What is terrorism?

Definition “Any action (by a non-state organisation) that is intended to cause death or serious bodily harm to civilians or non-combatants, where the purpose of such an act, by its nature or context, is to intimidate a population, or compel a government or international organisation to do or to abstain from doing any act”

When did it begin? Terrorism has its origins in the French Revolution of 1789. When the aristocrats and later just normal civilians were hunted down and killed by the revolutionary leaders using the guillotine, it was termed by the counter-revolutionaries as terrorisme. Terrorising groups of people through the use of extreme violence is quite an old idea. When in the old days a city was invaded, the army would raze it to the ground, and kill everyone in it – not just for the larks, but more to frighten those living in other cities – part of a psychological war. War is physical, Terrorism is psychological

Old Style Terrorism 20th Century Terrorism is associated with the rise of nationalism and the establishment of nations as sovereign, territorially bounded entities. But lots of nations do not have their own bit of space with their own government in charge. Lots of nations are forced together into single countries, and sometimes the nations within the single countries find it difficult to get on, so sometimes they want their own little bit of space to be in charge of, they want to separate out from the country that they have been included in. This can be referred to as Nationalism, it can cause conflict – and this conflict can become violent and lead to terrorism or even civil war. This is old style terrorism – terrorism in the 20th century was mostly nationalist.

The aim of old style terrorism is to establish states in areas where nations do not have control of the state apparatus (government stuff) – for example, it might have been the case that if Scotland’s demands for some control of its own affairs had not been recognised there may have been the growth of a nationalist terrorist movement – however the SNP has always kept its methods strictly within the electoral system. Old Style Terror is generally characterised as being “local” – so confined to one country/area. This is because Old Style Terrorists are generally trying to carve out a new country for themselves in the area in which they live – it has local ambitions.

New Style Terrorism New terrorism has been made possible by new methods of communication. Terrorist groups can use these new methods to communicate within their groups and coordinate attacks, to gain information on targets, to broadcast their attacks and maximise impact and to recruit new members. Unlike with old terrorism, AQ has global aims – it is not limited and local – it seeks to restructure the world. AQ seeks to construct and Islamic state that stretches from India to Europe, and to recapture North Africa. AQ argues that the West expelled or ethnically cleansed Muslims from areas to which it had a legitimate claim, like Spain and the Balkans. So this new terrorism has global ambitions.

Terrorism is an ideology There are individual acts of terror carried out – which may be about revenge or seeking attention, but terrorism is a long terms goal, a strategy of using absolute violence to achieve a goal. 1) Outrageous violence will seize the public imagination. 2) Its audience will be awakened to political issues 3) Violently is by its nature empowering – people feel powerful when they use violence 4) Systematic (continued) violence can threaten the government and cause it to react violently, or to restrict the human rights of citizens 5) Violence can destabilize the social order and threaten social breakdown (the spiral of terror and counter-terror) 6) Ultimately the people will reject the government and turn to the terrorists.