essay of terrorism

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Does Counter-Terrorism Work? by Richard English review – a thoughtful and authoritative analysis

The Belfast academic offers vitally important lessons about government strategies, from Northern Ireland to the Middle East, warning that few campaigns are a complete success

I n January 2002, during his State of the Union address, President George W Bush said that in “four short months” the US had “rallied a great coalition, captured, arrested and rid the world of thousands of terrorists … and terrorist leaders who urged followers to sacrifice their lives are running for their own”.

The term “war on terror” had been coined a few days after al-Qaida’s attacks of 9/11 to describe the most extensive and ambitious counter-terrorism operation the world had seen. As Bush spoke, it all seemed to be going rather well.

Two decades later, with more than 300,000 people killed in Iraq, according to some estimates, and perhaps 240,000 deaths in Afghanistan, the violence of the “war on terror” can be seen to have created further chaos and carnage. Even excluding Iraq and Afghanistan, the numbers killed in terrorist attacks around the world rose from 109 a month in the years before 9/11, according to one study , to 158 a month during the six years that followed. Meanwhile, some of those whom Bush said were running for their lives are now in power in Kabul.

In Northern Ireland , on the other hand, the conflict came largely to an end – after 30 years – once British governments began to use the military and police to contain, rather than attempt to brutally extirpate, anti-state violence. Security forces patiently developed their intelligence-gathering capacities, while government ministers acknowledged the political causes of terrorism and, eventually, formed partnerships with those whom they had been fighting.

Richard English, the author of Does Counter-Terrorism Work? , is a professor of political history at Queen’s University Belfast, and has dedicated decades to the analysis of terrorism and to governments’ efforts to overcome it. Given that the choices made in counter-terrorism policy impact directly upon each of us every day, it is a vitally important area of study.

His previous work includes a 2016 volume, Does Terrorism Work? , and a highly regarded history of the IRA . Here, he offers a thoughtful and authoritative dissection of the counter-terrorism efforts of the “war on terror”, Northern Ireland’s Troubles and the Israel-Palestinian conflict, and the lessons that each can offer.

English believes that post-9/11 counter-terrorism was far too short-termist, that the histories of Afghanistan and Iraq were “substantially ignored in a disgraceful fashion” and that the US became overly impressed with its own early military successes in both countries.

In Iraq, the claim that the removal of Saddam Hussein from power was a necessary part of a global counter-terrorist campaign was, of course, founded on the false claim that Saddam was supporting al-Qaida and the mistaken belief that he possessed weapons of mass destruction. Moreover, English writes, the assumption that the Middle East could be recast “through naive invasion” took no account of the region’s past, its complex allegiances, or the possibility of something simply going wrong.

He cautions that very few counter-terrorism campaigns will ever achieve complete strategic success. Unconvinced by those who claim bullishly that the Provisional IRA was “defeated”, he argues persuasively that the republican movement’s sustainable campaign of violence was suspended only because its pragmatic leaders decided that they might more likely achieve their objective – a united Ireland – by peaceful means. Equally, he is sceptical of those among his fellow academics who argue that counter-terrorism operations will inevitably promote terrorism.

However, he writes, there are times when “those who criticise counter-terrorists for worsening their state’s strategic position regarding terrorism, and those who celebrate tactical-operational successes against terrorist adversaries, might shout past each other while yet both being right”.

English judges that if any counter-terrorism campaign is to achieve even partial strategic victory, it must be conducted in a patient, well-resourced manner, with clear objectives. Given that terrorists often seek to provoke outrage and overreaction, the public should be encouraged to be realistic about the limits to what can be accomplished.

He also concludes that to avoid failure, counter-terrorist efforts must be integrated into broader political initiatives: “We should not mistake the terrorist symptom for the more profound issues that are at stake.”

Although this book was written before the Hamas attacks of 7 October and the war in Gaza, English was already convinced that Israeli counter-terrorism tactics, no matter how carefully conceived or brilliantly executed, will not resolve the conflict unless there is a strategic engagement with Palestinian grievances and desire for statehood.

Finally, he cautions that his three case studies present serious warnings about the self-harm that can be inflicted by state actions judged to lack morality. All three have involved the abuse of prisoners; that an overreliance on aggressive military methods can shatter public support; that technical surveillance should be lawful and proportionate; and, as a senior British police officer warned in a report published this month , that there are serious questions to be asked about the morality and legality of allowing informants within terrorist organisations to commit serious crimes.

“A successful counter-terrorism will be a just counter-terrorism,” English writes: legally bound, accountable and proportionate. To stray from this, he says, risks delegitimising the objectives of the state. Or as a mural in Northern Ireland used to say: “When those who make the law, break the law, in the name of the law, there is no law.”

Ian Cobain is the author of Anatomy of a Killing: Life and Death on a Divided Island (Granta)

Does Counter-Terrorism Work? by Richard English is published by Oxford University Press (£25). To support the Guardian and Observer order your copy at guardianbookshop.com . Delivery charges may apply

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To the Editor:

Re “ The West Still Hasn’t Figured Out How to Beat ISIS ,” by Christopher P. Costa and Colin P. Clarke (Opinion guest essay, April 1):

Two clear lessons have emerged in the decade since ISIS exploded on the world scene. First, as the authors note, pulling all U.S. troops and intelligence assets from fragile conflict zones is a boon to globalized terror movements. Despite political promises, the full U.S. withdrawal from Iraq in 2011 and Afghanistan in 2021 did not “end” those wars; it transformed them into more complex and potentially more deadly challenges.

Second, we must reckon with the underlying grievances that make violent anti-Western ideologies, including militant jihadism, attractive to so many in the first place. These include the ill effects of globalization, and a “rules-based” world order increasingly insensitive to the needs of developing countries and regions.

Simply maintaining a military or intelligence presence in terror hot spots does nothing to reduce the sticky recruiting power of militant movements. Unless the United States and its allies and partners begin offering tangible policies that counter jihadi ideology and propaganda, we will just continue attacking the symptoms, not the causes.

Stuart Gottlieb New York The writer teaches American foreign policy and international security at Columbia University.

The Islamic State’s territorial caliphate in Iraq and Syria may have been eliminated years ago, but as Christopher P. Costa and Colin P. Clarke write, the terrorist group itself is very much in business. ISIS-K, its branch in Afghanistan, has conducted two large-scale external attacks over the last two months — one in Iran that killed more than 80 people and another near Moscow that took the lives of more than 130.

If the United States and its allies haven’t found a way to defeat ISIS-K in its entirety, it’s because terrorism itself is an enemy that can’t be defeated in the traditional sense of the term. This is why the war on terror framework, initiated under the George W. Bush administration immediately after the 9/11 attacks, was such poor terminology. Terrorism is going to be with us for as long as humanity exists.

Viewed this way, terrorism is a conflict management problem, not one that can be solved. While this may sound defeatist to many, it’s also the coldhearted truth. Assuming otherwise risks enacting policies, like invading whole countries (Iraq and Afghanistan), that are likely to create even more anti-U.S. terrorism than we started with.

Of course, all countries should remain vigilant. Terrorism will continue to be a part of the threat environment. The U.S. intelligence community must ensure that its counterterrorism infrastructure is well resourced and continues to focus on areas, like Afghanistan, where the U.S. no longer has a troop presence. But for the U.S., a big part of the solution is keeping our ambitions realistic and prioritizing among terrorist threats lest the system gets overloaded or pulled in too many directions at once.

While all terrorism is tragic, not all terrorist groups are created equal. Local and even regional groups with local objectives aren’t as important to the U.S. as groups that have transnational aims and the capabilities to strike U.S. targets. This, combined with keeping a cool head instead of trafficking in threat inflation, is key to a successful response.

Daniel R. DePetris New Rochelle, N.Y. The writer is a fellow at Defense Priorities, a foreign policy think tank in Washington.

Re “ Earthquake Rattles Northeast, but Little Damage Is Reported ” (live updates, nytimes.com, April 5):

I’m lying in bed Friday morning, on 14th Street in Manhattan. Suddenly I feel and see the bed start to shake!

My first thought — OMG, I’m in “The Exorcist.” Then an alert on my phone tells me that it’s an earthquake in New York City.

Frankly, I’m not sure which one scared me more.

Steven Doloff New York

Re “ Kennedy Calls Biden Bigger Threat to Democracy Than Trump ” (news article, April 3):

Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s concern about the Biden administration’s “censorship” of misinformation might be viewed as legitimate if the American public demonstrated more responsibility about fact-checking what they see and hear on social media and other information platforms masquerading as legitimate sources of news.

Sadly, many in this country, and indeed the world, have abdicated responsibility for being factually informed about current events. As long as bad actors have unfettered access to social media platforms, it will be necessary to “censor” the misinformation they claim as fact. The world has become the proverbial crowded theater where one cannot yell “fire.”

Helen Ogden Pacific Grove, Calif.

Re “ The Great Struggle for Liberalism ,” by David Brooks (column, March 29):

In face of growing populism at home and abroad, Mr. Brooks issues a cri de coeur on behalf of liberal democracy and democratic capitalism, which provide the means to a “richer, fuller and more dynamic life.”

His impassioned plea for “we the people” of these United States to experience a sense of common purpose, to build a society in which culture is celebrated and families thrive, is made despite existential challenges to American liberalism:

1) We do not share an overarching belief in who we are as a people, as a nation.

2) Trust in our three branches of government, in checks and balances, is broken amid warring partisanship.

3) There is, for many, as Mr. Brooks notes, an “absence of meaning, belonging and recognition” that drives a tilt to authoritarianism in search of the restoration of “cultural, moral and civic stability” by any means necessary.

The ballot box in a free and open society allows for choice, and there are those who, in exercising their right to vote, would choose to cancel the aspirational hopes of the preamble to our Constitution.

David Brooks sees the full measure of the choices facing America and the world in 2024. Do we?

Michael Katz Washington

Re “ New Ways to Bring Wealth to Nations ,” by Patricia Cohen (news analysis, Business, April 4):

Ms. Cohen is right to argue that the service sector will be the key to economic growth in the future. However, it’s essential to consider what service jobs are — and who will be doing them.

Of course, the service industry includes office workers in tech hubs like Bengaluru, as highlighted by Ms. Cohen. Currently, these jobs are held predominantly by men, so to spur inclusive growth, employers and governments must make sure women have equal access.

But the service sector also includes hundreds of millions of people — mostly women — who are teachers and who care for children, older people and those with disabilities and illnesses. To seize the opportunity ahead, governments must position care jobs as careers of the future for women and men, alongside tech jobs. This requires making sure these positions provide good pay and working conditions.

If the goal is sustainable growth, the best approach leverages the critical care sector to generate income in the short run and prepare healthy, well-educated young people, which maintains progress in the long run.

Anita Zaidi Seattle The writer is president of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation’s Gender Equality Division.

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Essay on Terrorism

India has a lengthy history of terrorism. It is a cowardly act by terrorist organisations that want to sabotage the nation's tranquillity. It seeks to instil fear among the population. They seek to maintain a permanent climate of dread among the populace to prevent the nation from prospering. Here are a few sample essays on Terrorism .

100 Words Essay on Terrorism

Terrorism is the use of violence and intimidation in the pursuit of political and personal aims. It is a global phenomenon that has affected countries worldwide, causing harm to innocent civilians, damaging economies, and destabilizing governments. The causes of terrorism are complex and can include religious extremism, political oppression, and economic inequality.

Terrorist groups use a variety of tactics, including bombings, kidnappings, and hijackings, to achieve their goals. They often target symbols of government and military power, as well as civilians in crowded public spaces. The impact of terrorism on society is devastating, leading to loss of life, injury, and psychological trauma.

Combating terrorism requires a multifaceted approach, including intelligence gathering, law enforcement, and military action. Additionally, addressing underlying issues such as poverty and political marginalization is crucial in preventing the radicalization of individuals and the emergence of terrorist groups.

200 Words Essay on Terrorism

Terrorism is a complex and ever-evolving threat that affects countries and communities around the world. It involves the use of violence and intimidation to achieve political or ideological goals. The causes of terrorism can vary, but often include religious extremism, political oppression, and economic inequality.

To truly understand the impact of terrorism, it's important to consider not only the physical harm caused by terrorist attacks but also the emotional and psychological toll it takes on individuals and communities. The loss of life and injury caused to innocent civilians is devastating and can leave families and communities reeling for years to come. In addition, terrorism can cause physical damage to infrastructure and buildings, as well as economic disruption, leading to decreased tourism and investment.

To effectively combat terrorism, it's important to take a holistic approach that addresses not only the immediate threat of terrorist attacks but also the underlying issues that can lead to radicalization and the emergence of terrorist groups. This can include addressing poverty and economic inequality, promoting political and religious tolerance, and providing support and resources to individuals and communities at risk of radicalization.

It's also important to remember that the fight against terrorism is not just the responsibility of governments and law enforcement agencies, but also of individuals and communities. By promoting understanding and compassion, and by standing up against hate and extremism, we can all play a role in preventing terrorism and creating a more peaceful world.

500 Words Essay on Terrorism

According to a United Nations Security Council report from November 2004, terrorism is any act that is "intended to result in the death or serious bodily harm of civilians or non-combatants to intimidate the population or to compel the government or an international organisation to do or abstain from doing any act."

The Origins of Terrorism

The development or production of massive numbers of machine guns, atomic bombs, hydrogen bombs, nuclear weapons, missiles, and other weapons fuels terrorism. Rapid population growth, political, social, and economic problems, widespread discontent with the political system, a lack of education, racism, economic inequality, and linguistic discrepancies are all important contributors to the emergence of terrorism. Sometimes one uses terrorism to take a position and stick with it.

The Effects Of Terrorism

People become afraid of terrorism and feel unsafe in their nation. Terrorist attacks result in the destruction of millions of items, the death of thousands of innocent people, and the slaughter of animals. After seeing a terrorist incident, people become less inclined to believe in humanity, which breeds more terrorists.

Different forms of terrorism can be found both domestically and overseas. Today, governments worldwide are working hard to combat terrorism, which is an issue in India and our neighbouring nations. The 9/11 World Trade Centre attack is considered the worst terrorist act ever. Osama bin Laden attacked the tallest building in the world’s most powerful country, causing millions of casualties and the death of thousands of people.

The major incidents of the terrorist attack in India are—

12 March 1993 - A series of 13 bombs go off, killing 257

14 March 2003 - A bomb goes off in a train in Mulund, killing 10

29 October 2005 Delhi bombings

2005 Ram Janmabhoomi attack in Ayodhya

2006 Varanasi bombings

11 July 2006 - A series of seven bombs go off in trains, killing

26 November 2008 to 29 November 2008 - A series of coordinated attacks killed at least 170.

According to this data, India has experienced an upsurge in terrorist activity since 1980. India has fought four wars against terrorism , losing more than 6000 persons in total. Already, we have lost around 70000 citizens. Furthermore, we lost over 9000 security staff. In this country, about 6 lakh individuals have undergone.

Agencies In India Fighting Terrorism

There are numerous organisations working to rid our nation of terrorism. These organizations operate continuously, from the municipal to the national levels. To stop local terrorist activity, police forces have various divisions.

The police departments have a specialized intelligence and anti-terrorism division that is in charge of eliminating Naxalites and other terrorist organizations. The military is in charge of bombing terrorist targets outside of our country. These departments engage in counterinsurgency and other similar operations to dismantle various terrorist organisations.

There are numerous organisations that work to prevent terrorism. Anti-Terrorism Squad (ATS) , National Investigation Agency (NIA) , and Research and Analysis Wing are a few of the top organizations (RAW) . These are some of the main organizations working to rid India of terrorism.

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Remote sensing scientists use remote sensing technology to support scientists in fields such as community planning, flight planning or the management of natural resources. Analysing data collected from aircraft, satellites or ground-based platforms using statistical analysis software, image analysis software or Geographic Information Systems (GIS) is a significant part of their work. Do you want to learn how to become remote sensing technician? There's no need to be concerned; we've devised a simple remote sensing technician career path for you. Scroll through the pages and read.

Budget Analyst

Budget analysis, in a nutshell, entails thoroughly analyzing the details of a financial budget. The budget analysis aims to better understand and manage revenue. Budget analysts assist in the achievement of financial targets, the preservation of profitability, and the pursuit of long-term growth for a business. Budget analysts generally have a bachelor's degree in accounting, finance, economics, or a closely related field. Knowledge of Financial Management is of prime importance in this career.

Underwriter

An underwriter is a person who assesses and evaluates the risk of insurance in his or her field like mortgage, loan, health policy, investment, and so on and so forth. The underwriter career path does involve risks as analysing the risks means finding out if there is a way for the insurance underwriter jobs to recover the money from its clients. If the risk turns out to be too much for the company then in the future it is an underwriter who will be held accountable for it. Therefore, one must carry out his or her job with a lot of attention and diligence.

Finance Executive

Product manager.

A Product Manager is a professional responsible for product planning and marketing. He or she manages the product throughout the Product Life Cycle, gathering and prioritising the product. A product manager job description includes defining the product vision and working closely with team members of other departments to deliver winning products.  

Operations Manager

Individuals in the operations manager jobs are responsible for ensuring the efficiency of each department to acquire its optimal goal. They plan the use of resources and distribution of materials. The operations manager's job description includes managing budgets, negotiating contracts, and performing administrative tasks.

Stock Analyst

Individuals who opt for a career as a stock analyst examine the company's investments makes decisions and keep track of financial securities. The nature of such investments will differ from one business to the next. Individuals in the stock analyst career use data mining to forecast a company's profits and revenues, advise clients on whether to buy or sell, participate in seminars, and discussing financial matters with executives and evaluate annual reports.

A Researcher is a professional who is responsible for collecting data and information by reviewing the literature and conducting experiments and surveys. He or she uses various methodological processes to provide accurate data and information that is utilised by academicians and other industry professionals. Here, we will discuss what is a researcher, the researcher's salary, types of researchers.

Welding Engineer

Welding Engineer Job Description: A Welding Engineer work involves managing welding projects and supervising welding teams. He or she is responsible for reviewing welding procedures, processes and documentation. A career as Welding Engineer involves conducting failure analyses and causes on welding issues. 

Transportation Planner

A career as Transportation Planner requires technical application of science and technology in engineering, particularly the concepts, equipment and technologies involved in the production of products and services. In fields like land use, infrastructure review, ecological standards and street design, he or she considers issues of health, environment and performance. A Transportation Planner assigns resources for implementing and designing programmes. He or she is responsible for assessing needs, preparing plans and forecasts and compliance with regulations.

Environmental Engineer

Individuals who opt for a career as an environmental engineer are construction professionals who utilise the skills and knowledge of biology, soil science, chemistry and the concept of engineering to design and develop projects that serve as solutions to various environmental problems. 

Safety Manager

A Safety Manager is a professional responsible for employee’s safety at work. He or she plans, implements and oversees the company’s employee safety. A Safety Manager ensures compliance and adherence to Occupational Health and Safety (OHS) guidelines.

Conservation Architect

A Conservation Architect is a professional responsible for conserving and restoring buildings or monuments having a historic value. He or she applies techniques to document and stabilise the object’s state without any further damage. A Conservation Architect restores the monuments and heritage buildings to bring them back to their original state.

Structural Engineer

A Structural Engineer designs buildings, bridges, and other related structures. He or she analyzes the structures and makes sure the structures are strong enough to be used by the people. A career as a Structural Engineer requires working in the construction process. It comes under the civil engineering discipline. A Structure Engineer creates structural models with the help of computer-aided design software. 

Highway Engineer

Highway Engineer Job Description:  A Highway Engineer is a civil engineer who specialises in planning and building thousands of miles of roads that support connectivity and allow transportation across the country. He or she ensures that traffic management schemes are effectively planned concerning economic sustainability and successful implementation.

Field Surveyor

Are you searching for a Field Surveyor Job Description? A Field Surveyor is a professional responsible for conducting field surveys for various places or geographical conditions. He or she collects the required data and information as per the instructions given by senior officials. 

Orthotist and Prosthetist

Orthotists and Prosthetists are professionals who provide aid to patients with disabilities. They fix them to artificial limbs (prosthetics) and help them to regain stability. There are times when people lose their limbs in an accident. In some other occasions, they are born without a limb or orthopaedic impairment. Orthotists and prosthetists play a crucial role in their lives with fixing them to assistive devices and provide mobility.

Pathologist

A career in pathology in India is filled with several responsibilities as it is a medical branch and affects human lives. The demand for pathologists has been increasing over the past few years as people are getting more aware of different diseases. Not only that, but an increase in population and lifestyle changes have also contributed to the increase in a pathologist’s demand. The pathology careers provide an extremely huge number of opportunities and if you want to be a part of the medical field you can consider being a pathologist. If you want to know more about a career in pathology in India then continue reading this article.

Veterinary Doctor

Speech therapist, gynaecologist.

Gynaecology can be defined as the study of the female body. The job outlook for gynaecology is excellent since there is evergreen demand for one because of their responsibility of dealing with not only women’s health but also fertility and pregnancy issues. Although most women prefer to have a women obstetrician gynaecologist as their doctor, men also explore a career as a gynaecologist and there are ample amounts of male doctors in the field who are gynaecologists and aid women during delivery and childbirth. 

Audiologist

The audiologist career involves audiology professionals who are responsible to treat hearing loss and proactively preventing the relevant damage. Individuals who opt for a career as an audiologist use various testing strategies with the aim to determine if someone has a normal sensitivity to sounds or not. After the identification of hearing loss, a hearing doctor is required to determine which sections of the hearing are affected, to what extent they are affected, and where the wound causing the hearing loss is found. As soon as the hearing loss is identified, the patients are provided with recommendations for interventions and rehabilitation such as hearing aids, cochlear implants, and appropriate medical referrals. While audiology is a branch of science that studies and researches hearing, balance, and related disorders.

An oncologist is a specialised doctor responsible for providing medical care to patients diagnosed with cancer. He or she uses several therapies to control the cancer and its effect on the human body such as chemotherapy, immunotherapy, radiation therapy and biopsy. An oncologist designs a treatment plan based on a pathology report after diagnosing the type of cancer and where it is spreading inside the body.

Are you searching for an ‘Anatomist job description’? An Anatomist is a research professional who applies the laws of biological science to determine the ability of bodies of various living organisms including animals and humans to regenerate the damaged or destroyed organs. If you want to know what does an anatomist do, then read the entire article, where we will answer all your questions.

For an individual who opts for a career as an actor, the primary responsibility is to completely speak to the character he or she is playing and to persuade the crowd that the character is genuine by connecting with them and bringing them into the story. This applies to significant roles and littler parts, as all roles join to make an effective creation. Here in this article, we will discuss how to become an actor in India, actor exams, actor salary in India, and actor jobs. 

Individuals who opt for a career as acrobats create and direct original routines for themselves, in addition to developing interpretations of existing routines. The work of circus acrobats can be seen in a variety of performance settings, including circus, reality shows, sports events like the Olympics, movies and commercials. Individuals who opt for a career as acrobats must be prepared to face rejections and intermittent periods of work. The creativity of acrobats may extend to other aspects of the performance. For example, acrobats in the circus may work with gym trainers, celebrities or collaborate with other professionals to enhance such performance elements as costume and or maybe at the teaching end of the career.

Video Game Designer

Career as a video game designer is filled with excitement as well as responsibilities. A video game designer is someone who is involved in the process of creating a game from day one. He or she is responsible for fulfilling duties like designing the character of the game, the several levels involved, plot, art and similar other elements. Individuals who opt for a career as a video game designer may also write the codes for the game using different programming languages.

Depending on the video game designer job description and experience they may also have to lead a team and do the early testing of the game in order to suggest changes and find loopholes.

