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Terrorism is defined as the unlawful use of force to coerce governments or societies for political objectives. It encompasses acts like bombings, kidnappings, and mass murders, aiming to instill fear and deliver a message. Terrorism often arises from a cycle of violence where oppressed groups resort to extreme measures against perceived oppressors. Key actor types include fundamentalists, anarchists, separatists, and state-sponsored terrorists. Understanding these facets is crucial for analyzing contemporary political conflicts and global security challenges.
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Terrorism Definitions and examples
What is terrorism? • Take a couple minutes with the person next to you and come up with a definition and put in the first box • In the second box, write down all the terms you heard from others that might improve or change your definition • Terrorism: Unlawful use of force against persons or property to coerce government or society to further a political objective • (from the FBI)
Why use terrorism? • Synthesis of war and theater • Two main objectives • 1. Instill fear • intimidation • 2. Send a message
Acts of Terrorism • Bombings • Kidnappings • Hijackings • Assassinations • Mass murder • Weapons of mass destruction • Often highly planned, but most effective when terror seems random
Cycle of violence • Hard to break • Real or imagined oppression • 1. Elite won’t give up power • 2. Oppressed use terrorism to gain power • 3. Elite/oppressors strike back harder • Makes oppression real • 4. Oppressed may gain help and sympathy from outside groups to help cause/fight back
Types of actions • 1. Dynastic Assassinations • Take out countries leadership to create chaos and instability
2. Random Terror • Random act of violence to cause greatest fear in public • Non-discriminatory • Any place, any time
3. Random Focused Terror • Go to where the oppressor may be • Attack symbol of the oppressor • Mumbai, Bali • Mumbai news clip
4. Focused Terror • Attack oppressor in their place of power • Ft. Dix (2 times), Pentagon
5. Mass Terror • State sanctioned terror against its own citizens for political purposes
Terrorist as Actors • 1. Fundamentalists • Desire to go back to a time when things were perfect/better (possibly never existed) • Ku Klux Klan -return to pre-Civil War, white power, started as Southern then grew, modern world is not good so need a scapegoat=blacks, immigrants • Al-Qaeda –go back to pre-Israel Sunni Muslim “state” • Strictly follow sharia law (religious law) • Often mix religion with their ideology
2. Anarchists • Against authority b/c all government limits freedom • Political anarchy: strike out against government • Women as likely as men to be anarchists b/c of problems with the moral/social order • Ted Kaczynsky (Unabomber): oppressors of freedom as targets • mainly corporate, educational, and governmental • Colombine shooters: Against social order • School rules and implicit peer rules/order
3. Separatists • One group of people want to separate from current country/government b/c they are oppressed • Oppressed keep attacking until they separate • Northern Ireland (still pat of UK) • Irish Republican Army have attacked the British for decades • Palestine: PLO wants out of Israel (fundamentalist and separatist) • Basque region, Spain: ETA militant separatists who want out of Spain
4. Marxist • Want to end exploitation • Gender, race, ethnicity • Want equality • Use Marxist ideology; masses are too easily exploited; must help them • Lenin • Mao • Castro • Terrorists before communists
5. State Sponsored Terrorism • Use Terrorists groups to carry out political objectives • Too dangerous to do on own • Pakistan: Kashmir area, assisted al-Qaeda and Taliban • USSR: sponsored communist revolutions around the world • USA: aided the Mujahedeen in Afghanistan • Too many other examples
6. State Terrorism • Government uses terror against own people • Nazis: Holocaust • Pol Pot: Khmer Rouge • 1.5 M Cambodians died of starvation, execution, disease, and overwork • Stalin: Purge USSR of anti-Communists • French Rev: Jacobins- “Reign of Terror”