religious terrorism coincides with Rapoport’s (2004) theory on the waves of modern terrorism, especially the fourth wave. Rapoport (2004) contends that modern terrorism should be split into waves with each wave being prevailed by a certain ideology. The fourth wave, which is the current wave today, is motivated by extreme

Terrorism has rapidly become a increasing security issue as attacks upon “innocent non combatants” (Howard, L, 1992) have proliferated around the world, and are no longer an occurrence that can be conveniently ignored by society, that can not only undermine and make superpowers appear vulnerable, but instils fear into civilians and governments alike.

The use of terror is a worldwide phenomenon. The historical record has seen its use for many reasons. One of these reasons is to establish and protect a political ideology and have that ideology recognised by other states. But what then can we define as terrorism? The term itself is one that has been adopted in Western societies to identify the types of actions that cannot be defined as justifiable in any sense. However, evident in this essay is the practice of terrorism as much more than just a random radical happenstance and more of a political instrument. This is evident in all three examples list above. Syria used terrorism to crush political enemies, Zedong’s radical movement allowed him to seize power through terror and the South African government assisted terrorists to help them both defeat their political oppositions. It can be argued that there are even Western societies that can be accused of using terrorist tactics against their own citizens. While their actions aren’t always labelled as terrorism, their tactics are similar in the form of their capability to terrorise. Weber’s contributions to the field of politics might help to develop the framework for ‘political terrorism’. In his essay, ‘Politics as a Vocation’ (Weber 1958, p. 77), Weber describes how politics is “not limited to the policies and questions of the day, but rather how the hypothetical parties in question attempt to attain political power and keep that power, their ‘physical force’. Tilley builds

Over the years there have been significant changes in how terrorism is carried out. With the changes in how terrorism is carried out there have also been dramatic changes in how countries counter terrorist attacks. The modifications in the way a country counters these terrorist attacks affects international relations of these countries. These issues bring about the question of how have counter terrorism methods affected international relations. To answer this question several things must be addressed which are, methodology, history of terrorism, and a literature review of multiple authors that have discussed this subject.