Radio Jockey

Radio Jockey is an exciting, promising career and a great challenge for music lovers. If you are really interested in a career as radio jockey, then it is very important for an RJ to have an automatic, fun, and friendly personality. If you want to get a job done in this field, a strong command of the language and a good voice are always good things. Apart from this, in order to be a good radio jockey, you will also listen to good radio jockeys so that you can understand their style and later make your own by practicing.

A career as radio jockey has a lot to offer to deserving candidates. If you want to know more about a career as radio jockey, and how to become a radio jockey then continue reading the article.

Choreographer

The word “choreography" actually comes from Greek words that mean “dance writing." Individuals who opt for a career as a choreographer create and direct original dances, in addition to developing interpretations of existing dances. A Choreographer dances and utilises his or her creativity in other aspects of dance performance. For example, he or she may work with the music director to select music or collaborate with other famous choreographers to enhance such performance elements as lighting, costume and set design.

Social Media Manager

A career as social media manager involves implementing the company’s or brand’s marketing plan across all social media channels. Social media managers help in building or improving a brand’s or a company’s website traffic, build brand awareness, create and implement marketing and brand strategy. Social media managers are key to important social communication as well.

Photographer

Photography is considered both a science and an art, an artistic means of expression in which the camera replaces the pen. In a career as a photographer, an individual is hired to capture the moments of public and private events, such as press conferences or weddings, or may also work inside a studio, where people go to get their picture clicked. Photography is divided into many streams each generating numerous career opportunities in photography. With the boom in advertising, media, and the fashion industry, photography has emerged as a lucrative and thrilling career option for many Indian youths.

An individual who is pursuing a career as a producer is responsible for managing the business aspects of production. They are involved in each aspect of production from its inception to deception. Famous movie producers review the script, recommend changes and visualise the story. 

They are responsible for overseeing the finance involved in the project and distributing the film for broadcasting on various platforms. A career as a producer is quite fulfilling as well as exhaustive in terms of playing different roles in order for a production to be successful. Famous movie producers are responsible for hiring creative and technical personnel on contract basis.

Copy Writer

In a career as a copywriter, one has to consult with the client and understand the brief well. A career as a copywriter has a lot to offer to deserving candidates. Several new mediums of advertising are opening therefore making it a lucrative career choice. Students can pursue various copywriter courses such as Journalism , Advertising , Marketing Management . Here, we have discussed how to become a freelance copywriter, copywriter career path, how to become a copywriter in India, and copywriting career outlook. 

In a career as a vlogger, one generally works for himself or herself. However, once an individual has gained viewership there are several brands and companies that approach them for paid collaboration. It is one of those fields where an individual can earn well while following his or her passion. 

Ever since internet costs got reduced the viewership for these types of content has increased on a large scale. Therefore, a career as a vlogger has a lot to offer. If you want to know more about the Vlogger eligibility, roles and responsibilities then continue reading the article. 

For publishing books, newspapers, magazines and digital material, editorial and commercial strategies are set by publishers. Individuals in publishing career paths make choices about the markets their businesses will reach and the type of content that their audience will be served. Individuals in book publisher careers collaborate with editorial staff, designers, authors, and freelance contributors who develop and manage the creation of content.

Careers in journalism are filled with excitement as well as responsibilities. One cannot afford to miss out on the details. As it is the small details that provide insights into a story. Depending on those insights a journalist goes about writing a news article. A journalism career can be stressful at times but if you are someone who is passionate about it then it is the right choice for you. If you want to know more about the media field and journalist career then continue reading this article.

Individuals in the editor career path is an unsung hero of the news industry who polishes the language of the news stories provided by stringers, reporters, copywriters and content writers and also news agencies. Individuals who opt for a career as an editor make it more persuasive, concise and clear for readers. In this article, we will discuss the details of the editor's career path such as how to become an editor in India, editor salary in India and editor skills and qualities.

Individuals who opt for a career as a reporter may often be at work on national holidays and festivities. He or she pitches various story ideas and covers news stories in risky situations. Students can pursue a BMC (Bachelor of Mass Communication) , B.M.M. (Bachelor of Mass Media) , or  MAJMC (MA in Journalism and Mass Communication) to become a reporter. While we sit at home reporters travel to locations to collect information that carries a news value.  

Corporate Executive

Are you searching for a Corporate Executive job description? A Corporate Executive role comes with administrative duties. He or she provides support to the leadership of the organisation. A Corporate Executive fulfils the business purpose and ensures its financial stability. In this article, we are going to discuss how to become corporate executive.

Multimedia Specialist

A multimedia specialist is a media professional who creates, audio, videos, graphic image files, computer animations for multimedia applications. He or she is responsible for planning, producing, and maintaining websites and applications. 

Quality Controller

A quality controller plays a crucial role in an organisation. He or she is responsible for performing quality checks on manufactured products. He or she identifies the defects in a product and rejects the product. 

A quality controller records detailed information about products with defects and sends it to the supervisor or plant manager to take necessary actions to improve the production process.

Production Manager

A QA Lead is in charge of the QA Team. The role of QA Lead comes with the responsibility of assessing services and products in order to determine that he or she meets the quality standards. He or she develops, implements and manages test plans. 

Process Development Engineer

The Process Development Engineers design, implement, manufacture, mine, and other production systems using technical knowledge and expertise in the industry. They use computer modeling software to test technologies and machinery. An individual who is opting career as Process Development Engineer is responsible for developing cost-effective and efficient processes. They also monitor the production process and ensure it functions smoothly and efficiently.

AWS Solution Architect

An AWS Solution Architect is someone who specializes in developing and implementing cloud computing systems. He or she has a good understanding of the various aspects of cloud computing and can confidently deploy and manage their systems. He or she troubleshoots the issues and evaluates the risk from the third party. 

Azure Administrator

An Azure Administrator is a professional responsible for implementing, monitoring, and maintaining Azure Solutions. He or she manages cloud infrastructure service instances and various cloud servers as well as sets up public and private cloud systems. 

Computer Programmer

Careers in computer programming primarily refer to the systematic act of writing code and moreover include wider computer science areas. The word 'programmer' or 'coder' has entered into practice with the growing number of newly self-taught tech enthusiasts. Computer programming careers involve the use of designs created by software developers and engineers and transforming them into commands that can be implemented by computers. These commands result in regular usage of social media sites, word-processing applications and browsers.

Information Security Manager

Individuals in the information security manager career path involves in overseeing and controlling all aspects of computer security. The IT security manager job description includes planning and carrying out security measures to protect the business data and information from corruption, theft, unauthorised access, and deliberate attack 

ITSM Manager

Automation test engineer.

An Automation Test Engineer job involves executing automated test scripts. He or she identifies the project’s problems and troubleshoots them. The role involves documenting the defect using management tools. He or she works with the application team in order to resolve any issues arising during the testing process. 

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Introduction: Writing the History of Terrorism

Carola Dietze is a professor of modern history (Chair) at Friedrich Schiller University in Jena, Germany. Her research focuses on the history of violence, security, and the media as well as on migration and the history of ideas, universities, and historiography in Europe, Russia, and the United States during the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. Her publications include The Invention of Terrorism in Europe, Russia, and the United States (2021, published in German in 2016 and in Russian in 2021), and “Legitimacy and Security in Historical Perspective: A Case Study in the History of Terrorism,” in Conceptualizing Power in Dynamics of Securitization: Beyond State and International System edited by Regina Kreide and Andreas Langenohl (Baden-Baden, 2019). She is a member of the editorial board of Studies in Conflict and Terrorism. In 2006 Dietze was awarded the German Historical Association’s prize for the best doctoral thesis in the field of history, i.e., from prehistory to contemporary history. The thesis was published in German as Nachgeholtes Leben: Helmuth Plessner, 1892–1985, as well as in Dutch and French translations.

• Published: 14 April 2021
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This chapter analyzes the most important trends in the writing of the history of terrorism since the beginning of terrorism research in the late nineteenth century up to today. It presents the origins of terrorism studies in Western social sciences and international relations, and it contextualizes the standard narrative of the history of terrorism put forward by the political scientists David C. Rapoport and Walter Laqueur. The chapter traces major developments in the history of terrorism in professional historiography in the Soviet Union or Russia as well as Europe and the United States during and after the Cold War, and especially since the attacks on September 11, 2001, and it outlines the results and effects of that historiography. On the basis of the evaluation of the scholarship available to date, the article maps out the rationale and the contours of the new global history of terrorism pursued in The Oxford Handbook of the History of Terrorism .

Terrorism and its history have been the topic of considerable public, political, literary, artistic, and academic attention, since this specific tactic of violence was invented concurrently with the advent of modernity. 1 It therefore can come as no surprise that the first academic treatises on terrorism as a subject of inquiry began to appear in the nineteenth century. 2 They were a reaction to the series of assassination attempts in Russia and to the “‘golden age’ of anarchist terrorism, 1880–1914,” 3 when an astounding number of monarchs, prime ministers, presidents, governors, and other members of governments and the wider population were attacked especially in Europe, Russia, and the United States, but also in other countries, such as Argentina and China. 4

It was not until the 1970s, however, that in the Western world systematic research on the phenomenon of terrorist violence and its origins began. In the post–World War II era, terrorism had mainly been employed in the struggles over decolonization in Africa and Asia and drew the attention of few researchers in Western academia. 5 In the 1970s terrorist tactics began to be adopted in Western Europe, the United States, and Japan by groups such as the Red Army Faction (Rote Armee Fraktion; RAF), the Red Brigades (Brigate Rosse; BR), the Provisional Irish Republican Army, the Weather Underground, and the Japanese Red Army (Nippon Sekigun [JRA]). 6 Reactions to these manifestations of terrorist violence in highly industrialized nations were manifold: intense police work was accompanied by prominent and often severely contested legal and executive measures. 7 Moreover, there were also academic endeavors to analyze and thereby help contain terrorist violence.

Researchers from different disciplines in Western academia turned to the systematic inquiry of the phenomenon and different types of political violence in general and to the study of terrorist attacks specifically. Most of these researchers were social scientists, mainly political scientists and scholars in the field of international relations. They strove to better understand and explain the causes, types, effects, and functioning of terrorism and in this way find possibilities to prevent terrorist violence. 8 As for the history of terrorism, many of these social scientists perceived it as an indispensable part of their work to give an overview of important examples of terrorist violence in the past. The historical perspective, with its developmental narrative and its comparative approach to terrorism in different cultural, historical, and religious settings, enabled them to situate, characterize, analyze, and even theorize the then current phenomena of terrorist violence. 9 For reasons such as these, the history of terrorism often occupies a crucial place in publications and entire oeuvres of the social scientist pioneers in the field of terrorism studies.

The expertise acquired by the pioneer researchers of terrorism in the social sciences was in high demand right away. A considerable number of these researchers would therefore receive positions in think tanks and serve as consultants to governments on counterterrorist policy strategies. They would also often comment on the recurring attacks in the national news media. Moreover, they developed university courses and study programs, or founded journals and research institutions, focused on terrorism and counterterrorism. For example, in 1969 David C. Rapoport taught what was probably the first course on terrorism in the United States, at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA). 10 The two most important journals in the field, Terrorism —now Studies in Conflict and Terrorism —and Terrorism and Political Violence were launched in 1977 and 1989, respectively. 11 In 1985 Paul Wilkinson set up the Terrorism Research Unit in the Department of Politics and International Relations at the University of Aberdeen, and in 1994 he and Bruce Hoffman went on to establish the Centre for the Study of Terrorism and Political Violence (CSTPV) at the University of St. Andrews School of International Relations—the first research center for the study of terrorism in Europe. 12 Last but not least, the social-science pioneers and their students published books and anthologies that have become standard reference works for anybody interested in studying terrorism, regardless of disciplinary affiliation. 13 In this way, these pioneers and their students successfully established terrorism studies as a specific academic field, and they gained the privilege and power of interpreting terrorist violence for influential policy makers as well as for broad national and international audiences.

Historians and the History of Terrorism Up to the Year 2000

In the newly defined field of terrorism studies, professional historians were few and far between. This observation is in need of explanation, especially since the writing of history from its very beginnings in Thucydides’ History of the Peloponnesian War —as far as the Western tradition is concerned—typically focuses intently on individual and collective political violence. Recounting, analyzing, and explaining manifestations of political violence—assassinations, coups d’état, rebellions, revolutions, terror, civil wars, and wars between empires and states—have belonged and still belong to the noblest (and often also best-selling) task of the historian. Many historians are therefore indeed experts on political violence of the past, and if political violence follows certain patterns they can, moreover, contribute important insights to the analysis of violent phenomena in the present.

Yet, professional historians have typically shunned the topic of terrorism. 14 The reasons for their reticence are not evident and, with few exceptions, can only be conjectured. One of the few historians to have indicated why he is hesitant to tackle the topic is the highly distinguished military historian and strategic studies expert Sir Michael Eliot Howard. He once wrote in a book review: “[Terrorism is a] huge and ill-defined subject [that] has probably been responsible for more incompetent and unnecessary books than any other outside the field of sociology. It attracts phonies and amateurs as a candle attracts moths.” 15 Howard perceives terrorism as an unpleasant, even obnoxious research topic that is messy in more than one way. To take this observation one step further, historians’ reluctance to deal with the topic of terrorism perhaps was (and to some extent still is) attributable to the fact that they fear researching the history of terrorism might entangle them in contemporary politics and leave them without the distance they require to examine the subject objectively.

Other, more structural reasons for historians’ reservations about terrorism research may be found in the history of historiography. Since its beginnings in the nineteenth century, academic historiography has tended to focus primarily on large structures and processes of national interest, such as the state, domestic or foreign policy, nation building, the church, industrialization, and social movements. When historians did choose to do biographical research on individuals, they usually focused on prominent and important individuals in government and politics, in the economy and society, or in literature and the arts. Terrorists usually do not belong to these categories or fields of investigation and may therefore have seemed tangential or irrelevant to the research questions generated by an emphasis on structures, processes, and personalities. 16 As a result, even though political violence in general is a rich field of study in academic historiography, there has been very little research on terrorism. 17

The observation that professional historical research has been scarce until recently holds true even though professional historians had already begun to study terrorist perpetrators, incidents, and movements in the nineteenth century. 18 And it holds true even though there is one important exception to this rule: the historiography on prerevolutionary Russia, where terrorism obviously influenced the course of history. In 1866 a student named Dmitrii Vladimirovich Karakozov tried to shoot Tsar Alexander II. The tsar was not hurt, but in the wake of the attempt he abandoned the liberal reform policies he had promoted since the beginning of his reign. In response, a group calling itself Narodnaia Volia (People’s Will) was founded in 1879. Its members carried out a number of spectacular assassination attempts on the tsar, finally killing him on March 13 [March 1], 1881 using terrorist tactics. In the face of events such as these, experts in nineteenth-century Russian history have found it necessary to treat the history of terrorism.

In Russia, methodical inquiry into terrorism and its history began soon after the Revolution of 1905. 19 The revolution liberated Narodnaia Volia’s members from prison, and many of them used their unexpected freedom to describe their experiences in their memoirs. 20 Moreover, the Revolution of 1905 achieved some liberalization of the tsarist autocracy and its censorship. Historians could now begin to describe and analyze in independent, source-based studies the assassination attempts on Tsar Alexander II and other representatives of the state. 21 In 1917 the February Revolution and the October Revolution led to the opening of the state archives. As a result, research into the history of terrorism intensified, reaching its first peak in 1929 in connection with the fiftieth anniversary of the foundation of Narodnaia Volia. 22

Soviet scholarship was not allowed to continue uninterrupted, however: it came to a halt in the mid-1930s, because by that time the prevailing opinion in Soviet academia was that Narodnaia Volia and the Socialist Revolutionary Party (Partiia sotsialistov-revoliutsionerov; PSR) were bourgeois associations striving for a liberal society. Therefore, these terrorist movements were regarded not as predecessors of the revolutionary transformation of Russia, but as enemies of Marxism. For about three decades research on terrorism and its history was nearly impossible. 23 It was not until the 1960s that professional historians in the Soviet Union returned to researching the history of terrorism. After Stalin’s death, the First Secretary of the Communist Party, Nikita Khrushchev, pursued a policy of de-Stalinization and in this context announced a new cultural policy in 1956. It paved the way for a number of new studies on non-Bolshevik revolutionary movements in tsarist Russia that had used terrorist tactics. 24 In sum, by the end of the 1960s a considerable body of Russian-language source editions and studies on nineteenth-century terrorism in tsarist Russia had been published.

By the end of the 1960s, a number of prominent historians in Western countries had also taken up the topic. Initially, most were specialists in the study of Eastern Europe and Russia. They built on the Russian-language research, contributed to it, and wrote their own interpretations of events for their Western reading public. 25 Moreover, in the 1970s, following the lead of social scientists, a few historians open to social-scientific methods in the study of history also turned to the history of terrorism. These Western historians presented broad, comparative studies on a number of cases of political violence, protest, and resistance in the past, 26 as well as in-depth research on significant movements, parties, and groups in prerevolutionary Russia that had used terrorism, placing them in their respective historical contexts and analyzing the causes and effects of their violence. 27 The role of women in the revolutionary movement became a topic of special inquiry. 28 The insights and implications of some of these historians’ work reach far beyond the cases investigated. For instance, in his study The Russian Socialist Revolutionary Party before the First World War , the Eastern European historian Manfred Hildermeier ultimately reflects on the emergence and role of political violence in agrarian societies that undergo processes of modernization, a topic of current and continuing relevance in societies around the world.

In 1991, after the fall of the Soviet Union, Russian and Ukrainian interest in reassessing the non-Bolshevik revolutionary movements without the necessity of taking Soviet ideology into account led to another surge in history writing on this topic. 29 Concurrently, a new generation of Eastern European historians in the West also turned to the history of Russian terrorist movements. 30 Toward the end of the millennium, few professional historians had decided to devote themselves to the study of terrorism, and those historians in both the East and the West who did, focused primarily on the terrorist movements in prerevolutionary Russia. Thus it was that a corpus of systematic research on questions related to the history of terrorism existed mainly for prerevolutionary Russia, and not for other states.

By contrast, in the twentieth century the history of terrorism in the United States did not play much of a role in the country’s national historiography. This was due not least to the fact that terrorism was not seen as homegrown in the United States, but as foreign. 31 There are several reasons for this perception. For one, the terrorist attacks that occurred in the United States were rarely labeled as such. Instead, they were called “acts of resistance” against the politics of Reconstruction following the Civil War, or “labor unrest,” or “mass shootings” perpetrated by “lone gunmen.” 32 In the historiography on left-wing radicalism, scholars often carefully avoided using the term “terrorism” in order to prevent stereotyping. Moreover, if the term was applied to people and groups, from the actions of outlaw Jesse James and of Confederate guerrillas during the Civil War to the bombings of Chicago’s Haymarket Square and the buildings of the Los Angeles Times and Wall Street, in the majority of these studies the terrorist aspect remained peripheral. Thus, although numerous studies on class conflict in the United States, on American anarchism, and on the Ku Klux Klan have been produced by historians since the beginning of the twentieth century and particularly since the 1970s, 33 the primary focus in these studies has not been on the violence involved. The American historian Beverly Gage concluded that although, at the end of the twentieth century, Americans had “ histories of terrorism,” what “did not exist was a coherent historiography of terrorism, a definable way to think about the role such violence has (or has not) played in the American past.” 34 And similarly, for Western Europe there were a number of studies dedicated to certain people, groups, or prominent attacks, 35 but no systematic, in-depth research on the phenomenon of political violence comparable to that found in the historiography of Russia.

Reviewing the entire body of literature taken into account here, we see that the time frame covered by historians in both the East and the West was fairly broad. Collectively and in some cases individually as well, these scholars scrutinized the early-modern and modern eras. Owing to the specific methods and requirements of their discipline, however, they rarely addressed developments and events that took place after the end of World War II. The explanation for this hesitancy to choose more recent topics is straightforward: professional historians rely on archival sources and other written documents or documented oral material. Not surprisingly, in the 1970s such material was rarely available for the then active clandestine terrorist groups, as well as for the then ongoing counterterrorist policies and security measures. 36 Historians therefore had (and in many cases still have) to wait for such documents to become accessible. Their opportunity to research the topic would come with their access to the material.

For these reasons, in the 1970s contributions to the study of terrorism by professional historians could not be useful and readily applicable in the same way as the contributions of the social-scientist pioneers of terrorism studies. This explains why historians working on the topic of terrorist violence had to settle for a relatively marginal position in the attention of policy makers and broad audiences as well as in the emerging field of terrorism studies. None of the professional historians active in terrorism research gained the privilege and power of interpretation comparable to that of the early social scienctists. 37 This became even more obvious after 9/11.

Writing the History of Terrorism in the New Millennium

Since the attacks on the World Trade Center in New York City and the Pentagon in Arlington, Virginia, on September 11, 2001, terrorism, terrorism studies, and the history of terrorism have attracted more and more attention. This is why, in the wake of 9/11 and subsequent terrorist attacks across the world, innumerable new works on these topics have appeared in academia. 38 Some of the authors of this literature are the pioneers of terrorism studies; 39 others represent a new generation of experts; 40 some authors were political scientists who were now turning to the topic; 41 and some were journalists or literary writers dealing with the subject for the first time. 42 Whatever their background, all these authors usually intended to introduce students and the wider public to the phenomenon of terrorism, giving interpretations of terrorist violence and its place in the twenty-first century and striving to explain its global surge. Certainly, books belonging to this genre of literature vary considerably in substance, focus, and perspective, but whatever their exact content, and just like the classic introductions to the field written by the pioneers of terrorism studies since the 1970s, in their writings the authors of most of these new interpretations of terrorism addressed historical questions—either explicitly by including a chapter dedicated to the history of terrorism or by pointing to what they regarded as incidences of terrorism in world history, or implicitly by interpreting the past through the present.

As was the social-scientific terrorism literature of the 1970s, the interpretations of the history of terrorism written right at the beginning of the twenty-first century were overwhelmingly rereadings of familiar historical events based on the available literature, rather than investigations into new archival and other primary sources. They also tended to place past events of terrorism and their periodization into the framework of the standard narrative of terrorism studies and influential metanarratives in the social sciences (such as the sequence of the premodern, modern, and postmodern eras), rather than into the frame of specific national and international historical contexts and developments. This is hardly surprising: with few exceptions, most of the authors were, again, academics who had been trained as social scientists. Philosophers, journalists, and pundits also presented prominent and thought-provoking interpretations of 9/11 and subsequent terrorist attacks that were in many respects different and even contradictory, but all of them interesting and influential. 43 And again, taken together, these introductory chapters, narratives, and interpretations explicitly or implicitly suggested ways of reading the history of terrorism.

Certainly, there were also historians who reacted to the attacks on September 11, 2001. But because historical research typically is laborious and time-consuming, their contributions began to appear only toward the end of the first decade of the twenty-first century. Their initial contributions roughly fall into four categories: first, there are monographs and anthologies giving large overviews of terrorism and its history since antiquity; 44 secondly, there are books and special issues of journals covering terrorism since the beginning of the modern era up until today; 45 thirdly, there are publications on the history of specific types of terrorism, such as car bombings or hijackings; 46 and fourthly, there are contributions dealing with prominent cases, such as the book on Karakozov’s attempt to assassinate Tsar Alexander II in 1866 by the historian of modern Russia Claudia Verhoeven, the study on Vera Zasulich’s murder of General Fedor Trepov in St. Petersburg in 1878 by the Russian and Eastern European historian Ana Siljak, the monograph on Émile Henry’s attacks in fin de siecle Paris by the French and European historian John Merriman, and the analysis of the Wall Street bombing in 1920 by the American historian Beverly Gage. 47 The authors of these books, anthologies, and special issues mostly based their studies on published and in some cases also on archival sources including works of art and fiction, as well as on scholarly historical research and writing.

