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Terrorism : Terrorism And The Definition Of Terrorism

Decent Essays

What is terrorism? The conceptual literature on terrorism provides a deluge of definitions. Nonetheless, scholars agree the term terrorism should include at least two essential attributes: the use of violence and a political motive (Lake, 2002; Pape, 2003; Enders & Sandler, 2011). Controversy arises when we try to specify the perpetrators and targets of terrorism. Some researchers hold the actions of governments can be labeled “terrorism” (Nairn & James, 2005), yet conventional wisdom restricts the definition of terrorism to actions of individuals and subnational groups (Lake, 2002; Pape, 2003; Enders & Sandler, 2011). Broadening the definition of terrorism to actions of governments is not of the interests of policy makers whose primary concern is counterterrorism strategies, nor does it help to differentiate war crime from terrorism. Similarly, most scholars do not consider attacks against military targets (in a combat zone) to be terrorism. However, the term “combat zone” could be tricky. For example, Al-Qaeda claims the whole world is its combat zone while the U.S. perceives its combat zone as the battlefields in Afghanistan, Iraq, and other regions of the Middle East. In practice, the inclusion of the combat zone“ makes the definition of terrorism too political and hard to operationalize, and therefore scholars generally do not attach it to the definition of terrorism. To summarize, to strike a balance between extension and intension, I identify four attributes that are

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