LESSON 1: TERRORISM, ITS DEFINITION, ORIGINS AND CAUSES

Introduction

This lesson’s objective is to examine definitions, origins and causes of terrorism.

You will discover that definitions of terrorism are important because their clarity and applicability could turn them into important tools for anti and counter-terrorism policy. This week’s readings will guide you to learn details about definitions, causes, origins and impact of terrorism on the U.S. national security. You will also debate whether poverty is a significant cause of terrorism.

What is Terrorism?

Terrorism is both a complex and simple phenomenon. It is simple in the sense that it involves violence, but it is complex because there are no agreements about exactly what types and forms of violence warrant classification as terrorism, and because there are so many different types of organizations with varying objectives and strategies. Throughout this course, you will encounter formulations of how terrorism could be defined and the political issues associated with the different definitions. While we will apply the term “terrorism,” it should be clear at the outset that there is not one common definition of what constitutes terrorism. The “naming” of an act as “terrorism” follows not purely technical criteria, but it also has political and ideological motives and consequences.

Terrorism has been much in the news since 2001. It is such a concern that if there is an accident, involving an explosion, one of the immediate questions is whether this was another case of terrorism. In many respects, terrorism may be the crucial security issue of the contemporary era. It is, however, far from a recent phenomenon. The assigned readings for this week, (Bruce Hoffman’s Inside Terrorism), provides a useful history of terrorism. While there have been violent acts against noncombatants (civilians) since the beginning of the recorded history, many observers believe that that terrorism started with the terror of the French Revolution (1789-1799). This was a form of state terrorism conducted against the “enemy of the people” – aristocrats and supporters of the old regime in France. The next phase of terrorism was violence on the part of the individuals and groups who were not affiliated with the state and were in fact taking violent actions against the state. During the 19th century in particular, there were a large number of such terrorist groups in Russian and other European countries and their targets were often senior government officials.

Most of the early examples of terrorism were domestic terrorism, conducted inside a single country, against domestic targets by citizens or residents of that country. For instance, the “People’s Will” organization in Russia took actions against officials of the tsarist government. The targets of these revolutionary groups were often police officers, provincial governors, prime ministers and even the members of the royal family. The Red Army Faction or the Baader-Meinhof-Gang took a similar approach in Germany in the 1970s.

Although the violence was usually contained inside a single country, some of this violence might be considered international as well. A great example is the assassinations of Archduke Franz Ferdinand who was the heir to the throne of Austria-Hungary and who was killed right before the World War I. Although the assassins were citizens of Austria-Hungary, they have received training from a terrorist organization based in Serbia. Austria-Hungary further internationalized the incident by using at as justification for applying pressure on Serbia and soon thereafter going to war with Serbia. As we know, this pressure on Serbia ultimately led to WW I. There have been instances where an anarchist from one country assassinated an official in another one, or a terrorist took up exile in another country to avoid capture.

As Hoffman points out, terror has taken the form of violence conducted by the state against its citizens or sub-groups of the population. As noted above, the first such modern state was Revolutionary France. Regrettably, the 20th century has seen several extreme examples of organized terror by a state against its prime examples are Nazi Germany, the Soviet Union, notably under Stalin. Note how Hoffman distinguishes between “terror” and “terrorism.” In his view, terror is violence perpetrated by the states against its citizens while terrorism is violence conducted by groups of people against non-combatants for the purpose of creating fear to force a state to change policy.

In the contemporary era, terrorism has become more of an international phenomenon, the focus on this course. Although our center of attention is on the international relations aspects of terrorism, the line between purely domestic terrorism and international terrorism is often a blurry one. As you will see, domestic law enforcement agencies and national courts have important roles in addressing terrorism. Additionally, international counter-terrorism and anti-terrorism initiatives affect even these terrorists and groups that have so far acted nationally.

Definition of Terrorism

Why is a definition of terrorism important?