At the same time, toward the end of the first decade of the twenty-first century, historical research appeared on the terrorism and counterterrorism carried out during the 1970s. Around the year 2000—thirty years after their formation as prescribed by the respective public records acts in many Western countries—state archives began to declassify certain files associated with national efforts to fight terrorist groups, making these files available for research. Moreover, some victims’ family members as well as a few former members of terrorist organizations began to speak and write about their experiences and memories. Contemporary historians were now able to start researching terrorist groups, such as the Red Army Faction in West Germany and the Weathermen in the United States. 48 Among the most frequently treated research topics were the terrorists’ political ideas, communication policies, media reception, and public debates on attacks, as well as the states’ reactions more generally. 49 Ulrich Herbert used a generational approach to analyze the perspectives of the “generation of 68” toward state, society, and violence; 50 and Jeremy Veron and Petra Terhoeven, as well as the authors of the volume An International History of Terrorism , applied comparative and transnational approaches to investigate the connections and interrelations of terrorist groups and their audiences in Western Europe, the United States, and beyond. 51 Still, historical research on terrorism and counterterrorism in the 1970s has only just begun, and many important questions remain to be investigated.

The social-scientist perspective on the history of terrorism can also be seen in these texts. Either most of the contributions by historians published toward the end of the first decade of the twenty-first century use the framework of the history of terrorism established by the social-scientific pioneers of terrorism studies, or they still fit into this frame even if they do not refer to it explicitly. Usually, the authors of these historical publications did not aim at questioning or challenging these narratives. The approach to the frame of reference changed with a number of publications that started appearing at the beginning of the second decade of the twenty-first century. They still have to be considered academic reactions to 9/11 and to the universal increase of terrorist violence thereafter.

What characterizes the publications by professional historians released since 2010 is that quite a number of these studies present fresh interpretations of the overall history of terrorism. Their authors arrive at these reinterpretations by using different sets of source material and methods of history writing, and they present different narratives. For example, the cultural historian Mikkel Thorup—one of the first to offer such a reevaluation of the standard narrative—uses more or less well-known political tracts and the classic approach of history of ideas as it is applied to the intellectual history of political theory. With the help of this approach, he intends to show that “the state form determines its challengers,” and that it does so not in a conscious or intentional way, but because the state “is the privileged descriptor and all-important center of attention. Changes in how the state organizes, describes and legitimates itself will have profound consequences for how it conceptualizes challenges and how it can be fought, both legitimatorily [ sic ] and violently.” 52 Somewhat similarly, the historian of modern Russia Martin A. Miller integrated into his narrative of the history of terrorism “the violence of governments and insurgencies into a single narrative format as a way of understanding terrorism in its broadest historical representation.” 53 In an article published earlier, Richard Bach Jensen also argued for an essential interconnection between government action and terrorist violence (as well as other factors) in explaining the origins of anarchist violence. 54 Other studies began to reconstruct and analyze little-known cases in addition to the prominent ones and investigated larger time frames in the history of terrorism and counterterrorism based on published and archival sources, as well as on the scholarly social scientific and historical literature. 55 Whatever the precise narrative and its basis, however, a common denominator of all these publications is that—in different ways and with varying emphases—they pay increased attention to the dynamics and interactions between terrorism, on the one hand, and the state, public, and media actions and reactions, on the other, in order to analyze and explain the emergence and development of terrorism during larger time frames. These dynamics and interactions thus become an integral part of the narrative, “bringing the state back in” (Theda Skocpol) to the history of terrorism.

In all these and other studies mentioned previously, research by professional historians has begun to yield results. And as more material becomes available over time, it can be expected that more historical studies will be produced. But how did these results and historical research more generally change the ways in which the history of terrorism is conceived? The answer to this question first requires a review of those interpretations and narratives, which are still dominant in the field of terrorism studies.

Major Narratives of the History of Terrorism

The standard narrative of the global history of terrorism since the 1970s was presented by the polymath Walter Laqueur and the American political scientist David C. Rapoport. Laqueur published his book Terrorism in 1977. 56 This pioneering empirical study covers all aspects of terrorism as a phenomenon of political violence, including its history. Laqueur takes into account a remarkably broad range of terrorist phenomena. As early forms of terrorism, Laqueur mentions the Jewish Sicarii in their fight against the Roman Empire, the Assassins in medieval Persia, and the Indian Thugs. According to Laqueur, the turning point toward modern terrorism is the French Revolution, when the word “terror” ( terreur ) became laden with political and secular meaning. In Laqueur’s opinion, the origins of modern terrorism lie in the Enlightenment and the rise of the revolutionary principles of democracy and nationalism, and especially in the idea of nationhood. As the first high point of terrorist violence he describes the nihilist and anarchist “propaganda of the deed” of the 1880s and 1890s. 57 Furthermore, Laqueur examines nationalist terrorism as exemplified by the Irish, Armenian, and Macedonian separatist movements, and he also addresses right-wing groups such as the Romanian Iron Guard, the German Free Corps, and the Zionist Irgun and Lehi (whose name derives from the acronym LEHI, for Lohamel Herut Israel [“Fighters for the Freedom of Israel”]), as well as the Muslim Brotherhood. 58

Rapoport, who also began to publish on terrorism and its history in the 1970s, developed an influential theoretical approach to the history of terrorism. The theory explains the evolution of terrorism on the basis of historical patterns, making it possible, at least to a certain extent, to predict future developments of the phenomenon. In essays such as “Fear and Trembling: Terrorism in Three Religious Traditions” and in his “four wave theory,” 59 Rapoport argues the existence of a religiously inspired premodern terrorism, like Laqueur citing the Sicarii, Assassins, and Thugs as examples. For Rapoport, modern terrorism began in 1879 in Russia and comprises four ideological waves: anarchist (1878–1919), anticolonial (1920s–early 1960s), New Left (mid-1960s–1990s), and religious (1979–?). He defines a wave as a “cycle of activity in a given time period” and exhibiting an international character, in which “similar activities occur in many countries driven by a common predominant energy shaping participating groups and their mutual relationships.” As the names of these waves suggest, each is driven by a different energy. Rapoport maintains that a wave lasts for approximately a generation. This prognostic capability of theory of waves is one reason his theory is much valued by researchers studying terrorism. 60 Rapoport explains the emergence of the first wave as having been made possible by advances in transportation and communication technology (the invention of the telegraph, the expansion of railways, and the founding of daily newspapers) and having been fueled by the dissemination of democratic ideas and the discovery of a strategy of terror by Russian revolutionaries. Each new wave is then characterized by a new ideology as well as new technologies of communication and weaponry. 61

This narrative of the forerunners of terrorism found in ancient times in religious violence and tyrannicide, the origins of revolutionary terrorism in the terror of the French Revolution, and its evolution by way of Narodnaia Volia in tsarist Russia and anarchist individuals in Western Europe and the United States is today considered valid by the overwhelming majority of the current literature on terrorism and its history. This literature also includes a basic consensus on classifying terrorism according to the categories of social-revolutionary, ethnic-nationalistic, and radically right-wing, even though these three types are not equally integrated into the history of terrorism. In the 1990s, religious terrorism was added as a fourth category. 62

Since the late 1990s and even more prominently since 2001, two contrary counternarratives have begun to challenge the standard narration of the history of terrorism. According to the first counternarrative, modern terrorism begins with the 1972 attack against the Israeli Olympic team in Munich. 63 This interpretation results from an emphasis on the role of technology in this violent attack. The taking of hostages in Munich was the first act of terrorism to be broadcast on television in real time to a worldwide audience. This fact is indeed noteworthy. But while technical innovations may indeed justify the marking of a turning point within the history of terrorism, they do not indicate the beginning of (modern) terrorism, because the tactic of exploiting the media technology then available had already been developed and tested frequently.

The second counternarrative posits that terrorism is a universal phenomenon spanning all of human history. Terrorist violence, argue the authors advocating this approach, has always existed and has been experienced all over the world. 64 The distinction between this interpretation and the standard narrative can be explained by the differences in their understanding of terrorism. Those who view terrorism as an anthropological phenomenon have a broad conception of this form of political violence. For Caleb Carr, terrorism is “warfare deliberately waged against civilians with the purpose of destroying their will to support either leaders or policies that the agents of such violence find objectionable”; 65 and for Martin A. Miller, it is a form of violence encompassing both insurgent terrorism and state terror. 66 Such definitions broaden the history of terrorism into a history of murder, terror, and psychological warfare, which covers a multitude of different violent phenomena ranging from Greek tactics for intimidating opponents, to the Spanish Inquisition, to National Socialist and Stalinist state terror, to the bombing of cities by German and Allied Forces in World War II and the dropping of atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. These are important subjects in a history of violence, but they should not be lumped in with the history of terrorism, lest it lose analytical incisiveness regarding its actual topic and invite revanchist interpretations. 67 Neither of these counternarratives represents a persuasive alternative for a history of terrorism.

The Significance of Place and Time in the History of Terrorism

Within the standard narrative of the history of terrorism, the main focus lies on Russia. Even if Laqueur and Rapoport both mention different beginnings and forms of terrorism, they concurrently argue that the decisive and potent manifestation of modern terrorism originated in Russia, and that the most important organization in the history of terrorism was the Russian group Narodnaia Volia, founded in 1879. After all, it was the members of Narodnaia Volia who self-confidently professed to be terrorists, and it was they who assassinated Tsar Alexander II in 1881. So—at least at first glance—there are indeed good and historically precise arguments to be made for highlighting the part that Russia played in the history of terrorism, not least because terrorism played such a decisive role in Russian history.

Furthermore, the times and circumstances under which the standard narrative of the history of terrorism was developed may have encouraged a focus on Russia. Laqueur and Rapoport developed the standard narrative of the history of terrorism in the 1970s—during the middle of the Cold War. In the eyes of many historians who were researching and writing during the Cold War, the importance to world history of the series of assassination attempts that Russian terrorists staged in 1866 and again after 1879 can scarcely be overstated. The “hunt” that the members of Narodnaia Volia carried out against their “crowned game” destabilized the tsarist empire and halted the political, economic, and social reforms that Tsar Alexander II had launched and promoted since early in his reign. The destabilization and the end of the reform processes, in turn, were important preconditions and causes for the revolutions in Russia at the beginning of the twentieth century: the Revolution of 1905, and the February Revolution and October Revolution of 1917. 68 The Bolshevik October Revolution, from which emerged the Soviet Union and ultimately the armed confrontation with the West, was one of the pivotal events for the Cold War world. This was also true of events that had paved the way for the revolution, such as the terrorist attacks carried out by Narodnaia Volia and the Socialist Revolutionary Party, even if both groups were opposed to and rivals of the Bolsheviks. These groups had contributed to the destabilization of the tsarist state by means of repeated terrorist attacks and thus were important in leading to the Russian Revolution.

Another factor has to be taken into account as well. Based on the then-current experience with terrorist attacks in highly industrialized countries in the 1970s, social-science experts in terrorism studies and historians of terrorism alike tended to pay attention mainly to social-revolutionary terrorism (as compared to its ethnic-nationalist, far-right, or religious manifestations). The Russian terrorist movements fit the bill precisely.

Moreover, the history of historiography and its authors played a role in developing this strong focus on Russia. Facilitating it was the fact that a number of reliable source editions and a fairly extensive corpus of scholarly historical research and writing on the history of terrorism in Russia were readily available in the 1970s, just when the standard narrative of the history of terrorism was being developed. The reasons are easy to understand. The existing literature in Russian and other European languages that had been published on the topic since the late nineteenth century assured historians of terrorism that they were on solid ground here, and the source editions and detailed accounts by Soviet researchers based on archival sources published before the 1930s and since the 1960s lent themselves to synthetic, comprehensive narratives for Western audiences, who, because of language barriers, had very limited access to the original studies. 69 The availability of such editions and research publications was especially valuable during the Cold War, when Soviet archives were not easily accessible by researchers from abroad. In short, the history of historiography of terrorism shaped its very content.

Last, but not least, the writing of history is always pursued by historians who have their own personal histories. Thus, any historiography has to take into account the biographies and backgrounds of the authors who wrote the histories in question. Emigrants from Russia as well as Eastern and Central Europe seem to have become especially prolific and prominent in the study of terrorism. They had fled the violence of the Russian Revolutions and the ensuing civil war, or the persecution before and after the Nazi takeover in Germany and Austria, Reichspogromnacht (also known as Kristallnacht ), World War II, and the Holocaust. They had emigrated to Palestine/Israel or to Western European countries, and to the United States, and in their new home countries they had taken up the study and writing of history, often speaking all the relevant European languages fluently. 70 Perhaps not least because of such personal experiences, some of them—Adam B. Ulam and Walter Laqueur, for instance—turned an attentive eye to the role that violence had played generally in history and politics and especially in Russian as well as Eastern and Central European history, in order to better understand the origins of the events that had uprooted them and their families. 71 An additional reason might be that they, as recent immigrants, recognized the opportunity that lay in turning to the history of terrorism, a field that was perhaps regarded as messy and lacking in prestige, but that was understudied in the West.

On the basis of their personal experiences and in the context of the Cold War, some of these emigrants from Russia and from Eastern and Central Europe tended to stress the importance of Narodnaia Volia, the Socialist Revolutionary Party, and the Russian Revolution or drew even more long-range connections between earlier Russian history and the global history of terrorism. One such example is Albert Parry. Born and raised in Russia, he escaped a White Army firing squad, and then fled the country and its civil war for the United States, where he wrote a book on the history of terror and terrorism (Parry does not differentiate between these terms) that is insightful in many respects. 72 In it he points to the many different phenomena of violence that he considers to lie at the root of terror and terrorism in East and West. Time and again, however, he returns to the special role that Russia played in the history of political violence in general and in the history of terror and terrorism specifically: “From the heritage of the Mongol-Tatar enslavers and torturers,” Parry writes, “carried on and improved upon by such native insurgents as Razin and Pugachev, derives much of the terror of that giant bloody upheaval, the Russian Revolution. And from that Revolution stems much of the political terror in the world today.” 73 Thus, according to Parry, important roots of the history of terror and terrorism lay in the thirteenth-century struggles of European Russians with the peoples of Central Asia. Through the Russian Revolution and the political measures effected by the Soviet Union, these forms of terrorism and terror became important phenomena of world history. Parry’s sweeping historical narrative, influenced by his personal history, is incorrect; the claims and connections it suggests cannot stand up to the scrutiny of historical research. But at the time of the Cold War it was well received, perhaps not least because it accorded so well with the prevailing mindset of the era.

With the end of the Cold War, the global significance of the Russian Revolution waned. Moreover, a number of terrorist groups that had been active in Europe for many years and connected to social-revolutionary ideologies one by one began to enter peace negotiations and renounce violence. The era of political-secular terrorism—according to the standard narrative of the history of terrorism—seemed to be ending.

Yet, despite the supposed end of this era, the tactic of terrorism lived on, as signified at the latest by the terrorist attacks in the United States on September 11, 2001. In the political arena, these attacks were immediately interpreted in historical terms, but the interpretations were contradictory. On the one hand, commentators and politicians alike emphasized the new and unprecedented aspects of this violence. The American secretary of defense, Donald H. Rumsfeld, spoke of “a new kind of war,” and President George W. Bush of “a new kind of evil.” 74 Such views went hand in hand with the instant conviction of the transformative power of these attacks and their historical significance worldwide: “America, in the spasms of a few hours, became a changed country,” Lance Morrow remarked in Time magazine. 75 Other commentators spoke of a “turning point” in history, a fundamental “break in the development of humanity,” and the beginning of a new “age of terrorism.” 76 Interpretations such as these were decidedly future oriented, because they seemed to suggest that 9/11 was an event without precedent, without history. 77

On the other hand, different interpretations of the 9/11 terrorist attacks turned the attention of politicians, academics, and the general public to what—according to the standard narrative of the history of terrorism—could be called “holy terror,” or pre- and postmodern, religious terrorism. 78 As a consequence of this new focus of attention, another line of tradition, already present in the standard narrative, now came to the fore: that linking the current terrorist attacks perpetrated by Muslims to the medieval Islamic sect of the so-called Assassins, the Ismaili. 79 This narrative seemed to gain more plausibility as the tactic of suicide terrorism became more prominent. 80 Important examples in addition to the 9/11 attacks include the repeated suicide attacks by Lebanese and Palestinian groups, such as Hezbollah, Hamas, Islamic Jihad, and the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigade against American, French, and Israeli targets since the early 1980s, and the attacks on London’s public transport system on July 7, 2005, to name but a few. 81 The fact these suicide attacks were perpetrated by Muslims strengthened this narrative, even though, starting in 1987, it was members of the non-religiously based Tamil Tigers in Sri Lanka who had been responsible for the majority of suicide attacks.

As they had during the Cold War, when terrorism experts looked to Russian history for the origins of terrorism, after 9/11 many authors and commentators maintained that the Assassins and the Islamic history of martyrdom had exerted an influence on, and found a receptive audience in, modern suicide terrorists. Some authors tried to locate the origins of terrorism and specifically of an Islamic history of violence in medieval Persia, Iraq, and Syria. 82

These attempts to trace the origins of terrorism to medieval Persian or Russian history or to declare the phenomenon entirely unprecedented are unconvincing in the face of historical analysis. Clearly there have been too many examples of terrorist attacks since the nineteenth century for the 9/11 attack to be thought of as new. The use of passenger planes as weapons in a suicide attack was of course unprecedented, and the attacks created a great deal of havoc. Moreover, they were especially deadly in that an exceptionally high number of people from all over the world, who worked in the Twin Towers and the Pentagon, were killed. The terrorist tactic itself was not new, however. Furthermore, attempts to trace the origins of terrorism to medieval Persian or to Russian history take current phenomena as a starting point and suggest (more or less) sweeping genealogies that are based largely on prima facie analogies. In the construction of some of these genealogies, striking forms of war and violence along with vague political or religious connections serve as reference points in drawing lines of tradition across seven or eight centuries, ignoring all differences in detail and all the changes in almost every sphere of life that have since occurred and that distinguish these societies. It would not be difficult to point to a large number of cruel wars and horrifying forms of violence in Western societies, however, including religiously based tyrannicide and the Thirty Years’ War (1618–1648) in Europe, or the wars between conquerors or settlers and indigenous Americans in the New World, or the lynching of African Americans and others in America, to give just a few examples. Why should phenomena of violence such as these figure any less prominently in tracing the origins of terrorism? Furthermore, one cannot escape noticing that attempts to trace the beginnings of terrorism to medieval Persian or Russian history ascribe the emergence of this phenomenon of political violence to the culture and history of the West’s then-current geopolitical opponent. Together with the idea that the 9/11 attacks were unprecedented, all three narratives suggest that it is unnecessary to look for the origins and causes of terrorism in the history of those who present these narratives: the history of the West.

In conclusion, from a historical perspective none of the major narratives of the history of terrorism that have been and still are dominant in the field of terrorism studies is entirely convincing. Moreover, studies by professional historians since 2010 and the fresh interpretations of the history of terrorism they offer challenge these major narratives by stressing the dynamics and interactions between terrorism, the state, the public, and the media in order to understand and explain the history of terrorism since its emergence. Both these results call for a new historical approach to the global history of terrorism.

A New Global History of Terrorism

This Handbook presents a reevaluation of the major narratives in the history of terrorism, by exploring the emergence and the use of terrorism in world history from antiquity up to the twenty-first century on the basis of new historical research. Because it is impossible for any one historian to possess in-depth knowledge of all the relevant sources and to keep up with the specialized literature that has to be considered in so large a field of study, such an exploration necessarily is a collective endeavor. Therefore, this volume brings together a number of professional historians whose expertise lies in different places and eras. The contributors have also pursued a variety of approaches in their earlier research. To be sure, all had studied the phenomenon of violence in history before, violence that in its various forms (such as assassination, guerrilla war, revolution, or terror) was important for their respective time and place. But not all of the contributors carried out research on terrorism before contributing to this Handbook , and only a few of them would describe themselves as having a special focus on the history of terrorism. Furthermore, in their chapters they consult a wide-ranging set of sources, which they analyze using different methodologies. For these reasons, the chapters of this Handbook offer a wide variety of innovative and original perspectives on the history of terrorism.

In light of the breadth and diversity of the research covered by this Handbook , two guidelines ensure its cohesion. The first is a common definition of terrorism. The German sociologist Peter Waldmann defines it as “violence against a political order from below which is planned and prepared [ planmäßig vorbereitet ] and meant to be shocking. Such acts of violence are supposed to spread feelings of insecurity and intense fear, but they are also meant to generate sympathy and support.” 83 The term “political order” in the original German terminology can include the social and economic order of a society, so Waldmann’s definition also includes right-wing terrorists (such as the National Socialist Underground [NSU] in Germany or Anders Behring Breivik in Norway) and social-revolutionary terrorists (such as the nineteenth-century anarchists). Waldmann underlines the political dimension expressed in the political intentions and objectives of the violence committed by the terrorists. 84 Terrorism is thus a politically motivated strategy of resorting to spectacular violence with the goal of producing a powerful psychological effect in a society—fear on the one hand, sympathy on the other—in order to compel political change. This view limits the concept of terrorism to underground acts of violence against an inherently more powerful opponent (bottom-up), whereas acts of violence by the state against the population (top-down) are called “terror.” And even if one can find a wealth of definitions of terrorism in the general literature on this topic, more recent research literature reflects broad international agreement on the elements identified in this definition. 85 Therefore, the contributors to the Handbook have used this definition, as far as was feasible for them with regard to their respective fields.

The major narratives in the history of terrorism, taken together, constitute the second guiding principle. Because the Handbook intends to reevaluate these narratives on the basis of new empirical research, basic statements constituting these narratives indicate crucial fields of study. This holds true for the standard narrative of terrorism presented by Laqueur and Rapoport as well as for the two narratives challenging this standard narration: the one maintaining that modern terrorism begins with the 1972 attack against the Israeli Olympic team in Munich, and the other stating that terrorism is a universal phenomenon spanning the entirety of time. 86 The historical reevaluation in this Handbook takes all of these narratives into account either implicitly or explicitly.

Of these three narratives of the history of terrorism, the standard narrative certainly poses the greatest challenge for historical reevaluation. For instance, it is imperative to study the question of whether there existed a premodern terrorism that mainly had religious goals, a modern terrorism fighting for secular-political aims, and a postmodern terrorism that is primarily motivated by religion. Then, for each of these time frames, the question arises of whether terrorism was actually perpetrated by the groups that the authors of the standard narrative have suggested. Regarding premodern religious terrorism, for example, the question arises of whether the Sicarii, the Assassins, and the Thugs actually used terrorist tactics, and if so, with what objective. Thus, the statements set forth in the standard narrative of the history of terrorism served as a selection criterion in deciding, for this Handbook , what required study regarding the emergence and use of terrorism in world history, from antiquity up to the twenty-first century. Of course, there are always other topics that warrant inclusion as well.

At the core of the standard narrative is the problem of the relationship between terrorism and modernity. The term “modernity” has at least two different basic meanings, one temporal and one substantive: “modern” can be used to denote an epoch in world history—the modern era—but it can also be used to characterize distinct phenomena and processes, such as industrialization or urbanization. However, there is no general agreement on how to flesh out these two meanings. When does the modern era start? When does it end? Suggestions for the beginning of the modern era range from the emergence of nominalism in the European High Middle Ages via Gutenberg’s invention of the printing press and the Reformation around 1500 to the political and industrial revolutions of the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries. Furthermore, the substantive meaning of the term is as contested as the temporal one. In this respect, technological processes are as important as “big developments” such as urbanization, migration, mobility, and internationalization. Moreover, there are cultural aspects of modernity, its “promissory notes” (Björn Wittrock), that were able to create new affiliations and identities even in places and at times where the substantive changes were marginal. 87 All these aspects of modernity have to be taken into account when examining possible links between modernity and the emergence of terrorism.

