INTERNATIONAL TERRORISM

International Terrorism

International Terrorism

Definitions of terrorism

FBI Definition

Terrorism is the unlawful use of force or violence against persons or property to intimidate or coerce a government, the civilian population, or any segment thereof, in furtherance of political or social objectives.

State department

"Premeditated, politically motivated violence perpetrated against noncombatant* targets by sub national groups or clandestine agents, usually intended to influence an audience."

UNITED NATIONS

Criminal acts intended or calculated to provoke a state of terror in the general public, a group of persons or particular persons for political purposes are in any circumstance unjustifiable, whatever the considerations of a political, philosophical, ideological, racial, ethnic, religious or any other nature that may be invoked to justify them.

Walter Laqueur

Terrorism constitutes the illegitimate use of force to achieve a political objective when innocent people are targeted.

James M. Poland

Terrorism is the premeditated, deliberate, systematic murder, mayhem, and threatening of the innocent to create fear and intimidation in order to gain a political or tactical advantage, usually to influence an audience.

Strengths and Weaknesses

All of the above given definitions define the term causes and consequences of terrorism with suitable words and explain the term logically. There is no flaw in the definitions. All of them are right in the way that they define terrorism as an unlawful activity with any political purpose of influencing the state or government by targeting the innocent people or general public.

Although not a new phenomenon, the incidence of terrorism in the present age has several elements that make it distinctly different from previous experiences. Contemporary terrorism generally has several expected elements: It is egregious violence, perpetrated against innocents, for a political agenda. Furthermore, contemporary terrorism is typically staged before an audience for maximum multiplication of psychological effect. Terror and fear are the intended result. Globalized mass media and the Internet greatly magnify these results.

State-level actors do use terror for their interests and may be the invisible forces behind transnational terrorist groups doing their bidding. But state sponsors of terror run the risk of international opprobrium and sanctions, and can have state-centric remedies applied against them, including war. States that employ terror as a matter of policy—as in ethnic cleansing and human rights abuses—are subject to the aforementioned sanctions and perhaps war crimes proceedings (Heymann, 2001).

There exists no agreed upon definition for terrorism within the international system. The United Nations has been unable to draft a summary definition despite shepherding more than a dozen international conventions (treaties) on many aspects of terrorism. Moreover, the argument is continually restated that what one nation may view as a terrorist act, another will see as legitimate resistance. Despite the requests of its close ally, the United Kingdom, the United States refused to name the Irish Republican Army (IRA) as a terrorist group for many years. Likewise, the United Kingdom allows the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan (IMU) to operate openly in its borders despite the pleas of many of its allies. Consensus on definition, to say nothing of identity, remains elusive in this ...