States that are principal targets of terrorism, such as the United States, face serious challenges dealing with terrorism. While coping with key security issues, they have to maximize individual freedoms and human rights, which are further complicated by globalization, open borders and deregulation. Another challenge for policymakers is the necessity to identify the perpetrators of particular terrorist acts because religious and psychological factors re-defined the stereotypical notion of terrorists. Finally, some states do not share the same understanding of terrorist threats as the United States and Europe do, and refuse to participate in the global consensus.

The events of September 11th 2001 have changed how the world sees and understands terrorism. Scholars and policy makers find terrorism to be political in motive, violent, and designed to have lasting and far-reaching psychological consequences. With the publicity that terrorism generates, its perpetrators try to gain leverage and power to force political changes on either local or international level. It all means that the face of terrorism has been changing, and terrorists utilize any mean of fear, threat and violence possible, even means that ‘normally’ would not qualify as terrorism. The strong and surviving organizations have an extraordinary ability to quickly mobilize and adjust or change their practices as was the case with al-Qaeda after 9/11. Even now with deaths of its leaders, new cells are formed in several African states, signaling that terrorist activities have not ceased. Therefore, policy makers and analysts must constantly revise and modify their methods to identify new threats to prevent tragic events.

Defining Terrorism

Why is defining terrorism so difficult?

Terrorism is an ever-evolving phenomenon that has been debated for quite some time. Not only do countries have different definitions, but their intra-governmental agencies also formulate their own versions. For instance, the FIB’s definition is similar, but not identical to that of the State Department because of different responsibilities of these agencies. This challenge is even more complex within the UN and its member-states. While the Western states, such as the USA and Germany can generally agree on a version of a terrorism definition, the Arab states will have their own. Unless the international law adopts a universally-accepted definition, scholars and experts will have a variety of choices (Forest 2012, 5).

James Forest has drawn a fairly short, working definition of terrorism that captures the main points:

“Terrorism is a combination of strategies and violent tactics where the victims (e.g. ordinary citizens) are a sub-element of a broader target (e.g. a government). These strategies and tactics are used by individuals and groups in pursuit of some type of objectives – typically of a political, social, criminal, economic and or/religious nature – and they perceive terrorism to be the most effective way to obtain the power needed to achieve those objectives (6).”

Origin and Causes

In addition to definition and origins of terrorism, this lesson’s objective also contains causes of terrorism. Just as

there is no agreement on a definition of terrorism, there is no agreement on possible causes. The issue of

causation is analogous to a discussion of the causes of crime. Scholars point to some evidence that there is a

relationship between poverty and crime because crime tends to be worse in poor neighborhoods. But it does not

mean that an individual’s economic disadvantages compelled him or her to resort to crime. After all, not

everyone in poor neighborhoods becomes a criminal. This suggests that poverty is better depicted as source not a

cause of crime and, perhaps, terrorism.

The Krieger and Maleckova study analyzes the connection between poverty, education levels and the

prevalence of terrorism while comparing terrorist motivation with that of hate crime. The scholars draw a

parallel with Palestinian and Jewish violence – often defined as terrorism. Although they illustrate a weak

linkage between poverty and terrorism, experts argue that in the future, the core of tensions of the world will be

between the economically advanced countries and poor countries. Or will it be domestic terrorism?

Conclusion

In this lesson, we learned how important a definition of terrorism is for anti and counter-terrorism policies from both an academic and scientific perspectives. We also examined origins and causes of terrorism to debate whether or not economic hardship causes terrorism. What will happen next in the next lesson? After having examined the importance of a definition of terrorism as well as its causes and origins, we will take a closer look at terrorism, its actors, patterns and manifestations before 2001. More specifically, we will zoom on state and passive sponsors of terrorism. Think Pakistan or Iran. Does Cuba ‘deserve’ to be taken off the list as a sponsor of terrorism?

Bibliography

Adapted from Gabriela Stelcikova’s Lecture notes, 2009-2011

Situational Awareness of a Terrorist threat image provided by Stratfor