However, this coming together of technological innovations, enormous socioeconomic developments, and modern culture is precisely the point where the expertise of historians is called for. It is where their work has to begin. Rapoport and Laqueur both argued that the concept of modern terrorism originated in the French Revolution with the birth of modern democracy, and they repeatedly emphasized the importance of technological, societal, and intellectual developments for the emergence of terrorism in the nineteenth century as well as the changes it underwent in the twentieth. But how exactly did these factors—technological innovations, immense socioeconomic developments, and modern culture—come together to bring forth the new form of political violence that we today call terrorism? Exactly how and where did this transformation of political violence take place? How did it work? Who contributed what? And concerning the time frame we have to ask: What was the starting point? What traditions and practices in the use of political violence already existed that were subject to the transformations unfolding in modern society? What kinds of events were its precursors? Did the phenomenon of terrorism as Waldmann defined it exist prior to the invention of the term in the French Revolution—for example, in the European religious wars of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries? If so, what does that mean for our assumptions about the relationship between terrorism and modernity?

And finally, there is the question of transfer and reception. According to the standard narrative of terrorism studies, modern rebel terrorism originated in Europe and quickly spread to other parts of the world, such as the Balkans, Asia, and South America. If terrorism and modernity are linked, the question arises of whether there are causal links between their spread: did somebody using terroristic methods in China or the Philippines have to embrace certain techniques and ideas that might be characterized as modern? In other words: Did terrorism spread with modernity? Where and at what time was it taken up, and in what ways? What were the preconditions in different societies that made the concept and the method of terrorism appear to certain groups to be an interesting and relevant tool? How was it linked to the general global movement of goods, people, and ideas?

The contributions assembled in this Handbook provide specific answers to questions such as these and thus shape a new history of terrorism. And it might well be that questions such as the ones above and the answers provided are of current relevance if we want to understand the upsurge of terrorism worldwide and find long-lasting political responses.

Acknowledgments

I wrote most of this chapter while I was a Heisenberg Fellow of the German Research Foundation (Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft; DFG), and I would like to express my gratitude to the Foundation for its support of my work. Some of the thoughts presented here were presented in an initial version in the radio feature “Der Anschlag und seine Geschichte: Was wir aus den tatsächlichen Ursprüngen des Terrorismus lernen können,” broadcast on April 23, 2017 by Deutschlandfunk in the series “Essay & Diskurs.” My thanks go to Wolfgang Schiller for inviting me to contribute to the series and for his encouragement and support when formulating these ideas. Moreover, I am indebted to Richard Bach Jensen, Andrea Meyer-Fraatz, and Franziska Schedewie, whose corrections and critiques were extremely valuable. Unless otherwise indicated, all translations are mine.

For a critique of the concept of modernity, see my “Toward a History on Equal Terms: A Discussion of Provincializing Europe ,” History and Theory 47, no. 1 (2008): 69–84. In this text and this volume, however, the term is employed according to common usage.

See, e.g., Alphons Thun, Geschichte der revolutionären Bewegungen in Russland (Leipzig: Duncker & Humblot, 1883); Cesare Lombroso and Rodolfo Laschi, Il delitto politico e le rivoluzioni in rapporto al diritto (Turin: Fratelli Bocca, 1890). Thun was a professor of national economies, and Lombroso was an Italian medical scientist, psychiatrist, and anthropologist. Lombroso’s study was very influential in its time. It appeared in German translation in 1891 and in French translation in 1892.

Richard Bach Jensen, “The United States, International Policing, and the War against Anarchist Terrorism, 1900–1914,” Terrorism and Political Violence 13, no. 1 (Spring 2001): 15–46, at 16; reprinted in Terrorism: Critical Concepts in Political Science , vol. 1, The First or Anarchist Wave , ed. David C. Rapoport (London: Routledge, 2006) , 369–400, at 371.

See Richard Bach Jensen, “Daggers, Rifles and Dynamite: Anarchist Terrorism in Nineteenth Century Europe,” Terrorism and Political Violence 16, no. 1 (2004) : 116–153, at 116.

One of these few is Martha Crenshaw. See her Revolutionary Terrorism: The FLN in Algeria, 1954–1962 (Stanford, CA: Hoover Institution Press, Stanford University, 1978), and Terrorism in Africa (New York: G. K. Hall; Toronto: Maxwell Macmillan Canada, 1994).

For more on these terrorist groups and their attacks, see p. 7, nn. 49–51.

For an analysis and assessment of these security policies by one of the pioneers in the field of terrorism studies, see David Carlton, The West’s Road to 9/11: Resisting, Appeasing, and Encouraging Terrorism since 1970 (Houndmills, Basingstoke, Hants: Palgrave Macmillan, 2005).

Seminal works in English from this pioneering research period are David Carlton and Carlo Schaerf, eds., International Terrorism and World Security (London: Croom Helm, 1975); Yonah Alexander, ed., International Terrorism: National, Regional, and Global Perspectives (New York: Praeger, 1976); Yonah Alexander and Seymour Maxwell Finger, eds., Terrorism: Interdisciplinary Perspectives , with a foreword by Hans J. Morgenthau (New York: John Jay Press, 1977); Yonah Alexander, David Carlton, and Paul Wilkinson, eds., Terrorism: Theory and Practice (Boulder, CO: Westview Press, 1979); Martha Crenshaw, “The Causes of Terrorism,” Comparative Politics 13, no. 4 (July 1981): 379–399; Martha Crenshaw and Irving Louis Horowitz, eds., Terrorism, Legitimacy, and Power: The Consequences of Political Violence; Essays (Middletown, CT: Wesleyan University Press, 1983); Alex P. Schmid and Janny de Graaf, Violence as Communication: Insurgent Terrorism and the Western News Media (London: Sage, 1982); Alex P. Schmid, Political Terrorism: A Research Guide to Concepts, Theories, Data Bases and Literature , with a bibliography by the author and a world directory of “terrorist” organizations by Albert J. Jongman (Amsterdam: North-Holland, 1984).

See esp. the publications of Walter Laqueur: Terrorism (Boston: Little, 1977), reprinted as A History of Terrorism: With a New Introduction by the Author , 2 nd ed. (New Brunswick, NJ: Transaction Publishers, 2002), and The Terrorism Reader: A Historical Anthology (New York: New American Library, 1978), published in a new and supplemented edition as Voices of Terror: Manifestos, Writings, and Manuals of Al Qaeda, Hamas, and Other Terrorists from Around the World and Throughout the Ages (New York: Reed Press, 2004); and of David C. Rapoport, Assassination and Terrorism (Toronto: Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, 1971), “Fear and Trembling: Terrorism in Three Religious Traditions,” American Political Science Review 78, no. 3 (1984): 658–677, “Why Does Messianism Produce Terror?” in Contemporary Research on Terrorism , ed. Paul Wilkinson and A. M. Stewart (Aberdeen: Aberdeen University Press, 1987), 72–88, and “Four Wave Theory,” first presented as a paper to the American Political Science Association in 1985. For the respective titles see n. 59.

See his web page at UCLA, College: Social Sciences, Political Science, Distinguished Professor Emeritus David Rapoport, Biography, accessed February 19, 2021, https://polisci.ucla.edu/person/david-rapoport/ . See also Jeffrey Kaplan, “Waves of Political Terrorism,” in Oxford Research Encyclopedia: Politics, Oxford University Press 2016, accessed February 19, 2021, https://oxfordre.com/view/10.1093/acrefore/9780190228637.001.0001/acrefore-9780190228637-e-24 .

Cf. the web page of the publisher Taylor & Francis for the two journals: https://www.tandfonline.com/action/journalInformation?journalCode=uter20 and https://www.tandfonline.com/loi/ftpv20 .

See the information given on the Centre’s web page, “About CSTPV,” https://cstpv.wp.st-andrews.ac.uk/# .

Standard works in English, many of which have become standard works for students of terrorism across the world, are Grant Wardlaw, Political Terrorism: Theory, Tactics, and Counter-Measures (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1982); James M. Poland, Understanding Terrorism: Groups, Strategies, and Responses (Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall, 1988); Martha Crenshaw, ed., Terrorism in Context (University Park: Pennsylvania State University Press, 1995) ; Bruce Hoffman, Inside Terrorism (New York: Columbia University Press, 1998); Clifford E. Simonsen and Jeremy R. Spindlove, Terrorism Today: The Past, the Players, the Future (Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall, 2000); David C. Rapoport, ed., Inside Terrorist Organizations (London: Frank Cass, 2001); Charles Townshend, Terrorism: A Very Short Introduction (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2002); Louise Richardson, What Terrorists Want: Understanding the Enemy, Containing the Threat (New York: Random House, 2006) ; Gus Martin, Understanding Terrorism: Challenges, Perspectives, and Issues , 3 rd ed. (Los Angeles: Sage, 2010). Most of these books have seen several editions.

Carlton observes a similar tendency for the higher echelons of the fields of security studies and international relations as represented for example by the International Institute for Strategic Studies (IISS), the U.S. Council on Foreign Relations, the United Kingdom’s Royal Institute of International Affairs (Chatham House), and “most of the leading Western journals in the international relations field.” See Carlton, The West’s Road to 9/11 , 3–4, at 4.

Michael Howard, as cited in Bruce Hoffman, “Current Research on Terrorism and Low-Intensity Conflict,” Studies in Conflict and Terrorism 15, no. 1 (1992): 25–37, at 25. Carlton, The West’s Road to 9/11 , 4 also gives this quotation.

There are exceptions to the rule, however, such as Menachem Begin, who fought against the British mandatory government in the 1940s and later became prime minister of Israel; and Gerry Adams, who is said to have been a high-ranking member of the Provisional Irish Republican Army (IRA) in the 1970s before he was elected president of Sinn Féin and member of the British House of Commons.

Isabelle Duyvesteyn, a global historian and international studies scholar, the historian of international relations Beatrice de Graaf, the modern historians Robert Gerwarth, Heinz-Gerhard Haupt, and Sylvia Schraut have come to similar conclusions. See, e.g., Isabelle Duyvesteyn, “The Role of History and Continuity in Terrorism Research,” in Mapping Terrorism Research: State of the Art, Gaps and Future Direction , ed. Magnus Ranstorp (New York: Routledge, 2006) , 51–75; Isabelle Duyvesteyn and Beatrice de Graaf, “Terroristen en hun bestrijders, vroeger en nu,” in Terroristen en hun bestrijders, vroeger en nu , ed. Isabelle Duyvesteyn and Beatrice de Graaf (Amsterdam: Boom, 2007), 7–12; Robert Gerwarth and Heinz-Gerhard Haupt, “Internationalising Historical Research on Terrorist Movements in Twentieth-Century Europe,” European Review of History 14, no. 3 (2007): 275–281, at 275; Sylvia Schraut, “Zentrale Begriffe und Konzepte,” in Terrorismus und politische Gewalt (Göttingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, 2018) , 15–63.

They contributed in two distinct roles: as historical researchers and as contemporary pundits. For an early French study on a perpetrator of what is now discussed as one of the earliest cases of terrorist violence, see Louis-François du Bois, Charlotte de Corday, essai historique, offrant enfin des détails authentiques sur la personne et l’attentat de cette héroïne; avec pièces justificatives, portrait et fac-simile (Paris: Librairie historique de la Révolution, 1838). For a prominent German example of a historian-pundit, see Heinrich von Treitschke, “Der Socialismus und der Meuchelmord,” Preußische Jahrbücher 41, no. 6 (1878): 637–647. For examples of nineteenth-century terrorism research in disciplines other than history, see n. 2.

For an informative overview and in-depth discussion of the Russian historiography on terrorism as well as its political contexts, see the historiographical introductions in Mikhail Gerasimovich Sedov, Geroicheskii period revoliutsionnogo narodnichestva (Iz istorii politicheskoi bor’by) (Moscow: Mysl, 1966), 3–54, esp. 24–28 (focusing on Narodnaia Volia); Mikhail Ivanovich Leonov, Partiia sotsialistov-revoliutsionerov v 1905–1907 gg. (Moscow: ROSSPĖN, 1997), 3–25; Roman Aleksandrovich Gorodnitskii, Boevaia organizatsiia partii sotsialistov-revoliutsionerov v 1901–1911 gg . (Moscow: ROSSPĖN, 1998), 3–26, esp. 5f. (both focusing on the Socialist Revolutionary Party and its fighting organization). For an English-language overview, see Anke Hilbrenner and Frithjof Benjamin Schenk, “Introduction: Modern Times? Terrorism in Late Tsarist Russia,” Jahrbücher für Geschichte Osteuropas 2 (2010): 161–171.

The most famous example is the 1921 autobiography by Vera Figner, Memoirs of a Revolutionist , trans. Camilla Chapin Daniels and G. A. Davidson (New York: International, 1927). On the Russian-language historiography on terrorism in this period, see esp. O. V. Shemiakina, “Istoriografiia narodnicheskogo dvizheniia glazami ego uchastnikov,” Vestnik RGGU: Seriia literaturovedenie, iazykoznanie, kul’turologiia 1 (2017): 132–139.

See esp. the studies by Mikhail Konstantinovich Lemke, Ocherki osvoboditel’nogo dvizheniia “shestidesiatykh godov” po neizdannym dokumentam s portretami (1908; The Hague: Mouton, in cooperation with Europe Printing, Vaduz, 1968); and Aleksandr Aleksandrovich Kornilov, Obshchestvennoe dvizhenīe pri Aleksandre II, 1855–1881: Istoricheskīe ocherki (Moscow: Tovarishchestvo tipografīi A. I. Mamontova, 1909).

A case in point is Dmitrii Vladimirovich Karakozov, who perpetrated the first assassination attempt on Tsar Alexander II in 1866. See, e.g., the Russian sources and research published on him, his background, and his attempt on the tsar’s life: Aleksei A. Shilov, “Iz istorii revoliutsionnago dvizheniia 1860-ch gg.,” Golos minuvshago 10–12 (1918): 159–168; V. P. Alekseev and B. P. Koz’min, Politicheskie Protsessy 60-kh g.g. materialy po istorii revoliutsionnogo dvizheniia v Rossii (Moscow: Gosudarstvennoe izdatel’stvo, 1923); Aleksei A. Shilov, “Pokushenie Karakozova 4 Aprelia 1866 g.,” Krasnyi arkhiv 17, no. 7 (1926): 91–137; M. M. Klevenskii and K. G. Kotel’nikov, eds., Pokushenie Karakozova: Stenograficheskii otchet po delu D. Karakozova, I. Khudiakova, N. Ishutina i. dr. (Moscow: Izdatel’stvo tsentrarchiva R.S.F.S.R., 1928); Boris Jakovlevich Bukhshtab, “Posle vystrela Karakozova,” Katorga i ssylka: Istoriko-revoliutsionnyi vestnik 5 (1931): 50–88, at 78; B. I. Gorev and B. P. Koz’min, Revoliutsionnoe dvizhenie 1860-kh godov (Moscow: Izdatel’stvo vsesoiuznogo obshchestva politkatorzhan i ssyl’no-poselentsev, 1932).

See Sedov, Geroicheskii period , 45f.; Leonov, Partiia sotsialistov-revoliutsionerov , 10f.; Gorodnitskii, Boevaia organizatsiia , 5, 10; Hilbrenner and Schenk, “Introduction,” 162.

See esp. the source edition of S. N. Valk, S. S. Volk, B. S. Itenberg, and Sh. M. Levin, eds., Revoliutsionnoe narodnichestvo 70-kh godov XIX veka: Sbornik dokumentov i materialov , 2 vols. (Moscow: Nauka, 1964); and the studies of R. V. Filippov, Revoliutsionnaia narodnicheskaia organizatsiia N. A. Ishutina—I. A. Khudiakova (1863–1866) (Petrozavodsk: Karel’skoe knizhnoe izdatel’stvo, 1964); Ė. S. Vilenskaia, Revoliutsionnoe podpol’e v Rossii (60-e gody XIX v.) (Moscow: Izdatel’stvo “Nauka,” 1965); Sedov, Geroicheskii period ; Stepan Stepanovich Volk, Narodnaia Volia, 1879–1882 (Moscow: Nauka, 1966); Nikolai Alekseevich Troitskii, “Narodnaia Volia” pered tsarskim sudom 1880—1894 gg. , 2 nd expanded and revised ed., (Saratov: Izdat. Saratovskogo universiteta, 1983); Evgeniia Levovna Rudnitskaia, Russkaia revoliutsionnaia mysl: Demokraticheskaia pechat 1864–1873 g. (Moscow: Nauka, 1984).

For such studies in English, see, e.g., Edward Hallett Carr, Michael Bakunin (London: Macmillan, 1937); Franco Venturi, Roots of Revolution: A History of the Populist and Socialist Movements in Nineteenth Century Russia [Italian Orig. 1952], trans. Francis Haskell, revised ed. (London: Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 1960); Avrahm Yarmolinsky, Road to Revolution: A Century of Russian Radicalism (London: Cassell & Company, 1957); Oliver H. Radkey, The Agrarian Foes of Bolshevism: Promise and Default of the Russian Socialist Revolutionaries February to October 1917 (New York: Columbia University Press, 1958).

See esp. the anthologies by Eric John Hobsbawm, Revolutionaries: Contemporary Essays (London: Weidenfeld, 1973), including essays from the years 1961–1972; and Wolfgang J. Mommsen, and Gerhard Hirschfeld, eds., Social Protest, Violence, and Terror in Nineteenth- and Twentieth-Century Europe (London: Macmillan, in association with Berg Publishers for the German Historical Institute, 1982) .

Notable studies by historians of Russia and Eastern Europe teaching in Western Europe, Israel, and the United States from this period are for example Paul Avrich, The Russian Anarchists (1967; repr., Oakland, CA: AK Press, 2005), chap. 2; Philip Pomper, The Russian Revolutionary Intelligentsia , 2 nd ed. (Arlington Heights, IL: Harlan Davidson, 1993); Maureen Perrie, The Agrarian Policy of the Russian Socialist-Revolutionary Party from Its Origins through the Revolution of 1905–1907 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1976); Adam Bruno Ulam, In the Name of the People: Prophets and Conspirators in Prerevolutionary Russia (New York: Viking Press, 1977); Manfred Hildermeier, The Russian Socialist Revolutionary Party before the First World War [German Orig. 1978] (New York: St. Martin’s Press, 2000); Astrid von Borcke, Gewalt und Terror im revolutionären narodničestvo: Die Partei Narodnaja Volja (1879–1883); Zur Entstehung und Typologie des politischen Terrors im Russland des 19. Jahrhunderts (Cologne: Bundesinstitut für Ostwissenschaftliche und Internationale Studien, 1979); Jacques Baynac, Les socialistes-révolutionnaires de mars 1881 à mars 1917 (Paris: Éditions Robert Laffont, 1979); Norman M. Naimark, Terrorists and Social Democrats: The Russian Revolutionary Movement under Alexander III (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1983); Deborah Hardy, Land and Freedom: The Origins of Russian Terrorism, 1876–1879 (New York: Greenwood Press, 1987); Nurit Schleifman, Undercover Agents in the Russian Revolutionary Movement: The SR Party, 1902–14 (Houndsmill, Basingstoke: Macmillan, 1988); Hannu Immonen, The Agrarian Program of the Russian Socialist Revolutionary Party, 1900–1914 (Helsinki: SHS, 1988). On this see esp. Leonov, Partiia sotsialistov-revoliutsionerov , 14–17.

See esp. Barbara Alpern Engel and Clifford N. Rosenthal, eds., Five Sisters: Women against the Tsar , with a foreword by Alix Kates Shulman (London: Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 1976); Richard Stites, The Women’s Liberation Movement in Russia: Feminism, Nihilism, and Bolshevism, 1860–1930 (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1978), chap. 5; Jay Bergman, Vera Zasulich: A Biography (Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press, 1983); Barbara Alpern Engel, Mothers and Daughters: Women of the Intelligentsia in Nineteenth-Century Russia (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1983); Barbara Alpern Engel, Women, Gender and Political Choice in the Revolutionary Movement of the 1870’s , Research Paper 66 (Jerusalem: Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Marjorie Mayrock Center for Soviet and East European Research, March 1988). See also the book by the Menshevik writer Vera Broido, Apostles into Terrorists: Women and the Revolutionary Movement in the Russia of Alexander II (London: Maurice Temple Smith, 1978).

See the source editions of Viktor Efimovich Kel’ner, ed., 1 marta 1881 goda: Kazn imperatora Aleksandra II; Dokumenty i vospominaniia (Leningrad: Lenizdat, 1991); Oleg Vital’evich Budnitskii, ed., Istoriia terrorizma v Rossii v dokumentakh, biografiiakh, issledovaniiakh , 2. expanded and revised ed. (Rostov-on-Don: Feniks, 1996); Oleg Vital’evich Budnitskii, ed., Zhenshchiny-terroristki v Rossii (2. Rostov-on-Don: Feniks, 1996); Evgeniia Levovna Rudnitskaia, ed., Revoliutsionnyi radikalizm v Rossii: Vek deviatnadtsatyi; Dokumental’naia publikatsiia (Moscow: Arkheograficheskii tsentr, 1997); N. I. Delkov, A. A. I. Ushakov, A. A. Chernobaev, and E. I. Shcherbakova, eds., Politicheskaia politsiia i politicheskii terrorizm v Rossii (vtoraia polovina XIX–nachalo XX vv.): Sbornik dokumentov (Moscow: AIRO-XX, 2001); as well as the studies by V. M. Chernov, V partii sotsialistov-revoliutsionerov: Vospominaniia o vos’mi liderakh . Publication, introduction, edition and commentaries by A. P. Novikov and K. Khuzer. (Saint Petersburg: Dmitrii Bulanin, 2007); K. N. Morozov, ed., Individual’nyi politicheskii terror v Rossii, XIX–nachalo XX v. Materialy konferentsii (Moscow: “Memorial,” 1996); Leonov, Partiia sotsialistov-revoliutsionerov ; Gorodnitskii, Boevaia organizatsiia ; Oleg Vital’evich Budnitskii, Terrorizm v Rossiiskom osvoboditel’nom dvizhenii: Ideologiia, ėtika, psichologiia (vtoraia polovina XIX–nachalo XX v.) (Moscow: ROSSPĖN, 2000); Valerīi M. Volkovins’kii and Īvanna V. Hīkonova, Revoliutsīinii terorizm v Rociīs’kīI imperiī i Ukraina (druga polovina XIX—pochatok XX ct.) (Kiev: Starii cbīt, 2006). Ekaterina Igorevna Shcherbakova, “Otshchepentsy”: Put k terrorizmu (60-e–80-e gody XIX veka) (Moscow: Novyi khronograf, 2008) contains a number of crucial sources.

See esp. Anna Geifman, Thou Shalt Kill: Revolutionary Terrorism in Russia, 1894–1917 (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1993); Anna Geifman, Russia under the Last Tsar: Opposition and Subversion, 1894–1917 (Malden, MA: Blackwell, 1999); Anna Geifman, Entangled in Terror: The Azef Affair and the Russian Revolution (Wilmington, DE: Scholarly Resources, 2000); Leonid Grigor’evich Praisman, Terroristy i revoliutsionery, okhranniki i provokatory (Moscow: ROSSPĖN, 2001).

Michael Kronenwetter, Terrorism: A Guide to Events and Documents (Westport, CT: Greenwood, 2004), vii; Michael Fellman, In the Name of God and Country: Reconsidering Terrorism in American History (New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 2010), 1.

Kronenwetter, Terrorism , vii–viii.

