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Terrorism And Its Effects On The Pursuit Of Political Aim

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Terrorism is defined as the use of violence and intimidation in the pursuit of political aim. The United States Department of Defense defines terrorism as “the calculated use of unlawful violence or threat of unlawful violence to inculcate fear; intended to coerce or to intimidate governments or societies in the pursuit of goals that are generally political, religious, or ideological.”(1) Terrorism has been around around since the first century BCE. The Sicarii were the first jewish group who murdered enemies and collaborators in their campaign to oust their Roman rulers from Judea. The Sicarii would hide daggers in their cloaks and then they would murder innocent victims. One of their most successful kills was that of a high priest named Jonathan. Terrorism doesn’t stop there, during the late 1700’s the Reign of Terror was that of horrible violence during the French Revolution. During the ruling of Jacobin Club thousands were killed including Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette.
The Reign of Terror as it was known was put to an end by a french lawyer and politician names Maximilien Robespierre. However, the Reign of Terror is up for debate because many scholars do not consider this to be a form of terrorism because it was carried out by the French. Moving forward to modern terrorism Ireland had a group called the Irish Republican Army (IRA) which were primarily revolutionary and militant nationalist groups. It was their belief that political violence was necessary to achieve

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