State Terror

Content of lecture: State terrorism external internal terrorism as an instrument of foreign policy state-sponsored state-supported

Sluka’s definition of state terror: “the use or threat of violence by the state or its agents or supporters, particularly against civilian individuals and populations, as a means of political intimidation and control” (Sluka, 2000: 2)

State Terrorism Régime de la terreur, France 1793-1794 e.g. Robespierre and the Law of Suspects (1793) Internal terrorism e.g. used against own population to subdue groups or create a climate of fear External terrorism e.g. used as an instrument of foreign policy

Internal state terrorism: Intimidation arbitrary detention unfair trial kidnapping

Internal state terrorism: Torture physical psychological punishment

Internal state terrorism: Coerced conversion concentration camps Nazi Germany Bosnia

Internal state terrorism: Political murder extra-judicial killings disappearances death squads

External state terror: Coercive diplomacy Nixon’s bombing of Hanoi, 1972

External state terror: Covert operations Bay of Pigs (Cuba) 1961 Kim Hyon Hui’s plane bombing (North Korea) overthrow of Allende in Chile

Surrogate terrorism Taliban – Al Qaeda Libya

Case study: Libya 1969 coup – Gaddafi comes to power Ambition = spearhead Arab Islamic revolution Sales of oil = $$$$$ = sponsorship & support of terrorist groups Abu Nidal Red Army Faction Carlos the Jackal IRA

Libya continued Support – training camps, arms, safe haven e.g. 1980s 8,000 foreign terrorists trained per yr Sponsorship – attacks on Libyan émigrés & terror attacks e.g. attacks in Vienna, Rome & Berlin American action – bombing 1986 Pan Am Flight 103 (Lockerbie)

References and Further Reading Combs, C.C. (2003) Terrorism in the Twenty-First Century. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall. George, A. (ed) (1991) Western State Terrorism. Cambridge: Polity Press. Hagan, J. and Rymond-Richmond, W. (2007) ‘The Mean Streets of the Global Village: Crimes of Exclusion in the United States and Darfur’, Journal of Scandinavian Studies in Criminology and Crime Prevention, Vol. 8(1): 1-54. Korn, A. (2004) ‘Israeli press and the war against terrorism: The construction of the “liquidation” policy’, Crime, Law & Social Change, Vol. 41: 209-234. Martin, G. (2006) Understanding Terrorism. London: Sage.

References and Further Reading Rolston, B. (2005) “‘An Effective Mask for Terror’: Democracy, Death Squads and Northern Ireland’, Crime, Law and Social Change, Vol. 44: 181-203. Sluka, J.A. (2000) Death Squad. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press. Tanter, R. (1999) Rogue Regimes. Basingstoke: Macmillan. Wardlaw, G. (1990) Political Terrorism. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Woodworth, P. (2001) Dirty War, clean hands: ETA, the GAL and Spanish democracy. Cork: Cork University Press.

Websites: MIPT Terrorism Information Center: http://www.terrorisminfo.mipt.org/ U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum http://www.ushmm.org/ U.S. Department of State, Office of the Coordinator for Counterterrorism: http://www.state.gov/s/ct/