On violence in the United States in connection with class conflict, see Robert Hunter, Violence and the Labour Movement (London: Routledge & Sons, 1916); Louis Adamic, Dynamite: The Story of Class Violence in America (New York: Viking Press, 1931); Paul Avrich, The Haymarket Tragedy (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1984); Paul Avrich, Sacco and Vanzetti: The Anarchist Background (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1991); Kevin Kenny, Making Sense of the Molly Maguires (New York: Oxford University Press, 1998); and esp. Melvyn Dubofsky, We Shall Be All: A History of the Industrial Workers of the World (Chicago: Quadrangle Books, 1969). On the Ku Klux Klan, see David Mark Chalmers, Hooded Americanism: The First Century of the Ku Klux Klan, 1865–1965 (Garden City, NJ: Doubleday, 1965); Allen W. Trelease, White Terror: The Ku Klux Klan Conspiracy and Southern Reconstruction (London: Secker & Warburg, 1971).

Beverly Gage, “Terrorism and the American Experience: A State of the Field,” Journal of American History 98, no. 1 (2011): 73–94, at 81.

For Austria, Germany, and Switzerland see, e.g., Julius Hans Schoeps, Bismarck und sein Attentäter: Der Revolveranschlag Unter den Linden am 7. Mai 1866 (Frankfurt am Main: Ullstein, 1984); Harald Seyrl, Der Tod der Kaiserin: Die Ermordung der Kaiserin und Königin Elisabeth von Österreich-Ungarn am 10. September 1898 im Spiegel der zeitgenössischen Darstellung (Vienna: Edition Seyrl, 1998). For France see, e.g., Jean Maitron, Ravachol et les anarchistes (Paris: Julliard, 1964); Association Française pour l’histoire de la justice, ed., L’assassinat du Président Sadi Carnot et le procès de Santo Ironimo Caserio (Lyon: Presses universitaires de Lyon, 1995).

There are a few exceptions, however. See, e.g., Jonathan Stevenson, “We Wrecked the Place”: Contemplating an End to the Northern Irish Troubles (New York: Free Press, 1996).

Thus also Schraut, “Zentrale Begriffe und Konzepte,” 25.

Thus also, e.g., Frank Trommler, “Foreword,” in War and Terror in Historical and Contemporary Perspective , ed. Michael Geyer (Washington, DC: American Institute for Contemporary German Studies, 2003), v. The holdings of the Library of Congress may be taken as an indicator of this wealth of literature. Even before the first decade of the twenty-first century had passed, a search for the term “terrorism” in the LC Catalog Quick Search would result in the note “Your search retrieved more records than can be displayed. Only the first 10,000 will be shown.”

For notable studies by pioneers of terrorism studies, who—under the impression of new events and their contexts—expanded earlier interpretations in interesting ways, see esp. Carlton, The West’s Road to 9/11 ; Walter Laqueur, No End to War: Terrorism in the Twenty-First Century (New York: Continuum, 2003); James M. Poland, Understanding Terrorism: Groups, Strategies, and Responses , 2 nd ed. (Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson Prentice Hall, 2005). For a contribution from French terrorism studies pioneers and experts in English, see Gérard Chaliand and Arnaud Blin, eds., The History of Terrorism: From Antiquity to Al Qaeda (Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press, 2007) .

See, e.g., Thomas R. Mockaitis, The “New” Terrorism: Myths and Reality (Westport, CT: Praeger Security International, 2007); Peter R. Neumann, Old and New Terrorism: Late Modernity, Globalization and the Transformation of Political Violence (Cambridge: Polity, 2009).

See, e.g., Brenda J. Lutz and James M. Lutz, Global Terrorism (London: Routledge 2004); James M. Lutz and Brenda J. Lutz, Terrorism: Origins and Evolution (New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2005); Brenda J. Lutz and James M. Lutz, eds., Global Terrorism , 4 vols. (Los Angeles: Sage Publications, 2008).

For interesting and in some respects especially original and thought-provoking interpretations by journalists and publicists, see, e.g., Caleb Carr, The Lessons of Terror: A History of Warfare against Civilians; Why It Has Always Failed, and Why It Will Fail Again (London: Little, Brown, 2002); Andrew Sinclair, An Anatomy of Terror (London: Macmillan, 2003); Kronenwetter, Terrorism ; Matthew Carr, The Infernal Machine: A History of Terrorism from the Assassination of Tsar Alexander II to Al-Qaeda (New York: New Press, 2006) .

See, e.g., Noam Chomsky, Pirates and Emperors, Old and New: International Terrorism in the Real World , new ed. (Cambridge, MA: South End Press, 2002); Paul Virilio, Ground Zero (London: Verso, 2002); Slavoj Žižek, Welcome to the Desert of the Real! Five Essays on 11 September and Related Dates (London: Verso, 2002); Jean Baudrillard, The Spirit of Terrorism and Other Essays (London: Verso, 2003); Paul Berman, Terror and Liberalism (New York: Norton, 2003); John Gray, Al Quaeda and What It Means to Be Modern (London: Faber & Faber, 2003); Ian Buruma and Avishai Margalit, Occidentalism: The West in the Eyes of Its Enemies (New York: Penguin Press, 2004); Terry Eagleton, Holy Terror (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2005); Judith Butler, Precarious Life: The Powers of Mourning and Violence (London and New York: Verso, 2006).

For publications in English covering this large time frame, see esp. Brett Bowden and Michael T. Davis, eds., Terror: From Tyrannicide to Terrorism (Queensland: University of Queensland Press, 2008); Randall D. Law, Terrorism: A History (Cambridge: Polity, 2009) ; Randall D. Law, The Routledge History of Terrorism (Abingdon: Routledge, 2015) .

For publications at least partly in English, see esp. European Review of History/Revue européenne d’histoire 14, no. 3 (September 2007), ed. Robert Gerwarth and Heinz-Gerhard Haupt; Modern Times? Terrorism in Late Imperial Russia , ed. Anke Hilbrenner and Frithjof Benjamin Schenk, special issue, Jahrbücher für Geschichte Osteuropas , N.F. 58, no. 2 (2010); Michael Burleigh, Blood and Rage: A Cultural History of Terrorism (London: Harper Press, 2008).

See, e.g., Mike Davis, Buda’s Wagon: A Brief History of the Car Bomb (London: Verso, 2007); Annette Vowinckel, Flugzeugentführungen: Eine Kulturgeschichte (Göttingen: Wallstein Verlag, 2011).

See Ana Siljak, Angel of Vengeance: The “Girl Assassin,” the Governor of St. Petersburg, and Russia’s Revolutionary World (New York: St. Martin’s Press, 2008); Claudia Verhoeven, The Odd Man Karakosov: Imperial Russia, Modernity and the Birth of Terrorism (Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 2009), John M. Merriman, The Dynamite Club: How a Bombing in Fin-de-Siècle Paris Ignited the Age of Modern Terror (Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2009); Beverly Gage, The Day Wall Street Exploded: A Story of America in Its First Age of Terror (New York: Oxford University Press, 2009).

Thus also Schraut, Terrorismus und politische Gewalt , 152f.

For Germany, see esp. Klaus Weinhauer, Jörg Requate, and Heinz-Gerhard Haupt, eds., Terrorismus in der Bundesrepublik: Medien, Staat und Subkulturen in den 1970er Jahren , (Frankfurt am Main: Campus, 2006); Andreas Elter, Propaganda der Tat: Die RAF und die Medien (Frankfurt am Main: Suhrkamp, 2008); Hanno Balz, Von Terroristen, Sympathisanten und dem starken Staat: Die öffentliche Debatte über die RAF in den 70er Jahren (Frankfurt am Main: Campus, 2008); Beatrice A. de Graaf, Nicole Colin, Jacco Pekelder, and Joachim Umlauf, eds., Der “Deutsche Herbst” und die RAF in Politik, Medien und Kunst: Nationale und internationale Perspektiven (Bielefeld: Transcript, 2008). For the United States, see esp. Bernardine Dohrn, William Ayers, and Jeff Jones, Sing a Battle Song: The Revolutionary Poetry, Statements, and Communiqués of the Weather Underground, 1970–1974 (New York: Seven Stories Press, 2006); Mark Rudd, Underground: My Life with SDS and the Weathermen (New York: William Morrow, 2009); Arthur M. Eckstein, Bad Moon Rising: How the Weather Underground Beat the FBI and Lost the Revolution (New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 2016).

See Ulrich Herbert, “Drei politische Generationen im 20. Jahrhundert,” in Generationalität und Lebensgeschichte im 20. Jahrhundert , ed. Jürgen Reulecke (Munich: Oldenbourg, 2003), 95–114.

For a comparative study on Germany and the United States, see esp. Jeremy Varon, Bringing the War Home: The Weather Underground, the Red Army Faction, and Revolutionary Violence in the Sixties and Seventies (Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press, 2004); for a study on transnational connections and influences with a special focus on Germany and Italy, see Petra Terhoeven, Deutscher Herbst in Europa: Der Linksterrorismus der siebziger Jahre als transnationales Phänomen (Munich: Oldenbourg Verlag, 2014); for different case studies with a transnational component, see Jussi M. Hanhimäki and Bernhard Blumenau, eds., An International History of Terrorism: Western and Non-Western Experiences (Abingdon: Routledge, 2013).

Mikkel Thorup, An Intellectual History of Terror: War, Violence and the State (London: Routledge, 2010), ix–x.

Martin A. Miller, The Foundations of Modern Terrorism: State, Society and the Dynamics of Political Violence (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2013) , 2.

See Jensen, “Daggers, Rifles and Dynamite,” 116, 143. See also Isabelle Duyvesteyn and Beatrice de Graaf, “Terroristen en contraterrorisme: continuïteit en discontinuïteit,” in Terroristen en hun bestrijders, vroeger en nu , ed. Isabelle Duyvesteyn and Beatrice de Graaf (Amsterdam: Boom, 2007), 139–147.

See esp. Richard Bach Jensen, The Battle against Anarchist Terrorism: An International History, 1878–1934 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2014) ; Elun T. Gabriel, Assassins and Conspirators: Anarchism, Socialism, and Political Culture in Imperial Germany (DeKalb, IL: NIU Press, 2014); Marcus Mühlnikel, “Fürst, sind Sie unverletzt?” Attentate im Kaiserreich, 1871–1914 (Paderborn: Ferdinand Schöningh, 2014); Iuliia Safronova, Russkoe obshchestvo v zerkale revoliutsionnogo terrora, 1879–1881 gody (Moscow: Novoe literaturnoe obozrenie, 2014); Carola Dietze, The Invention of Terrorism in Europe, Russia an the United States , trans. David Antal, James Bell and Zachary Murphy King, revised and expanded from the German edition (London and New York: Verso 2021; a Russian translation is published in Moscow by Novoe literaturnoe obozrenie, 2022); “Explosive Melange: Terrorismus und imperiale Gewalt in Osteuropa,” ed. Anke Hilbrenner and Felicitas Fischer von Weikersthal, special issue, Jahrbücher für Geschichte Osteuropas , N.F. 66, no. 4 (2016); Tim-Lorenz Wurr, Terrorismus und Autokratie: Staatliche Reaktionen auf den Russischen Terrorismus 1870–1890 (Paderborn: Ferdinand Schöningh, [2017]); Schraut, Terrorismus und politische Gewalt ; Carola Dietze, “Legitimacy and Security from a Historical Perspective: A Case Study in the History of Terrorism,” in Conceptualizing Power in Dynamics of Securitization: Beyond State and International System , ed. Regina Kreide and Andreas Langenohl (Baden-Baden: Nomos, 2019) , 135–173.

Laqueur, Terrorism , reprinted as A History of Terrorism .

Laqueur, A History of Terrorism , 7–12.

Ibid., 12–14, 16–18.

See esp. Rapoport, “Fear and Trembling”; Rapoport, “Why Does Messianism Produce Terror?”; David C. Rapoport, “The Four Waves of Modern Terrorism,” in Attacking Terrorism: Elements of a Grand Strategy , ed. Audrey Kurth Cronin and James M. Ludes (Washington, DC: Georgetown University Press, 2004) , 46–73; David C. Rapoport, “Terrorism,” in Encyclopedia of Government and Politics , vol. 2, ed. Mary E. Hawkesworth and Maurice Kogan (London: Routledge, 2004), 1049–1077; David C. Rapoport, Terrorism: Critical Concepts in Political Science , 4 vols. (London: Routledge, 2006) ; David C. Rapoport, “Generations and Waves: The Keys to Understanding Rebel Terror Movements,” February, 20, 2021, https://international.ucla.edu/institute/article/5118 . For his earlier work, see n. 9.

Rapoport, “Generations and Waves.” See also Rapoport, “The Four Waves of Modern Terrorism”; Rapoport, “Terrorism”; Kaplan, “Waves of Political Terrorism.” On the reaction to his theory, see, e.g., Berto Jongman, “Research Desiderata in the Field of Terrorism,” in Mapping Terrorism Research: State of the Art, Gaps and Future Direction , ed. Magnus Ranstorp (New York: Routledge, 2006), 255–291; Kaplan, “Waves of Political Terrorism,” 10–14.

See, e.g., Rapoport, “Terrorism,” 1051f., 1067.

See, e.g., Grant Wardlaw, Political Terrorism: Theory, Tactics, and Counter-Measures , 2 nd ed. (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1989), chaps. 1–3, or Peter Waldmann, Terrorismus: Provokation der Macht (Munich: Gerling Akademie, 1998), reprinted as Terrorismus: Provokation der Macht; Das Standardwerk , 2 nd , completely revised ed. (Hamburg: Murmann, 2005), chap. 3.

An example of this view is John Deutch, “Terrorism,” Foreign Policy 108 (1997): 10–22.

See Bowden, and Davis, Terror ; Carr, The Lessons of Terror ; Kronenwetter, Terrorism ; Lutz and Lutz, Global Terrorism ; Lutz and Lutz, Terrorism ; Law, The Routledge History of Terrorism ; the relevant chapters in a series of general survey books, e.g., in Martin, Understanding Terrorism .

Carr, The Lessons of Terror , 6.

Miller, The Foundations of Modern Terrorism , 2.

The importance of analytically precise distinctions is emphasized by, e.g., Ariel Merari, “Terrorism as a Strategy of Insurgency,” in The History of Terrorism: From Antiquity to Al Qaeda , ed. Gérard Chaliand and Arnaud Blin (Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press, 2007) , 12–51; Sylvia Schraut, “Terrorismus und Geschichtswissenschaft,” in Terrorismusforschung in Deutschland , ed. Alexander Spencer, Alexander Kocks, and Kai Harbrich (Wiesbaden: Verlag für Sozialwissenschaft, 2011), 99–122, at 106. For a case from Germany available in English, see Peter Sloterdijk, Terror from the Air , trans. Amy Patton and Steve Corcoran (Los Angeles: Semiotext[e], 2009).

For a succinct, contemporary explication of this connection, see Astrid von Borcke, “Violence and Terror in Russian Revolutionary Populism: The ‘Narodnaya Volya,’ 1879–83,” in Social Protest, Violence, and Terror in Nineteenth- and Twentieth-Century Europe , ed. Wolfgang J. Mommsen and Gerhard Hirschfeld (London: Macmillan Press in association with Berg Publishers for the German Historical Institute, London, 1982), 48–62, at 48f. For later presentations of similar arguments, see, e.g., Anna Geifman, Death Orders: The Vanguard of Modern Terrorism in Revolutionary Russia (Santa Barbara, CA: Praeger Security International, 2010), e.g., 3f.

For this literature, see esp. nn. 19–24.

For a partly autobiographical portrait of the group fleeing Germany as youth, see Walter Laqueur, Generation Exodus: The Fate of Young Jewish Refugees from Nazi Germany (Hanover, NH: Brandeis University Press, 2001).

This might hold true, even though Adam B. Ulam explicitly refers to his “enduring addiction to the detective story” when he traces the reasons for studying prerevolutionary terrorism in Russia. See his Understanding the Cold War: A Historian’s Personal Reflections [2000], 2 nd ed. (New Brunswick, NJ: Transaction Publishers, 2008), chap. 21, quotation at 241. See also Walter Laqueur, Thursday’s Child Has Far to Go: A Memoir of the Journeying Years (New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1992), where he traces the topics of his intellectual engagement until 1951 (see esp. 335–345).

Albert Parry, Terrorism: From Robespierre to Arafat (New York: Vanguard Press, 1976).

Donald H. Rumsfeld, interview with Tony Snow, Fox News Sunday , September 16, 2001, 9:05 A.M. EDT, accessed January 16, 2016, http://archive.defense.gov/Transcripts/Transcript.aspx?TranscriptID=1887 ; and George W. Bush, remarks by the president upon arrival: the South Lawn, September 16, 2001, 3:23 P.M. EDT, accessed January 16, 2016, http://georgewbush-whitehouse.archives.gov/news/releases/2001/09/20010916-2.html .

Lance Morrow, “The Case for Rage and Retribution,” Time , Wednesday, September 12, 2001, accessed December 4, 2016, http://www.time.com/time/nation/article/0,8599,175435,00.html .

E.g., Reed Johnson, “Will War on Terrorism Define a Generation? Historians Ponder to What Extent the Attacks Will Be a True Turning Point for Society,” Los Angeles Times , September 23, 2001, E1; Ralf Beste et al., “Wir sind eine Welt,” Spiegel Online , September 15, 2001, accessed January 7, 2016, http://www.spiegel.de/spiegel/print/d-20128594.html ; Martin Klingst and Gunter Hofmann, “Ich will nicht nur Sicherheit: Bundesinnenminister Otto Schily über die Schwierigkeiten, eine Strategie gegen den neuen Terror zu finden,” Die Zeit , September 17, 2001, 4.

Thus also Isabelle Duyvesteyn and Leena Malkki, “The Fallacy of the New Terrorism Thesis,” in Contemporary Debates on Terrorism , ed. Richard Jackson and Samuel J. Sinclair (London: Routledge, 2012), 35–42.

On the concept of “holy terror” or religious terrorism, see esp. Rapoport, “Why Does Messianism Produce Terror?”; Mark Juergensmeyer, Terror in the Mind of God: The Global Rise of Religious Violence (Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press, 2000). Both authors point out that this type of violence can arise from all major religions, such as Judaism, Christianity, and Islam.

For the Assassins’ place in the standard narrative of terrorism, see esp. Laqueur, A History of Terrorism , 8–9; Rapoport, “Why Does Messianism Produce Terror?,” 72f.; Rapoport, “Fear and Trembling,” 659f. and 664–668. On the medieval sect of the Ismailis (i.e., the Assassins, in the Western tradition) and the interpretations surrounding them, in English see the classic work of Marshall G. S. Hodgson, The Secret Order of Assassins: The Struggle of the Early Nizârî Ismâʻîlîs against the Islamic World (1955; Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2005); Farhad Daftary, The Ismā’īlīs: Their History and Doctrines (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press 1990); Farhad Daftary, The Assassin Legends: Myths of the Ismaʻilis (London: Tauris, 1994); Farhad Daftary, A Short History of the Ismailis: Traditions of a Muslim Community (Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 1998); Meriem Pagès, From Martyr to Murderer: Representations of the Assassins in Twelfth- and Thirteenth-Century Europe (Syracuse, NY: Syracuse University Press, 2014).

On suicide terrorism as a specific kind of terrorism and its rise and spread since the 1990s, see Laqueur, No End to War , chap. 4; Hoffman, Inside Terrorism , chap. 5; and esp. Robert A. Pape, “The Strategic Logic of Suicide Terrorism,” American Political Science Review 97, no. 3 (2003): 343–361, reprinted in Lutz and Lutz, Global Terrorism , 311–346. See also Christoph Reuter, My Life Is a Weapon: A Modern History of Suicide Bombing , trans. Helena Ragg-Kirkby (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 2004); Mia Bloom, Dying to Kill: The Allure of Suicide Terror (New York: Columbia University Press, 2005); Robert Anthony Pape, Dying to Win: The Strategic Logic of Suicide Terrorism (New York: Random House, 2005); Ami Pedahzur, Suicide Terrorism (Cambridge: Polity Press, 2005); Nasra Hassan, “Suicide Terrorism,” in The Roots of Terrorism , ed. Louise Richardson (New York: Routledge, 2006), 29–42; Assaf Moghadam, The Globalization of Martyrdom: Al Qaeda, Salafi Jihad, and the Diffusion of Suicide Attacks (Baltimore, MD: Johns Hopkins University Press, 2008).

On the suicidal character of the attacks on September 11, 2001, see esp. National Commission on Terrorist Attacks Upon the United States, The 9/11 Commission Report , authorized ed. (New York: W. W. Norton, [2004]); on suicide attacks by the Tamil Tigers and by Lebanese and Palestinian groups, see, e.g., Laqueur, No End to War , chap. 4; Hoffman, Inside Terrorism , chap. 5; Pape, Dying to Win , esp. chap. 8; Pedahzur, Suicide Terrorism , chaps. 3 and 4. On the July 7 attacks in London, see Moghadam, The Globalization of Martyrdom , chap. 6.

See, e.g., Reuter, My Life Is a Weapon , 20–28; Bloom, Dying to Kill , 4–11; Pedahzur, Suicide Terrorism , 9; James M. Poland, Understanding Terrorism: Groups, Strategies, and Responses, 3 rd ed. (Boston: Prentice Hall, 2011), 23f.; Jeremy Spindlove and Clifford Simonsen, Terrorism Today: The Past, the Players, the Future (Boston: Pearson, 2013), 32. For a different perspective, see, e.g., the introduction in Moghadam, The Globalization of Martyrdom . See also Pape, Dying to Win , who draws these long historical lines (11–14, 33–35) while emphasizing that “the presumed connection between suicide terrorism and Islamic fundamentalism is misleading” (3).

Waldmann, Terrorismus , 12, with minor changes, as translated in Carola Dietze and Claudia Verhoeven, “Introduction,” paper presented at the Conference on Terrorism and Modernity: Global Perspectives on Nineteenth-Century Political Violence, Tulane University, New Orleans, LA, October 23–26, 2008, 6.

Waldmann, Terrorismus , chaps. 1–2, at 12.

For Germany see also Friedhelm Neidhardt, “Zur Soziologie des Terrorismus,” Berliner Journal für Soziologie 1, no. 2 (2004): 263–272; from the perspective of security policy, Kai Hirschmann, Terrorismus (Hamburg: Europäische Verlagsanstalt, 2003), 7–9; from the criminological viewpoint, Anne Wildfang, Terrorismus: Definition, Struktur, Dynamik (Berlin: Duncker & Humblot, 2010). For the Netherlands, see Erwin Roelof Muller, Ramón F. J. Spaaij, and A. G. W. Ruitenberg, Trends in terrorisme (Alphen aan den Rijn: Kluwer, 2003), 2–3. For the United Kingdom and Ireland, see Charles Townshend, Terrorism: A Very Short Introduction (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2002), chap. 1; Richardson, What Terrorists Want , chap. 1. For the United States, see Laqueur, A History of Terrorism , 79; Martha Crenshaw, “Thoughts on Relating Terrorism to Historical Contexts,” in Terrorism in Context , ed. Martha Crenshaw (University Park: Pennsylvania State University Press, 1995) , 3–24; Hoffman, Inside Terrorism , chap. 1, 40–41. For Israel, see Boaz Ganor, Defining Terrorism: Is One Man’s Terrorist Another Man’s Freedom Fighter? (Herzliya: International Policy Institute for Counter-Terrorism, the Interdisciplinary Center, 1998); Ariel Merari, “Terrorism as a Strategy of Insurgency.” For Russia, see Murat Islamovich Dzliev, El’zad Seifullaevich Izzatdust, and Mikhail Pavlovich Kireev, Sovremennyi terrorizm: Sotsial’no-politicheskii oblik protivnika (Moscow: Akademiia, 2007), chap. 1.1, 28–35. For Australia, see Grant Wardlaw, Political Terrorism , chap. 1.1. The Italian sociologist Donatella Della Porta, Clandestine Political Violence (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2013), 9–10, likewise singles out these elements to define her term “clandestine political violence.”

