Download Defining Terrorism: CJM Drake

IAFS 1000
Terrorism
Today’s Outline
• Ancient roots
• Definitions
• Key characteristics
Historical Roots of Terrorism
• 1st c. Jewish Zealots
• 7th c. Indian Thugs
• 11th c. Middle Eastern Assassins
• 18th c. Revolutionary France
• 1968: PLO carries out first hijacking
Defining Terrorism:
State Department
Terrorism is "premeditated, politically
motivated violence perpetrated against
noncombatant targets by subnational groups
or clandestine agents, usually intended to
influence an audience."
Defining Terrorism:
Department of Defense
Terrorism is “the calculated use of violence
or the threat of violence to inculcate fear;
intended to coerce or to intimidate
government or societies in the pursuit of
goals that are generally political, religious,
or ideological.”
Defining Terrorism:
Walter Laqueur
(terrorism scholar)
“Terrorism constitutes the illegitimate use
of force to achieve a political objective
when innocent people are targeted.”
Defining Terrorism:
CJM Drake
(terrorism scholar)
“Terrorism is defined here as the recurrent
use of threatened use of politically
motivated and clandestinely organized
violence, by a group whose aim is to
influence a psychological target in order to
make it behave in a way which the group
desires.”
Defining Terrorism:
FBI
“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.”
Defining Terrorism:
Former Deputy Chief,
CIA Counterterrorist Center
“It is premeditated—planned in advance,
rather than an impulsive act of rage. It is
political—not criminal, like the violence
that groups such as the mafia use to get
money, but designed to change the existing
political order. It is aimed at civilians—not
at military targets or combat-ready troops.
It is carried out by subnational groups—not
by the army of a country.”
Defining Terrorism:
Govt of India Prevention of
Terrorism Act, 2002
• Violence with “intent to threaten the unity,
integrity, security or sovereignty of India or
to strike terror in the people or any section
of the people”
Defining Terrorism:
Arab Convention for the
Suppression of Terrorism, 1998
• “Any act or threat of violence, whatever its
motives or purposes, that occurs in the
advancement of an individual or collective
criminal agenda and seeking to sow panic among
people, causing fear by harming them, or placing
their lives, liberty or security in danger, or seeking
to cause damage to the environment or to public
or private installations or property or to occupying
or seizing them, or seeking to jeopardize a
national resources.”
Elements of Terrorism
• Not impulsive
• Political
• Non-state
• Targets civilians
• Aimed at an audience
• Weapon of the weak
Conclusions
• What do difficulties in defining terrorism
mean for our ability to counter terrorism?
• If terrorism has been with us for centuries,
can we defeat it now?
• How does understanding the nature of
terrorism help us deal with it?
• Is “The War of Terror” an appropriate term
to describe counter-terrorist efforts? Why
or why not?
• What is an appropriate and effective
reaction to terrorism?