For an overview over these narratives and the most important statements they contain, see above, pages 9–11.

Björn Wittrock, “Modernity: One, None, or Many? European Origins and Modernity as a Global Condition,” Daedalus 129, no. 1 (2000): 31–60. The skeptical stance toward the concept of “modernity” set forth in my “Toward a History on Equal Terms” certainly is compatible with the recognition of the fact of “big developments” and the “promissory notes” of the term “modernity” and therefore does not preclude such an approach, as Dietze, The Invention of Terrorism and my chapter in this Handbook show.

Carr, Matthew . The Infernal Machine: A History of Terrorism from the Assassination of Tsar Alexander II to Al-Qaeda . New York: New Press, 2006 .

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Chaliand, Gérard , and Arnaud Blin . The History of Terrorism: From Antiquity to Al Qaeda . Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press, 2007 .

Crenshaw, Martha , ed. Terrorism in Context . University Park, PA: Pennsylvania State University Press, 1995 .

Dietze, Carola . The Invention of Terrorism in Europe, Russia an the United States , trans. David Antal, James Bell and Zachary Murphy King, revised and expanded from the German edition. London and New York: Verso 2021, originally published in German as Die Erfindung des Terrorismus in Europa, Russland und den USA, 1858–1866 . Hamburg: Hamburger Edition, 2016 .

Dietze, Carola . “Legitimacy and Security from a Historical Perspective: A Case Study in the History of Terrorism.” In Conceptualizing Power in Dynamics of Securitization. Beyond State and International System , edited by Regina Kreide and Andreas Langenohl , 135–173. Baden-Baden: Nomos, 2019 .

Duyvesteyn, Isabelle . “The Role of History and Continuity in Terrorism Research.” In Mapping Terrorism Research. State of the Art, Gaps and Future Direction , edited by Magnus Ranstorp , 51–75. New York, NY: Routledge, 2006 .

Hoffman, Bruce . Inside Terrorism . Rev. and expanded ed. New York: Columbia University Press, 2006 .

Ivianski, Zeev . “The Terrorist Revolution: Roots of Modern Terrorism.” In Terrorism: Critical Concepts in Political Science , Vol. 1, The First or Anarchist Wave , edited by David C. Rapoport , 73–94. London: Routledge, 2006 .

Jensen, Richard . “ Daggers, Rifles and Dynamite: Anarchist Terrorism in Nineteenth Century Europe. ” Terrorism and Political Violence 16, no. 1 ( 2004 ): 116–153.

Jensen, Richard Bach . The Battle against Anarchist Terrorism: An International History, 1878–1934 . Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2014 .

Laqueur, Walter . A History of Terrorism . With a new introduction by the Author. 2 nd ed. New Brunswick, NJ: Transaction Publishers, 2002 .

Laqueur, Walter . Voices of Terror: Manifestos, Writings, and Manuals of Al Qaeda, Hamas, and Other Terrorists from Around the World and Throughout the Ages . New York: Reed Press, 2004 .

Law, Randall D.   Terrorism: A History. Cambridge: Polity, 2009 .

Law, Randall D.   The Routledge History of Terrorism . London: Routledge, 2015 .

Miller, Martin A.   The Foundations of Modern Terrorism . Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2013 .

Mommsen, Wolfgang J. , and Gerhard Hirschfeld , eds. Social Protest, Violence, and Terror in Nineteenth- and Twentieth-Century Europe . London: Macmillan Press in association with Berg Publishers for the German Historical Institute, 1982 .

Rapoport, David C. “The Four Waves of Modern Terrorism.” In Attacking Terrorism. Elements of a Grand Strategy , edited by Audrey Kurth Cronin and James M. Ludes , 46–73. Washington, DC: Georgetown University Press, 2004 .

Rapoport, David C. , ed. Terrorism: Critical Concepts in Political Science. London: Routledge, 2006 .

Richardson, Louise . What Terrorists Want: Understanding the Enemy, Containing the Threat. New York: Random House, 2006 .

Schraut, Sylvia . Terrorismus und politische Gewalt. Göttingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, 2018 .

Waldmann, Peter . Terrorismus: Provokation der Macht. 2 nd expanded rev. ed. Hamburg: Murmann, 2005 .

Walther, Rudolf . “Art.: Terror, Terrorismus.” In Geschichtliche Grundbegriffe: Historisches Lexikon zur politisch-sozialen Sprache in Deutschland , vol. 6, edited by Otto Brunner , Werner Conze , and Reinhart Koselleck , 323–444. Stuttgart: Klett-Cotta, 1990 .

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Home — Essay Samples — Government & Politics — War on Terror — The History of Terrorism

The History of Terrorism

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• Civil disorder – is a sometimes violent form of protest held by a group of individuals, usually in opposition to a political policy or action. They are intended to send a message to a political group that “the people” are unhappy and demand change. The protests are intended to be non-violent, but they do sometimes result in large riots in which private property is destroyed and civilians are injured or killed.
• Political terrorism – is used by one political faction to intimidate another. Although government leaders are the ones who are intended to receive the ultimate message, it is the citizens who are targeted with violent attacks.
• Nonpolitical terrorism – is a terrorist act perpetrated by a group for any other purpose, most often of a religious nature. The desired goal is something other than a political objective, but the tactics involved are the same.
• Quasi-terrorism – is a violent act that utilizes the same methods terrorists employ, but does not have the same motivating factors. Cases like this usually involve an armed criminal who is trying to escape from law enforcement utilizing civilians as hostages to help them escape. The lawbreaker is acting in a similar manner to a terrorist, but terrorism is not the goal.
• Limited political terrorism – acts are generally one time only plots to make a political or ideological statement. The goal is not to overthrow the government, but to protest a governmental policy or action.
• State terrorism – defines any violent action initiated by an existing government to achieve a particular goal. Most often this goal involves a conflict with another country. Every type of terrorism utilizes distinct methods of violence to get their message across. They can be anything from assault weapons or explosive devices to toxic chemicals that are released into the air. These attacks may occur at any time or place, which makes them an extremely effective method of instilling terror and uncertainty into the general public. Causes of terrorism in India There are several causes of terrorism in India. To begin with, there are political reasons for the growth of terrorism in India. This is primarily seen in The North-East region.

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Essay on Global Terrorism for Students and Children

500+ words essay on global terrorism.

Global Terrorism

The world has changed significantly since the September 11 attacks. Security has become an all-encompassing concern. People nowadays plan their vacations according to the factor such as whether the destination is safe or not, which route possess the least danger. Thus, after terrorist strikes took place people no longer feel safe in their own countries.

As we know about the attack on Twin Tower on September 11 in the USA in which militants associated with the Islamic extremist group al-Qaida hijacked four airplanes and carried out suicide attacks against targets in the United States.

Among four planes hijacked, two of the planes were flown into the twin towers of the World Trade Centre in New York City, a third plane hit the Pentagon Washington D.C., while the fourth plane crashed in a field in Shanksville, Pennsylvania. These attacks eventually led to attack in Afghanistan by the USA to demolish Mullah Omar’s regime which is called War On Terror.

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War on Terror

After the September 11, 2001 attacks, an international military initiative was launched by the United States. This initiative was called the War on Terror. According to President Bush, this war was targeted at the radical network of terrorists as well as to the governments who supported them.

US and allied troops were deployed in Iraq and Afghanistan, both believed to be home to terrorist cells and leaders. Lastly, President Barak Obama’s administration formally called an end to the War and announced the withdrawal of American troops from Afghanistan. Osama bin Laden had allegedly been killed by US Navy Seals and Al-Qaeda wasn’t considered the threat it once used to be.

However, 2014 saw the emergence of ISIS or ISIL. The jihadist organization was dubbed a terrorist group by the UN. This led to the formation of a new operation called Operation Inherent Resolve that would target terror in South Asia and the Middle East.

Threat to Humanity

The word terrorism indicates that extremists who use terror tactics use to develop fear in the hearts of people everywhere. They succeed in it because they target civilians in places where they would ideally be safe such as schools, malls, shopping thoroughfares, pubs, nightclubs, churches, and mosques.

Also, the shock value of these tactics is much higher. Terrorism is a strategy that various organizations use to achieve their aims by targeting innocent people. Terrorist attacks affect public morale and generate an atmosphere of fear. These attacks create divides between people from different regions, ethnicities, and religions. Instead of coming together to fight this threat, people are suspicious of each other and close themselves up.

Terrorism is very much a reality of modern times. The mere threat of a terrorist attack is enough to generate panic and fear among the general populace. We cannot deny the fact that global terrorism has affected policy decisions to a great extent. The internet has given terrorist organizations a global platform to spread their agenda and recruit more people. However, it may be time for a more militaristic solution to the problem of global terrorism.

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Before the terrorist attacks in the United States on 11 September 2001, the subject of terrorism did not loom large in philosophical discussion. Philosophical literature in English amounted to a few monographs and a single collection of papers devoted solely, or largely, to questions to do with terrorism. Articles on the subject in philosophy journals were few and far between; neither of the two major philosophy encyclopedias had an entry. The attacks of September 11 and their aftermath put terrorism on the philosophical agenda: it is now the topic of numerous books, journal articles, special journal issues, and conferences.

While social sciences study the causes, main varieties, and consequences of terrorism and history traces and attempts to explain the way terrorism has evolved over time, philosophy focuses on two fundamental—and related—questions. The first is conceptual: What is terrorism? The second is moral: Can terrorism ever be morally justified?

Philosophers have offered a range of positions on both questions. With regard to the problem of defining terrorism, the dominant approach seeks to acknowledge the core meaning “terrorism” has in common use. Terrorism is understood as a type of violence. Many definitions highlight the experience of terror or fear as the proximate aim of that violence. Neither violence nor terror is inflicted for its own sake, but rather for the sake of a further aim such as coercion, or some more specific political objective. But there are also definitions that sever the conceptual connection of terrorism with violence or with terror. With regard to the moral standing of terrorism, philosophers differ both on how that is to be determined and what the determination is. Consequentialists propose to judge terrorism, like everything else, in light of its consequences. Nonconsequentialists argue that its moral status is not simply a matter of what consequences, on balance, terrorism has, but is rather determined, whether solely or largely, by what it is. Positions on the morality of terrorism range from justification when its consequences on balance are good, or when some deontological moral requirements are satisfied, to its absolute, or almost absolute, rejection.

Philosophers working in applied philosophy have also sought to complement the discussions of terrorism in general with case studies—studies of the role and rights and wrongs of terrorism in particular conflicts, such as “the Troubles” in Northern Ireland (George 2000; Simpson 2004; Shanahan 2009), the Israeli-Palestinian conflict (Ashmore 1997; Gordon and Lopez 2000; Primoratz 2006; Kapitan 2008; Law (ed.) 2008), and the bombing of German cities in World War II (Grayling 2006; Primoratz 2010).

1.1.1 The reign of terror

1.1.2 propaganda by the deed, 1.1.3 the state as terrorist, 1.1.4 terrorists and freedom fighters, 1.2.1 violence and terror, 1.2.2 wide and narrow definitions, 1.2.3 some idiosyncratic definitions, 2.1 complicity of the victims, 2.2.1 terrorism justified, 2.2.2 terrorism unjustified, 2.3.1 basic human rights and distributive justice, 2.3.2 supreme emergency and moral disaster, 2.3.3 terrorism absolutely wrong, books, book chapters, and articles, special journal issues, other internet resources, related entries, 1. the conceptual issue.

The history of terrorism is probably coextensive with the history of political violence. The term “terrorism”, however, is relatively recent: it has been in use since late 18th century. Its use has repeatedly shifted in some significant respects. Moreover, in contemporary political discourse the word is often employed as a polemical term whose strong emotional charge occludes its somewhat vague descriptive meaning. All this tends to get in the way of sustained rational discussion of the nature and moral standing of terrorism and the best ways of coping with it.

1.1 “Terrorism” from the French Revolution to the early 21st century

When it first entered public discourse in the West, the word “terrorism” meant the reign of terror the Jacobins imposed in France from the fall of 1793 to the summer of 1794. Its ultimate aim was the reshaping of both society and human nature. That was to be achieved by destroying the old regime, suppressing all enemies of the revolutionary government, and inculcating and enforcing civic virtue. A central role in attaining these objectives was accorded to revolutionary tribunals which had wide authority, were constrained by very few rules of procedure, and saw their task as carrying out revolutionary policy rather than meting out legal justice of the more conventional sort. They went after “enemies of the people”, actual or potential, proven or suspected; the law on the basis of which they were operating “enumerated just who the enemies of the people might be in terms so ambiguous as to exclude no one” (Carter 1989: 142). The standard punishment was death. Trials and executions were meant to strike terror in the hearts of all who lacked civic virtue; the Jacobins believed that was a necessary means of consolidating the new regime. This necessity provided both the rationale of the reign of terror and its moral justification. As Robespierre put it, terror was but “an emanation of virtue”; without it, virtue remained impotent. Accordingly, the Jacobins applied the term to their own actions and policies quite unabashedly, without any negative connotations.

Yet the term “terrorism” and its cognates soon took on very strong negative connotations. Critics of the excesses of the French Revolution had watched its reign with horror from the start. Terrorism came to be associated with drastic abuse of power and related to the notion of tyranny as rule based on fear, a recurring theme in political philosophy.

In the second half of the 19th century, there was a shift in both descriptive and evaluative meaning of the term. Disillusioned with other methods of political struggle, some anarchist and other revolutionary organizations, and subsequently some nationalist groups too, took to political violence. They had come to the conclusion that words were not enough, and what was called for were deeds: extreme, dramatic deeds that would strike at the heart of the unjust, oppressive social and political order, generate fear and despair among its supporters, demonstrate its vulnerability to the oppressed, and ultimately force political and social change. This was “propaganda by the deed”, and the deed was for the most part assassination of royalty or highly placed government officials. Unlike the Jacobins’ reign of terror, which operated in a virtually indiscriminate way, this type of terrorism—as both advocates and critics called it—was largely employed in a highly discriminate manner. This was especially true of Russian revolutionary organizations such as People’s Will or Socialist Revolutionary Party (SR): they held that it was morally justified to assassinate a government official only if his complicity in the oppressive regime was significant enough for him to deserve to die, and the assassination would make an important contribution to the struggle. Their violence steered clear of other, uninvolved or insufficiently involved persons. Some instances of “propaganda by the deed” carried out by French and Spanish anarchists in the 1880s and 1890s were indiscriminate killings of common citizens; but that was an exception, rather than the rule. The perpetrators and some of those sympathetic to their cause claimed those acts were nevertheless morally legitimate, whether as retribution (exacted on the assumption that no member of the ruling class was innocent) or as a means necessary for the overthrow of the unjust order. Accordingly, in their parlance, too, the term “terrorism” implied no censure. When used by others, it conveyed a strong condemnation of the practice.

The terrorism employed by both sides in the Russian Revolution and Civil War was in important respects a throwback to that of the Jacobins. The government set up in Russia by the victorious Bolsheviks was totalitarian. So was the Nazi rule in Germany. Both sought to impose total political control on society. Such a radical aim could only be pursued by a similarly radical method: by terrorism directed by an extremely powerful political police at an atomized and defenseless population. Its success was due largely to its arbitrary character—to the unpredictability of its choice of victims. In both countries, the regime first suppressed all opposition; when it no longer had any opposition to speak of, political police took to persecuting “potential” and “objective opponents”. In the Soviet Union, it was eventually unleashed on victims chosen at random. Totalitarian terrorism is the most extreme and sustained type of state terrorism. As Hannah Arendt put it, “terror is the essence of totalitarian domination”, and the concentration camp is “the true central institution of totalitarian organizational power” (Arendt 1958: 464, 438). While students of totalitarianism talked of terrorism as its method of rule, representatives of totalitarian regimes, sensitive to the pejorative connotation of the word, portrayed the practice as defense of the state from internal enemies.

However, state terrorism is not the preserve of totalitarian regimes. Some non-totalitarian states have resorted to terrorism against enemy civilians as a method of warfare, most notably when the RAF and USAAF bombed German and Japanese cities in World War II (see Lackey 2004). Those who designed and oversaw these campaigns never publicly described them as “terror bombing”, but that was how they often referred to them in internal communications.

After the heyday of totalitarian terrorism in the 1930s and 1940s, internal state terrorism continued to be practiced by military dictatorships in many parts of the world, albeit in a less sustained and pervasive way. But the type of terrorism that came to the fore in the second half of the 20th century and in early 21st century is that employed by insurgent organizations. Many movements for national liberation from colonial rule resorted to it, either as the main method of struggle or as a tactic complementing guerrilla warfare. So did some separatist movements. Some organizations driven by extreme ideologies, in particular on the left, took to terrorism as the way of trying to destroy what they considered an unjust, oppressive economic, social and political system. This type of terrorism is, by and large, indiscriminate in its choice of target: it attacks men and women of whatever political (or apolitical) views, social class, and walk of life; young and old, adults and children. It shoots at people, or blows them up by planting bombs, in office buildings, markets, cafes, cinemas, places of religious worship, on buses or planes, or in other vulnerable public places. It also takes people hostage, by hijacking planes and in other ways.

As “terrorism” has by now acquired a very strong pejorative meaning, no-one applies the word to their own actions or to actions and campaigns of those they sympathize with. Insurgents practicing terrorism portray their actions as struggle for liberation and seek to be considered and treated as soldiers rather than terrorists or criminals. They often depict their enemy—the alien government, or the agencies of the social, political and economic system—as the “true terrorists”. For them, the test of terrorism is not what is done , but rather what the ultimate aim of doing it is. If the ultimate aim is liberation or justice, the violence used in order to attain it is not terrorism, whereas the violence aiming at maintaining oppression or injustice, or some of the “structural violence” embodying it, is. On the other hand, governments tend to paint all insurgent violence with the brush of “terrorism”. Government spokespersons and pro-government media typically assume that terrorism is by definition something done by non-state agents, and that a state can never be guilty of terrorism (although it can sponsor terrorist organizations). For them, the test of terrorism is not what is done , but who does it. When a state agency uses violence, it is an act of war, or reprisal, or defense of the security of the state and its citizens; when an insurgent group does the same, it is terrorism. Under these circumstances, one person’s terrorist is indeed another’s freedom fighter, and public debate about terrorism is largely conducted at cross purposes and to little effect. Attempts of the United Nations to propose a definition of “terrorism” that could be accepted by all states and embedded in international law so far have been frustrated by the same sort of relativism. Islamic countries would accept no definition that allowed national liberation movements in the Middle East and Kashmir to be portrayed as terrorist, whereas Western countries would accept no definition that allowed for state agencies to be guilty of terrorism.

1.2 Two core traits of terrorism and two types of definition

The evaluative meaning of “terrorism” has shifted considerably more than once. So has its descriptive meaning, but to a lesser degree. Whatever else the word may have meant, its ordinary use over more than two centuries has typically indicated two things: violence and intimidation (the causing of great fear or terror, terrorizing). The dominant approach to the conceptual question in philosophical literature reflects this. Terrorism is usually understood as a type of violence. This violence is not blind or sadistic, but rather aims at intimidation and at some further political, social, or religious goal or, more broadly, at coercion.

That is how (political) “terrorism” is defined by Per Bauhn in the first philosophical book-length study in English:

The performance of violent acts, directed against one or more persons, intended by the performing agent to intimidate one or more persons and thereby to bring about one or more of the agent’s political goals (Bauhn 1989: 28).

Another good example of a mainstream definition is provided in C.A.J. Coady’s article on terrorism in the Encyclopedia of Ethics :

The tactic of intentionally targeting non-combatants [or non-combatant property, when significantly related to life and security] with lethal or severe violence … meant to produce political results via the creation of fear (Coady 2001: 1697).

Yet another example is the definition proposed by Igor Primoratz:

The deliberate use of violence, or threat of its use, against innocent people, with the aim of intimidating some other people into a course of action they otherwise would not take (Primoratz 2013: 24).

These definitions put aside both the question of who the actor is and the question of what their ultimate objectives are, and focus on what is done and what the proximate aim of doing it is. They present terrorism as a way of acting that could be adopted by different agents and serve various ultimate objectives (most, but perhaps not all of them, political). It can be employed by states or by non-state agents, and may promote national liberation or oppression, revolutionary or conservative causes (and possibly pursue some nonpolitical aims as well). One can be a terrorist and a freedom fighter; terrorism is not the monopoly of enemies of freedom. One can hold high government or military office and design or implement a terrorist campaign; terrorism is not the preserve of insurgents. In this way much of the relativism concerning who is and who is not a terrorist that has plagued contemporary public debate (see 1.1.4 above) can be overcome.

Beyond concurring that violence and intimidation constitute the core of terrorism, the definitions quoted above differ in several respects. Does only actual violence count, or do threats of violence also qualify? Must terrorist violence be directed against life and limb, or does violence against (some) property also count? Does terrorism always seek to attain some political goal, or can there be non-political (e.g. criminal) terrorism? All these points are minor. There is also one major difference: while Coady and Primoratz define terrorism as violence against non-combatants or innocent people, respectively, Bauhn’s definition includes no such restriction. Definitions of the former type can be termed “narrow”, and those of the latter sort “wide”. Philosophical literature on terrorism abounds in instances of both types.

Should we adopt a wide or a narrow definition? A wide definition encompasses the entire history of “terrorism” from the Jacobins to the present, and is more in accord with current ordinary use. A narrow definition departs from much ordinary use by restricting terrorist violence to that directed at non-combatants or innocent persons. Thus it leaves out most of 19th century “propaganda by the deed” and political violence perpetrated by Russian revolutionaries which they themselves and the public called terrorist.

For these reasons, historians of terrorism normally work with a wide definition, and social scientists do so much of the time. But philosophers may well prefer a narrow definition. They focus on the moral standing of terrorism and need a definition that is particularly helpful in moral discourse. Morally speaking, surely there is a difference—for some, a world of difference—between planting a bomb in a government building and killing a number of highly placed officials of (what one considers) an unjust and oppressive government, and planting a bomb in a tea shop and killing a random collection of common citizens, including children. While both acts raise serious moral issues, these issues are not identical, and running them together under the same heading of “terrorism” will likely hamper, rather than help, discerning moral assessment.

Narrow definitions are revisionary, but (unlike those discussed in the next section) not implausibly so. They focus on the traits of terrorism that cause most of us to view the practice with deep moral repugnance: (i) violence (ii) against non-combatants (or, alternatively, against innocent people) for the sake of (iii) intimidation (and, on some definitions, (iv) coercion). In highlighting (ii), they relate the issue of terrorism to the ethics of war and one of the fundamental principles of just war theory, that of non-combatant immunity. They help distinguish terrorism from acts of war proper and political assassination, which do not target non-combatants or common citizens. It does not matter very much whether the victims of terrorism are described as “non-combatants” or “innocent people”, as each term is used in a technical sense, and both refer to those who have not lost their immunity against lethal or other extreme violence by being directly involved in, or highly responsible for, (what terrorists consider) insufferable injustice or oppression. In war, these are innocent civilians; in a violent conflict that falls short of war, these are common citizens.

Talk of involvement of individuals and groups in injustice or oppression raises the question: is the injustice or oppression at issue, and thus the standing of those implicated in it, to be determined by some objective criteria, or from the point of view of those who resort to violence? Coady chooses the former option. He approaches terrorism from the standpoint of just war theory and its principle of noncombatant immunity. “Combatants” is a technical term designating agents of aggression or, more broadly, “dangerous wrongdoers” or “agents of harm”; they are legitimate targets of potentially lethal violence. All others are noncombatants, and enjoy immunity from such violence (Coady 2004). This approach may not be difficult to apply in war, where the wrong or harm at issue is either aggression that needs to be repelled, or systematic and large-scale violations of human rights that provide the ground for humanitarian intervention. Issues of injustice or oppression that arise in an internal conflict that falls short of war, however, tend to be highly contentious: what some consider an imperfect, but basically morally legitimate political and social order, others may see as the epitome of injustice and oppression that must be overthrown, if need be by violence. Under such circumstances, when a highly placed political official is killed by insurgents, that may be characterized (and condemned) by many as an act of terrorism, while the insurgents and those sympathetic to their struggle may reject this characterization and portray (and justify) the killing as political assassination.

In order to avoid this kind of relativism, Primoratz puts forward a view that in one important respect takes on board the standpoint of the terrorist. The direct victims of terrorism are innocent in the sense of not being responsible, on any credible understanding of responsibility and liability, for the injustice or oppression the terrorists fight against—not responsible at all, or at least not responsible to the degree that makes them liable to be killed or maimed on that account. The injustice or oppression at issue need not be real; it may be merely alleged (by the terrorists). Being responsible for a merely alleged great injustice or oppression is enough for losing one’s immunity against violence, as far as the type of immunity and innocence relevant to defining terrorism is concerned. According to the traditional version of just war theory one does not lose immunity against acts of war only by fighting in an unjust war, but by fighting in any war. Similarly, one does not lose immunity against political violence only by holding office in or implementing policies of a gravely unjust government, but by holding office in or implementing policies of any government: as King Umberto I of Italy said after surviving an assassination attempt, such risk comes with the job. Members of these two classes are not considered innocent and morally protected against violence by those attacking them; the latter view their acts as acts of war proper or of political assassination, respectively. If the terrorists subscribe to a credible view of responsibility and liability, then, when they attack common citizens, they attack people innocent from their own point of view, i.e., innocent even if we grant the terrorists their assessment of the policies at issue. (This is not to say that those who consider a government to be gravely unjust have a moral license to kill its officials, but only that if they do so, that will not be terrorism, but rather political assassination. We can still condemn their actions if we reject their judgment of the policies at issue, or if we accept that judgment, but believe that they should have opposed those policies by nonviolent means. But we will not be condemning their actions qua terrorism.)

On this account, not only real, but also merely alleged injustice or oppression counts in determining the innocence of the victims and deciding which acts are acts of terrorism; thus such decisions are not hostage to endless debates about the moral status of contested policies. Nevertheless, a residue of relativity remains. The account presupposes a certain understanding of responsibility and liability: a person is responsible for a state of affairs only by virtue of that person’s voluntary, i.e., informed and free, act or omission that has a sufficiently strong connection with that state of affairs, and thereby becomes liable to some proportionately unfavorable response. Provided the terrorists accept some such understanding of responsibility and liability, they kill and maim people they themselves must admit to be innocent. To be sure, some militant organizations resort to violence which we perceive as terrorist, yet object to the label. They profess a view of responsibility and liability based on extremely far-fetched connections between states of affairs and human choices and actions, and argue that entire social classes or nations are responsible for certain policies and practices and all their members are liable to be attacked by deadly violence (for more on this, see 2.1 below). Such arguments can only be regarded as preposterous. We should insist on viewing their actions as terrorist, although they reject this description. It is not clear how this residue of relativity could be removed (Primoratz 2013: 16–21).

Some object to defining “terrorism” as violence against non-combatants or innocent persons. They argue that doing so runs together the question of the nature of terrorism and that of its moral status, and begs the moral issue by making terrorism unjustified by definition. We should rather keep these questions separate, and take care not to prejudge the latter by giving a wrong answer to the former. What is needed is a morally neutral definition of terrorism, and that means a wide one (Corlett 2003: 114–20, 134–35; Young 2004: 57). But it is doubtful that “terrorism” can be defined in some morally untainted way. The wide definitions these philosophers adopt contain the word “violence”, which is itself morally loaded. A narrow definition is not completely morally neutral, as violence against the innocent is clearly morally wrong. But what is clear is that such violence is prima facie wrong. The definition implies a general presumption against terrorism, not its sweeping moral condemnation in each and every instance, whatever the circumstances and whatever the consequences of desisting from it. The definition does not rule out that in certain circumstances it might not be wrong, all things considered. Ethical investigation is not preempted: a particular case of terrorism still needs to be judged on its merits.

Another way of settling the issue of wide vs. narrow definition is offered by Georg Meggle. He adopts a wide definition of terrorism, and goes on to distinguish two different types: terrorism in the strong sense, which deliberately, recklessly, or negligently harms innocent people, and terrorism in the weak sense, which does not. Obviously, the moral assessment of the two types of terrorism is going to be significantly different (Meggle 2005).

The vast majority of cases almost anyone without an ax to grind would want to classify as “terrorism” exhibit the two traits implied in ordinary use and highlighted by mainstream philosophical definitions such as those quoted above: violence and intimidation. But philosophical literature also offers definitions that leave out one or the other core component.

Some seek to sever the connection between terrorism and violence. Carl Wellman defines terrorism as “the use or attempted use of terror as a means of coercion”. Terrorism is often associated with violence, but that is because violence is a very effective means of intimidation. Yet “violence is not essential to terrorism and, in fact, most acts of terrorism are nonviolent” (Wellman 1979: 250–51). The last claim seems false on any non-circular interpretation. There may be many acts generally considered terrorist that do not involve actual violence, but are meant to intimidate by threatening it; but that is not enough to support the notion of “non-violent terrorism”, which seems odd. So does Wellman’s example of “classroom terrorism”: a professor threatens to fail students who submit their essays after the due date, causes panic in class, and thereby engages in terrorism.

Robert E. Goodin offers a similar account, emphasizing the political role of terrorism: terrorism is “a political tactic, involving the deliberate frightening of people for political advantage” (Goodin 2006: 49). This, he claims, is the distinctive wrong terrorists commit. Whereas on Wellman’s account one can commit an act of terrorism without either engaging in or threatening violence, merely by making a threat in order to intimidate, on Goodin’s account one need not even make a threat: one acts as a terrorist by merely issuing a warning about the acts of others that is meant to intimidate. This, too, seems arbitrary, although it makes sense as a step in an argument meant to show that “ if (or insofar as ) Western political leaders are intending to frighten people for their own political advantage, then (to that extent ) they are committing the same core wrong that is distinctively associated with terrorism” (Goodin 2006: 2).

It has also been suggested that terrorism need not be understood as inducing terror or fear. According to Ted Honderich, terrorism is best defined as “violence, short of war, political, illegal and prima facie wrong” (Honderich 2006: 88). This definition might be thought problematic on several counts, but the idea of “terrorism” without “terror” seems especially odd. The two are connected etymologically and historically, and this connection is deeply entrenched in current ordinary use. Intimidation is not the morally salient trait of terrorism ( pace Goodin), but it is one of its core traits that cause most of us to condemn the practice. We might consider severing the connection if Honderich offered a good reason for doing so. But he supports his highly revisionary definition by the puzzling claim that to define terrorism as violence meant to intimidate is to imply that terrorism is particularly abhorrent and thereby “in effect … invite a kind of prima facie approval or tolerance of war” (Honderich 2006: 93).

2. The moral issue

Can terrorism be morally justified? There is no single answer to this question, as there is no single conception of what terrorism is. If we put aside definitions that depart too much, and for no compelling reason, from the core meaning of “terrorism” (such as those cited in 1.2.3), we still need to decide whether the question assumes a wide or a narrow understanding of terrorism. A narrow conception of terrorism seems to be better suited to ethical investigation (1.2.2). Moreover, philosophers who work with a wide definition typically hold that terrorism that targets non-combatants or innocent persons is much more difficult to justify than “selective” terrorism which attacks only those who cannot plausibly claim innocence of the injustice or oppression at issue (and which accordingly does not count as “terrorism” on a narrow definition of the term). The present discussion therefore focuses on terrorism understood as violence against innocent civilians or common citizens, intended to intimidate and thereby to achieve some further (political) objective or, more broadly, to coerce.

One might try to justify some acts or campaigns of violence of this kind in two ways. One could argue that the victims may be non-combatants or common citizens, but nevertheless are not innocent of the wrongs the terrorists are fighting against. Alternatively, one could concede the innocence of the victims and argue that attacks on them are nevertheless justified, either by their consequences on balance, or by some deontological considerations.

If the former line of argument is successful, will it prove too much? In showing that an instance of violence was justified because those targeted were not really innocent, we will have shown that the act or campaign of violence at issue was actually not a case of terrorism. This may be merely a matter of semantics. There is a much more damaging objection. A terrorist act is characteristically the killing or injuring of a random collection of people who happen to be in a certain place at a certain time. Arguments to the effect that those people are not innocent of the wrongs the terrorist fights against will therefore have a very wide reach, and accordingly will be based on some simplistic conception of collective responsibility. These arguments will be of the sort offered, for example, by the 19th century anarchist Emile Henry. He planted a bomb at the office of a mining company which, if it had exploded, would have killed or injured a number of people who did not work for the company, but lived in the same building. He also planted a bomb in a café that did go off, injuring twenty people, one of whom later died of his injuries. At his trial, Henry explained: “What about the innocent victims? […] The building where the Carmeaux Company had its offices was inhabited only by the bourgeois; hence there would be no innocent victims. The whole of the bourgeoisie lives by the exploitation of the unfortunate, and should expiate its crimes together” (Henry 1977: 193). When commenting on the second attack, he said:

Those good bourgeois who hold no office but who reap their dividends and live idly on the profits of the workers’ toil, they also must take their share in the reprisals. And not only they, but all those who are satisfied with the existing order, who applaud the acts of the government and so become its accomplices … in other words, the daily clientele of Terminus and other great cafés! (Henry 1977: 195)

This is an utterly implausible view of responsibility and liability. It claims that all members of a social class—men and women, young and old, adults and children—are liable to be killed or maimed: some for operating the system of exploitation, others for supporting it, and still others for benefiting from it. Even if, for the sake of argument, we grant the anarchist’s harsh moral condemnation of capitalist society, not every type and degree of involvement with it can justify the use of extreme violence. Giving the system political support, or benefiting from it, may be morally objectionable, but is surely not enough to make one liable to be blown to pieces.

Another, more recent example, is provided by Osama Bin Laden. In an interview in the aftermath of the attacks on September 11, 2001 he said:

The American people should remember that they pay taxes to their government and that they voted for their president. Their government makes weapons and provides them to Israel, which they use to kill Palestinian Muslims. Given that the American Congress is a committee that represents the people, the fact that it agrees with the actions of the American government proves that America in its entirety is responsible for the atrocities that it is committing against Muslims (Bin Laden 2005: 140–141).

This, too, is a preposterous understanding of responsibility and liability. For it claims that all Americans are eligible to be killed or maimed: some for devising and implementing America’s policies, others for participating in the political process, still others for paying taxes. Even if, for the sake of argument, we grant Bin Laden’s severe condemnation of those policies, not every type and degree of involvement with them can justify the use of lethal violence. Surely voting in elections or paying taxes is not enough to make one fair game.

Attempts at justification of terrorism that concede that its victims are innocent seem more promising. They fall into two groups, depending on the type of ethical theory on which they are based.

2.2 Consequentialism

Adherents of consequentialism judge terrorism, like every other practice, solely by its consequences. Terrorism is not considered wrong in itself, but only if it has bad consequences on balance. The innocence of the victims does not change that. This is an instance of a general trait of consequentialism often highlighted by its critics, for example in the debate about the moral justification of legal punishment. A standard objection to the consequentialist approach to punishment has been that it implies that punishment of the innocent is justified, when its consequences are good on balance. This objection can only get off the ground because consequentialism denies that in such matters a person’s innocence is morally significant in itself.

Those who consider terrorism from a consequentialist point of view differ in their assessment of its morality. Their judgment on terrorism depends on their view of the good to be promoted by its use and on their assessment of the utility of terrorism as a means of promoting it. There is room for disagreement on both issues.

Kai Nielsen approaches questions to do with political violence in general and terrorism in particular as a consequentialist in ethics and a socialist in politics. The use of neither can be ruled out categorically; it all depends on their utility as a method for attaining morally and politically worthwhile objectives such as “a truly socialist society” or liberation from colonial rule. “When and where [either] should be employed is a tactical question that must be decided … on a case-by-case basis … like the choice of weapon in a war” (Nielsen 1981: 435). Nielsen has a wide definition of terrorism, but his examples show that the innocence of the victims of terrorism makes no difference to its justification—that is, that his conclusions apply to terrorism in both the wide and narrow sense. In his view,

terrorist acts must be justified by their political effects and their moral consequences. They are justified (1) when they are politically effective weapons in the revolutionary struggle and (2) when, everything considered, there are sound reasons for believing that, by the use of that type of violence rather than no violence at all or violence of some other type, there will be less injustice, suffering and degradation in the world than would otherwise have been the case (Nielsen 1981: 446).

Historical experience, in Nielsen’s view, tells us that terrorism on a small scale, used as the sole method of struggle in order to provoke the masses into revolutionary action, is ineffective and often counterproductive. On the other hand, terrorism employed in conjunction with guerrilla warfare in a protracted war of liberation may well prove useful and therefore also justified, as it did in Algeria and South Vietnam. (For an earlier statement of the same view, see Trotsky 1961: 48–59, 62–65.)

Nicholas Fotion also uses a wide definition of terrorism. He, too, is a consequentialist (although some of his remarks concerning the innocence of many victims of terrorism might be more at home in nonconsequentialist ethics). But he finds standard consequentialist assessments of terrorism such as Nielsen’s too permissive. If some types of terrorism are justifiable under certain circumstances, such circumstances will be extremely rare. Terrorists and their apologists do not perform the requisite calculations properly. One problem is the “higher good” to be promoted by terrorism: more often than not, it is defined in ideological terms, rather than derived from settled preferences or interests of actual people. But for the most part Fotion discusses the issue of means. If a terrorist act or campaign is to be justified instrumentally, it must be shown (1) that the end sought is good enough to justify the means, (2) that the end will indeed be achieved by means of terrorism, and (3) that the end cannot be achieved in any other way that is morally and otherwise less costly. Terrorists not only, as a matter of fact, fail to discharge this burden; Fotion argues that, with regard to terrorism that victimizes innocent people, it cannot be discharged. All direct victims of terrorism are treated as objects to be used—indeed, used up—by the terrorist. But

in being treated as an object, the innocent victim is worse off than the (alleged) guilty victim. Insofar as the latter is judged to have done a wrong, he is thought of as a human. […] For the terrorist the innocent victim is neither a human in this judgmental sense nor a human in the sense of simply having value as a human being. Of course the terrorist needs to pick a human being as a victim … because [that] brings about more terror … But this does not involve treating them as humans. Rather, they are victimized and thereby treated as objects because they are humans (Fotion 1981: 464).

In reply, terrorists can claim that they advisedly sacrifice valued human beings for a higher good. But for this claim to carry any conviction, they would have to show that they have no alternative. Yet, Fotion argues, they always have the alternative of taking on the opponent’s military establishment, and often also have the option of going after government officials responsible for the wrongs they object to, instead of attacking innocent persons. That kind of terrorism may sometimes be justified, whereas terrorism that targets innocent people never is.

2.3 Nonconsequentialism

Within a nonconsequentialist approach to morality, terrorism is considered wrong in itself, because of what it is, rather than only because (and insofar as) its consequences are bad on balance. But this is not to say that this approach leaves no room whatever for morally justifying certain acts or campaigns of terrorism. Indeed, nonconsequentialist discussions of terrorism also present a range of positions and arguments.

A nonconsequentialist might try to justify an act or campaign of terrorism in one of two ways. One might invoke some deontological considerations, such as justice or rights, in favor of resorting to terrorism under certain circumstances. Alternatively, one might argue that the obvious, and obviously very weighty, considerations of rights (of the victims of terrorism) and justice (which demands respect for those rights) may sometimes be overridden by extremely weighty considerations of consequences—an extremely high price that would be paid for not resorting to terrorism. For the rejection of consequentialism is of course not tantamount to denying that consequences of our actions, policies, and practices matter in their moral assessment; what is denied is the consequentialists’ claim that only consequences matter.

Virginia Held operates with a broad notion of terrorism, but her justification of terrorism is meant to apply to terrorism that targets common citizens. Her discussion of the subject focuses on the issue of rights. When rights of a person or group are not respected, what may we do in order to ensure that they are? On one view, known as consequentialism of rights, if the only way to ensure respect of a certain right of A and B is to infringe the same right of C , we shall be justified in doing so. Held does not hold that such trade-offs in rights with the aim of maximizing their respect in a society are appropriate. Yet rights sometimes come into conflict, whether directly or indirectly (as in the above example). When that happens, there is no way we can avoid comparing the rights involved as more or less stringent and making certain choices between them. That applies to the case of terrorism too. Terrorism obviously violates some human rights of its victims. But its advocates claim that in some circumstances a limited use of terrorism is the only way of bringing about a society where human rights of all will be respected.

Even when this claim is true, that is not enough to make resort to terrorism justified. But it will be justified if an additional condition is met: that of distributive justice. If there is a society where the human rights of a part of the population are respected, while the same rights of another part of the population are being violated; if the only way of changing that and ensuring that human rights of all are respected is a limited use of terrorism; finally, if terrorism is directed against members of the first group, which up to now has been privileged as far as respect of human rights is concerned—then terrorism will be morally justified. This is a justification in terms of distributive justice, applied to the problem of violations of human rights. It is more just to equalize the violations of human rights in a stage of transition to a society where the rights of all are respected, than to allow that the group which has already suffered large-scale violations of human rights suffer even more such violations (assuming that in both cases we are dealing with violations of the same, or equally stringent, human rights). The human rights of many are going to be violated in any case; it is more just, and therefore morally preferable, that their violations should be distributed in a more equitable way (Held 2008).

It might be objected that in calling for sacrificing such basic human rights as the right to life and to bodily security of individual victims of terrorism for the sake of a more just distribution of violations of the same rights within a group in the course of transition to a stage where these rights will be respected throughout that group, Held offends against the principles of separateness of persons and respect for persons (Primoratz 1997: 230–31). In response, Held argues that

to fail to achieve a more just distribution of violations of rights (through the use of terrorism if that is the only means available) is to fail to recognize that those whose rights are already not fairly respected are individuals in their own right, not merely members of a group … whose rights can be ignored.

An argument for achieving a just distribution of rights violations is not necessarily about groups; it can be an argument about the rights of individuals to fairness (Held 2008: 89–90). (For further objections to Held’s argument, see Steinhoff 2007: 125–30; Brooks 2010; Nath 2011.)

In Held’s justification of terrorism, it is justice that requires that inescapable violations of human rights be more evenly distributed. There is a different way of allowing for the use of terrorism under certain circumstances within a nonconsequentialist approach to the ethics of violence. It could be argued that, as far as justice and rights are concerned, terrorism (or, in Held’s terminology, the kind of terrorism that targets the innocent) is never justified. Furthermore, considerations of justice and rights carry much greater weight than considerations of good and bad consequences, and therefore normally trump the latter in cases of conflict. However, in exceptional circumstances considerations concerning consequences—the price of not resorting to terrorism—may be so extremely weighty as to override those of justice and rights.

Michael Walzer offers an argument along these lines in his discussion of “terror bombing” of German cities in World War II. In early 1942, it seemed that Britain would be defeated by Germany and that its military could not prevail while fighting in accordance with the rules of war. Britain was the only remaining obstacle to the subjugation of most of Europe by the Nazis. That was “an ultimate threat to everything decent in our lives, an ideology and a practice of domination so murderous, so degrading even to those who might survive, that the consequences of its final victory were literally beyond calculation, immeasurably awful” (Walzer 2000: 253). Thus Britain was facing a “supreme emergency”: an (a) imminent threat of (b) something utterly unthinkable from a moral point of view. In such an emergency—a case of the “dirty hands” predicament that so often plagues political action (see Walzer 1973)—one may breach a basic and weighty moral principle such as civilian immunity, if that is the only hope of fending off the threat. So for more than three years, the RAF, later joined by the USAAF, deliberately devastated many German cities, killed about 600,000 civilians and seriously injured another 800,000 in an attempt to terrorize the German people into forcing their leadership to halt the war and surrender unconditionally. By early 1943 it was clear that Germany was not going to win the war, and all subsequent terror bombing lacked moral justification. But in its first year, in Walzer’s view, the terror bombing of Germany was morally justified as a response to the supreme emergency Britain was facing. Walzer then expands the notion of supreme emergency to apply to a single political community facing the threat of extermination or enslavement, and eventually to a single political community whose “survival and freedom” are at stake. For “the survival and freedom of political communities—whose members share a way of life, developed by their ancestors, to be passed on to their children—are the highest values of international society” (Walzer 2000: 254).

Here we have two different conceptions of supreme emergency. The threat is imminent in both, but the nature of the threat differs: it is one thing to suffer the fate the Nazis had in store for peoples they considered racially inferior, and another to have one’s polity dismantled. By moving back and forth between these two types of supreme emergency under the ambiguous heading of threat to “the survival and freedom of a political community”, Walzer seeks to extend to the latter the moral response that might be appropriate to the former. Yet whereas genocide, expulsion, or enslavement of an entire people might be thought a moral disaster that may be fended off by any means, its loss of political independence is, at most, a political disaster. If a polity to be dismantled lacks moral legitimacy, its demise may well be a moral improvement. But even if a polity does have moral legitimacy, a threat to its “survival and freedom” falls short of “an ultimate threat to everything decent in our lives”. If so, its military cannot be justified in waging war on enemy civilians in order to defend it. (On supreme emergencies see, for instance, Statman 2006; Kaplan 2011.)

There is another, less permissive position constructed along similar lines, but based on a more austere view of what counts as a moral disaster that might justify resort to terrorism. Contrary to what many fighters against social or economic oppression, colonial rule, or foreign occupation believe, evils of such magnitude that they can justify indiscriminate killing and maiming of innocent people are extremely rare. Not every case of oppression, foreign rule, or occupation, however morally indefensible, amounts to a moral disaster in the relevant sense. Nor does every imminent threat to “the survival and freedom of a political community” qualify, contrary to what Walzer has argued. However, if an entire people is subjected to extermination, or to an attempt at “ethnically cleansing” it from its land, then it is facing a true moral disaster and may properly consider terrorism as a method of struggle against such a fate. In view of their enormity and finality, extermination and “ethnic cleansing” of an entire people constitute a category apart. To be sure, resorting to terrorism in such a case will be morally justified only if there are very good grounds for believing that terrorism will succeed where nothing else will: in preventing imminent extermination or “ethnic cleansing”, or stopping it if it is already under way. Cases where both conditions are met will be extremely rare. Indeed, history may not offer a single example. But that does not mean that no act or campaign of terrorism could ever satisfy these conditions and thus turn out to be justified. Accordingly, terrorism is almost absolutely wrong (Primoratz 2013: chapter 6).

Both the “supreme emergency” and the “moral disaster” view will justify a resort to terrorism only when that is the only way to deal with the emergency, or to prevent the disaster, respectively. Just how certain must we be that terrorism will indeed achieve the goal, while no other method will? One might argue that when in extremis , we cannot apply stringent epistemic standards in deciding how to cope—indeed, if we cannot really know what will work, we must take our chances with what might. This is Walzer’s view: in such a predicament, we must “wager” the crime of terrorism against the evil that is otherwise in store for us. “There is no option; the risk otherwise is too great” (Walzer 2000: 259–260). It may be objected that this position highlights the enormity of the threat, while failing to give due weight to the enormity of the means proposed for fending off the threat—the enormity of terrorism, of deliberately killing and maiming innocent people. When that is taken into account, the conclusion may rather be that even in extremis , if terrorism is to be justified, the reasons for believing that it will work and that nothing else will must be very strong indeed.

Some hold that terrorism is absolutely wrong. This position, too, comes in different versions. Some philosophers work with a wide definition of terrorism, and argue that under certain circumstances “selective” terrorism that targets only those seriously implicated in the wrongs at issue may be justified (Corlett 2003, Young 2004). This seems to suggest that terrorism which is not selective in this way—that is, terrorism in the narrow sense—is never justified. Yet this does not follow: there is still room for arguing that terrorism of the latter type can be justified by further considerations, such as those of “supreme emergency” or “moral disaster”.

Per Bauhn does not leave it at that. He attempts to show that terrorism that targets non-combatants or common citizens can never be justified by deploying a slightly amended version of Alan Gewirth’s ethical theory. Freedom and safety are fundamental prerequisites of action and therefore must be accorded paramount weight. The need to protect them generates a range of rights; the right pertinent here is “an absolute right not to be made the intended victims of a homicidal project” all innocent persons have (Gewirth 1981: 16). When the absolute status of this right is challenged by invoking supreme emergency or moral disaster, Bauhn argues that there is a moral difference between what we are positively and directly causally responsible for, and what we are causally responsible for only indirectly, by failing to prevent other persons from intentionally bringing it about. We are morally responsible for the former, but (except in certain special circumstances) not for the latter. If we refuse to resort to terrorism in order not to target innocent persons, and thus fail to prevent some other persons from perpetrating atrocities, it is only the perpetrators who will be morally responsible for those atrocities. Therefore we must refuse (Bauhn 1989: chapter 5).

Some philosophers base their absolute rejection of terrorism on the slippery slope argument, and argue that “the appeal to supreme emergency is too dangerous to be allowed as a publicly available vindication for terrorism, no matter how rare the circumstances are meant to be” (Coady 2021: 143–44).

Stephen Nathanson seeks to ground the absolute immunity of civilians or common citizens and the absolute prohibition of terrorism which it entails in a rule-consequentialist ethical theory (Nathanson 2010: 191–208). Adopting civilian immunity, rather than adopting any other rule regulating the matter or having no rule at all, is the best way to reduce the killing and destruction in armed conflict. Moreover, the best consequences will be achieved by adopting it as an absolute rule, rather than as a rule allowing for exceptions in supreme emergencies. The idea of supreme emergency is vague. The criteria for proffering supreme emergency exemptions are liable to be applied in arbitrary and subjective ways. Finally, there is the slippery slope argument: “permitting [departures from the rule of civilian immunity, including terrorism] even under the direst circumstances will lower the bar for justifying such acts … broadcast the message that such behavior may sometimes be justified and … thus lend its weight to increasing the use of such methods” (Nathanson 2010: 207).

However, one can adopt rule-consequentialism as one’s ethical theory and yet view the immunity of civilians or common citizens and the attendant prohibition of terrorism as very stringent, but not absolute moral rules. Thus Richard B. Brandt and Brad Hooker do not view this immunity as absolute. They argue that a set of moral rules selected because of the good consequences of their adoption should include a rule that allows and indeed requires one to prevent disaster even if that means breaking some other moral rule. Even such a stringent moral rule as the prohibition of deliberate use of violence against innocent people may be overridden, if the disaster that cannot be prevented in any other way is grave enough. (See Brandt 1992: 87–88, 150–51, 156–57; Hooker 2000: 98–99, 127–36). There is thus some convergence at the level of practical conclusions between their understanding of the immunity of civilians or common citizens and the “moral disaster” position outlined above (2.3.2).

• Allhoff, Fritz, 2012, Terrorism, Ticking Time-Bombs, and Torture: A Philosophical Analysis , New York: Columbia University Press; see part I.
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• Ethics , 114/4, 2004: Terrorism, War, and Justice.
• Iyyun: The Jerusalem Philosophical Quarterly , 55/1, 2006: Terrorism and Counterterrorism.
• The Journal of Ethics , 8/1, 2004: Terrorism.

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Terrorism in the United States of America Essay

Introduction.

Terrorism is a serious problem affecting the United States of America that is likely to worsen in the coming years. The number of terrorist groups operating within the borders has increased over the past decade. Data provided by the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) shows that white supremacists pose the greatest risk to the nation’s security. Moreover, anarchists and religious extremists have been cited as perpetrators of terrorist activities within the US. Common types of terrorism include right-wing terrorism (white supremacists and anti-government extremists), left-wing terrorism, and religious terrorism. Recent events following the death of George Floyd have revealed the new face of terrorism in the US. The spread of false information, conspiracy theories, and incitements to violence are some of the means that terrorist groups are using to advance their agenda. Aryan Nations and the Ku Klux Klan are terrorist organizations that continue to promote racial and religious violence as well as anti-Semitic ideas.

Domestic Terrorist Organizations

Aryan nations.

Aryan Nations (AN) is a white supremacist terrorist organization that is headquartered in Hayden, Idaho. It is a form of right-wing terrorism that is anti-Semitic and neo-Nazi, and that was founded by Richard Girnt Butler in 1977. Its main objective is to establish a white state that excludes other races by fighting against people that pose a threat to the white race, including the Jews and African Americans (Perliger, 2020). Constructivism theory can be used to explain the development and motivations of AN. Originally, it was a branch of the Christian Identity church that has two core teachings: whites are the true Israelites and Jews originated from a union between Satan and Eve. The group has been involved in several criminal activities, hence its classification by the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) as a terrorist threat in 2001. Moreover, it is founded on a wide spectrum of racist and anti-Semitic ideas that promote racial intolerance (Perliger, 2020). The organization has been described by the RAND Corporation as a pioneer nationwide terrorist network in the US.

Aryan Nations has a single leader who makes all the group’s decisions. Unlike other terrorist organizations, it lacks a hierarchical structure and its activities are determined by the leader. It has been infiltrated by the FBI through an informant. Dave Hall, the group’s propaganda minister was an informant who exposed the organization’s illegal activities (Perliger, 2020). He reported directly to Special Agent Tym Burkey, a security officer who was helping Dayton’s organized Jewish community fight the group’s hate campaign. AN is linked to other terrorist groups, including the Ku Klux Klan (KKK), National Alliance, and The Silent Brotherhood (Perliger, 2020). The group is funded privately by individuals who support its ideologies and through its involvement in criminal activities. It lacks a strong organization and communication strategy, and it relies on the internet to conduct recruitments and spread its ideologies.

In recent years, wrangles have developed within the organization since the death of its founder, and splinter groups have emerged. It weakened in 2001 after losing its Northern Idaho compound where it was headquartered (Perliger, 2020). The group might disintegrate in the future because of its dwindling number of followers, leadership wrangles, and a lack of finances to fund its activities. Law enforcement agencies have heightened surveillance on groups and individuals deemed to promote terrorism in the US. Therefore, people might be afraid of donating to their initiatives and joining them as members for fear of victimization and prosecution.

Ku Klux Klan

The KKK refers to a domestic left-wing terrorist group that uses fear to advance its white supremacist ideologies. The original group was disbanded in the 1870s, and it was revived in 1915 as a new outfit. The organization had more than 4 million members in the 1920s, and it was financed from member contributions and the sale of publications and costumes. Its objectives include the suppression of African Americans, Catholics, Jews, immigrants, leftists, and members of the lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) community (Jones et al., 2020). Its motivations and ideologies can be explained using the constructivism theory because terrorism is a social construct. The group operates primarily in the Southern United States. They are active in several states, including Mississippi, Alabama, Kentucky, Georgia, Texas, Arkansas, Tennessee, Virginia, Florida, Illinois, Missouri, and North Carolina among others. Affiliate groups include Noble Klans of America, United Klans of America, the White Knights of Texas, and the Rebel Brigade Knights True Invisible Empire among others.

The group’s organization involves a hierarchical structure that includes a titular head, leaders for each congressional district, and county heads. The overall leader is referred to as the Grand Dragon while the head of a congressional district is referred to as the Grand Titan. The counties are overseen by a head known as the Grand Giant, who is responsible for organizing militia members and supplying them with weapons. The Grand Dragon makes the group’s most critical decisions and receives frequent reports from district heads regarding the organization’s activities. The KKK is funded primarily by individuals who support the group’s ideologies. Counterintelligence program (COINTELPRO) refers to a series of activities conducted by the FBI between 1956 and 1979 to disrupt political organizations that destabilized the US (Perliger, 2020). COINTELPRO-White Hate program involved the infiltration of the KKK by FBI agents through overt techniques that included paying informers, bribing Klansmen, and the use of wiretaps and bugs.

The KKK has experienced a steady decline in membership in the past decade. However, the organization continues to promote its ideologies and recruit more people. Its new techniques include creating new websites, opening accounts for donations, and creating content that spreads its ideologies (Jones et al., 2020). In the future, the organization is likely to plateau because of poor leadership, wrangles within the group, and the inability to create and maintain alliances. Moreover, the group has numerous affiliate hate groups. Therefore, the lack of a stable leadership system is a risk to the group’s stability. Moreover, increased surveillance and monitoring by security agencies hamper their activities around the country.

Terrorism is a serious threat to the security of the United States of America. For many decades, security agencies in the country have implemented several measures to curb the rise in terrorism within the country’s borders. Right-wing, left-wing, and religious forms of terrorism are common in the US. Aryan Nations (AN) and the Ku Klux Klan (KKK) are terrorist groups that have operated in the US for decades. They are funded mainly by individuals who subscribe to their ideologies. Their involvement in racial and anti-Semitic criminal activities renders them, terrorist groups, as classified by the FBI. The groups might disintegrate in the future because of leadership wrangles and the lack of funding. Moreover, increased surveillance by security agencies has hampered their recruitment and fundraising activities.

Jones, S. G., Doxsee, C., & Harrington, N. (2020). The escalating terrorism problem in the United States . Center for strategic and International Studies. Web.

Perliger, A. (2020). American zealots: Inside right-wing domestic terrorism . Columbia University Press.

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• The Ku Klux Klan in the US: Historical and Cultural Information
• The Ku Klux Klan
• Ku Klux Klan Organization in the 1860-1960s
• Ku Klux Klan, Its Creation History and Activities
• Social Issues: Police Protection of the Ku Klux Klan
• Domestic Terrorism in the United States of America
• Ku Klux Klan and Fear-Fueled Hatred
• The Ku Klux Klan Role in Southern Politics
• The History of Ku Klux Klan: A Terrorist Organization Founded in the Southern States After the American Civil War
• Adolf Hitler's Anti-Semitic "Final Solution"
• The Use of Intelligence Collection Systems
• Counterterrorism and Intelligence
• Task Force and the Fusion Center: Terrorism Prevention
• Fusion Centers: The Role in Terrorism Prevention
• Australian Anti-Terrorism Laws

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• Terrorism Essay

Essay on Terrorism

Terrorism is a blunder committed by the terrible individuals around us. To demonstrate their strength, a group of people attempts to govern a specific arena. Terrorism has a negative impact on both society and personal life. As a result of their acts, a large number of families are destroyed. Regrettably, the number of crimes in India is increasing on a daily basis. Ancient India was ruled by a monarchy, and the ruling was a source of pride for the king. However, India later accepted democracy, and everyone is treated equally under the Indian constitution. Even so, some cowards try to keep their power over the impoverished and weak.

Terrorism represents the foolish act done by the cruel people around us. The bunch of groups tries to rule the certain arena to show their power. Terrorism had a adverse effect on the society as well as a personal life. Their number of families gets destroyed due to their actions. In India, it's sad to say, but the number of crimes is increasing day by day. Ancient India was in Monarchy where ruling was a pride to the king, but later on India accepted democracy and everyone is treated the same under the Indian constituent. Still some cowards try to maintain their dominance over poor and helpless people.

Who could forget the date 26th November, better known as 26/11! Where 10 terrorists entered the country and attacked the economic city in India. Bringing grenades, pistols, automated rifles and other destructive weapons they almost destroyed the city and shocked the Indians in the midnight. The people are helpless, weaponless and in their own world of enjoyment at the railway station, hotels and in the drives on the roads, and suddenly a danger happens in their lives, which they did not expect. 

Osama Bin Laden was the greatest terrorist in the world! People are still afraid of hearing his name. He had destroyed a building named ‘world-trade center’ with the help of an airplane. It has also been stated in the reports that frequently Osama had been amorphous with him. Even the police themselves got confused and captured the wrong one. After his death there was lots of time still required to recognize the originality of him.

Lying in court is an offense. Frequently the needy and poor people lie in court for the sake of a certain amount of money. But, this money would be a help to criminals outside the world. Even, we purchased CDs and DVDs at an economic rate. To save a certain amount of money, we help piracy. These pirates invest this money in the armonony and indirectly we are sponsoring a bullet in every war which would be used against us only. 

The origin of terrorism starts with a little things. The first pen stolen from a friend could even lead to mortal works. Everything has a start and if left unmanaged, they can leave the astray and lose the right path. In the school, if the adverse effects of being bad are explained properly with illustrations to some real life examples, the students may get aware about all the facts and take an initiative to stop the spread of crime. Instead of making criminals with heroic roles in the television serials, the more heroic movie super cops are to be made. Instead of writing biographies of terrorism supporters, write articles about terrorism demonization. The start of this cleaning starts from home, if you have a child, teach them the ways to be a great person in good habits rather than supporting him when he starts stealing something. Terrorism has an end, if we are united the terrorism can be thrown is out of the windows! 

Various Forms Of Terrorism

Political terrorism, which raises mass concern, and criminal terrorism, which involves abduction for ransom money, are the two sorts of terrorism. Political terrorism is significantly more essential than criminal terrorism since it is carried out by well-trained personnel. As a result, apprehending them in a timely way becomes increasingly challenging for law enforcement agencies.

Terrorism has spread across the country and around the world. Regional terrorism is the most dangerous type of terrorism. Terrorists feel that dying as a terrorist is a priceless and sacred experience, and they will go to any extent to attain it. Each of these terrorist groups was founded for a different motive.

Who can forget November 26th, often known as "26/11"? Ten terrorists infiltrated the country and assaulted India's economic centre. They nearly devastated the city and astonished the Indians by bringing explosives, pistols, automatic rifles, and other lethal weapons. People are defenceless, without weapons, and engrossed in their own realms of pleasure at the railway station, motels, and on the highways when an unanticipated menace enters their life.

The Origins of Terrorism

The invention or manufacture of vast quantities of machine guns, atomic bombs, hydrogen bombs, nuclear weapons, missiles, and other weapons fuels terrorism. Rapid population expansion, political, social, and economic issues, public dissatisfaction with the country's system, a lack of education, corruption, racism, economic disparities, and language disparities are all key factors in the development of terrorism. Terrorism is sometimes used to establish and maintain one's stance. Despite the contrast between caste and terrorism, the most well-known riots have taken place between Hindus and Muslims.

Consequences of Terrorism

Individuals are filled with fear as a result of terrorism, and people of the country feel vulnerable as a result. Millions of goods have been destroyed, thousands of people have died, and animals have been slaughtered as a result of terrorist assaults. People lose trust in humanity after seeing a terrorist attack, which fosters more terrorists. Terrorism comes in many forms and manifests itself in different parts of the country and outside.

Terrorism is becoming a problem not just in India, but also in our neighbouring countries, and governments throughout the world are battling it. The World Trade Center attack on September 11, 2001, is considered the world's worst terrorist strike. Osama bin Laden launched an attack on the world's tallest tower, resulting in millions of injuries and thousands of deaths.

FAQs on Terrorism Essay

1. Who was Osama bin Laden?

Osama Bin Laden was the world's greatest terrorist! Hearing his name still makes people fearful. With the help of an aeroplane, he had destroyed the 'world-trade centre.' According to the rumours, Osama had been amorphous with him on several occasions. Even the cops got mixed up and arrested the wrong person. There was still a lot of time required after his death to acknowledge his uniqueness.

2. Identify the countries that are the most impacted by terrorism.

Iraq, Afghanistan, Nigeria, Pakistan, and Syria were the countries most hit in 2014, with the highest number of terrorist incidents. This year has been dubbed "Terrorism Year." Furthermore, it has been reported that these five countries were the primary targets of 78 per cent of all attacks last year. Apart from them, there are 39 countries that endured the most attacks, and their index rating is based on the severity and frequency of attacks they experienced.

3. What is the true cause of terrorism?

Terrorism is defined as the use of violence for a specific purpose. This motivation could stem from a sense of social and political injustice, or just a belief that violence can bring about change. The main cause of terrorism is usually perceived unfairness or rage against specific societal conditions. Many people join terrorist groups out of desperation or to exact personal vengeance on powerful authorities. Terrorism is also a result of strong feelings of injustice. Millions of young people aspire to make a difference by utilising violence as a tool for social upheaval. As a result, in order to combat these extremists, we must provide them with alternatives to violence that can be useful to them.

4. What is the best way to combat terrorism?

The reduction of terrorism threats and the safeguarding of the state, its interests, and citizens against all types of terrorist activity are two of the State Security Service's top priorities in the battle against terrorism. It is critical to detect and suppress operations carried out by international terrorist groups and anyone linked to them. It is necessary to conduct an active search for persons linked to terrorist organisations. Enhancing the capacity of readiness and reaction to terrorist threats should receive special focus.

5. Give an overview of the history of terrorism.

The term "terrorist" was coined by François-Nol Babeuf, a French philosopher, in 1794. As a result of his denunciation of Robespierre's regime as a dictatorship, the Brunswick Manifesto threatened Paris with military punishment and complete devastation. This threat, however, only fueled the Revolution's determination to overthrow the monarchy. Tyranny, according to ancient philosophers, was the greatest political threat to Greco-Roman civilization prior to the French Revolution. Philosophers in the Middle Ages were also preoccupied with the concept of tyranny.

6. Explain the historical background of terrorism.

The word "terrorist" was first used in 1794 by François-Noël Babeuf who was a French philosopher. He denounced Robespierre's regime as a dictatorship therefore Brunswick Manifesto threatened Paris that the city would be subjected to military punishment and total destruction. But this threat only increased the Revolution's will to abolish the monarchy.

Prior to the French Revolution, ancient philosophers wrote tyranny as the greatest political threat to Greco-Roman civilization. Medieval philosophers were similarly occupied with the concept of tyranny.

7. How to fight against terrorism?

One of the main priorities of the State Security Service in fighting against terrorism is the reduction of the risks of terrorism and the protection of the state, its interests and citizens against all forms of terrorist activities. The detection and suppression of activities carried out by international terrorist organizations and persons related to them is important. Active search of individuals connected with terrorist organizations needs to be conducted. Considerable attention should be paid in enhancing the capabilities of readiness and responses to terrorist threats.

8. What is the real reason behind terrorism?

Terrorism is the use of violence for a certain cause. This cause may be due to the perceived social and political injustice or simply a belief that violence can lead  to change.

Usually perceived injustice or anger against a certain social conditions is the main cause  that foster terrorism. Many people join terrorist groups because of poverty or to take their personal revenge from the powerful authority. Strong feelings of injustice also results in terrorism. There are millions of young people who want to create change by using fight as the tools for social upheaval. So, in order to counter these extremists we need to give them alternatives to violence which can prove beneficial for them.

9. Name the countries which are most affected by terrorism.

Iraq, Afghanistan, Nigeria, Pakistan and Syria are the most affected countries which suffered the largest number of terrorist attacks in 2014. This year is called the year of terrorism.

Also it has been recorded that these five countries were the major victims of 78% of all attacks that happened last year. Apart from these countries there are 39 countries which saw the greatest number of attacks, and their index ranking is calculated against severity and frequency of attacks they experienced.

Essay on Terrorism in World

Students are often asked to write an essay on Terrorism in World in their schools and colleges. And if you’re also looking for the same, we have created 100-word, 250-word, and 500-word essays on the topic.

Let’s take a look…

100 Words Essay on Terrorism in World

Understanding terrorism.

Terrorism is a serious issue that affects the world. It involves violent acts aimed at causing fear and harm. These actions are often carried out by groups with political, religious, or ideological beliefs.

Impact on Society

Terrorism disrupts peace and harmony, causing fear and panic among people. It also leads to loss of lives and property, affecting societies deeply.

Countering Terrorism

To counter terrorism, governments and organizations worldwide work together, sharing information and implementing strict security measures. Education plays a crucial role in preventing terrorism by promoting understanding and tolerance.

250 Words Essay on Terrorism in World

Introduction.

Terrorism is a global issue that plagues our world today, causing immense suffering and destabilizing societies. It is a complex phenomenon with deep-seated roots in socio-political and economic structures.

Terrorism is a strategy employed by certain groups to achieve political, ideological, or religious goals. It is characterized by the use of violence against civilians to create fear, disrupt society, and draw attention to their cause. The rise of global terrorism can be attributed to factors such as political instability, economic disparity, and ideological extremism.

The Global Impact of Terrorism

Terrorism transcends national boundaries, affecting global security and peace. It not only causes loss of lives and property but also has far-reaching psychological impacts. The fear and uncertainty it creates can hinder social progress and economic development. Moreover, it often exacerbates political tensions, leading to conflicts and wars.

Countering terrorism requires a comprehensive approach that goes beyond military action. It involves addressing the root causes such as poverty, political oppression, and ideological indoctrination. International cooperation is crucial in sharing intelligence, curbing terrorist financing, and promoting peace and tolerance.

Terrorism poses a significant threat to world peace and stability. Understanding its causes and impacts can help devise effective strategies to combat it. It is a collective responsibility to foster a world where dialogue, justice, and peace prevail over violence and fear.

500 Words Essay on Terrorism in World

Terrorism is a global issue that has been affecting the world adversely for many years. It is a term used to describe the unlawful use of violence and intimidation, especially against civilians, in the pursuit of political aims. The rise of terrorism has led to countless deaths, massive destruction, and widespread fear.

The Evolution of Terrorism

Terrorism has evolved significantly over the years. It began as a localized issue, often tied to political or territorial disputes. However, with the advent of technology and the rise of extremist ideologies, it has morphed into a global threat. Modern terrorists use the internet to recruit, radicalize, and coordinate attacks, making their reach far more extensive and their actions more devastating.

The Impact of Terrorism

The impact of terrorism is multifaceted and profound. It not only leads to loss of life and property but also affects the socio-economic dynamics of a region. Terrorism disrupts trade, diminishes investment, and diverts resources from vital sectors like education and healthcare to security. It also instills fear and insecurity among the populace, affecting their psychological well-being and quality of life.

Counter-Terrorism Efforts

In response to the escalating threat of terrorism, nations have implemented various counter-terrorism strategies. These include military action, intelligence gathering, law enforcement efforts, and initiatives to counter violent extremism. International cooperation is crucial in these efforts, as terrorism is a transnational issue that requires a coordinated global response.

The Role of Society in Countering Terrorism

While state action is crucial in countering terrorism, society also plays a significant role. Education and awareness can help prevent radicalization, while social inclusion can reduce the sense of alienation that often drives individuals towards extremism. Furthermore, resilience in the face of terror attacks is vital in denying terrorists their goal of creating fear and chaos.

Terrorism is a complex and pressing issue that poses a significant threat to global peace and security. To effectively combat this menace, a comprehensive approach is required that involves not only robust security measures but also efforts to address the root causes of extremism. Society at large must also play a role in this fight, demonstrating resilience, promoting inclusivity, and rejecting the divisive ideologies that fuel terrorism. Only through such a concerted effort can we hope to mitigate the impact of terrorism and ensure a safer, more peaceful world.

That’s it! I hope the essay helped you.

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