Terrorism

Terrorism refers to the unpredictable and premeditated use of violence or the threat of violence to achieve identifiable goals. Broadly speaking, terrorism includes attacks against tourists, embassy staff, military personnel, aid workers, and employees of multinational corporations. It can be used by individuals and groups against governments, and it can be used and sponsored by governments against particular groups. There are four relatively distinct kinds of terrorism.

The first is transnational organised crime. Drug cartels may use terrorism to protect their private interests by attacking governments and individuals who attempt to reduce their activity and influence. The Italian Mafia, for example, has used terrorism to halt efforts on the part of the Italian government to curtail its criminal activities.

The second type is state-sponsored terrorism. Afghanistan, Libya and Iraq are three of the major state sponsors of international terrorism to further their particular aims. State-sponsored terrorism is a method of warfare whereby a state uses agents or surrogates to create political and economic instability in another country. States also sponsor terrorism by giving logistical support, money, weapons and allied equipment, training, and safe passage to terrorists. Because states dominate the international arena and are often the targets of terror attacks, it is in their best interest to define terrorists as non-state actors. However, there are times when states sponsor acts of terror via targeted trans­missions of intelligence or more tangible financial and military resources. States often couch these actions in terms of self-defence. For example, many states choose to try to silence opposition to their governments by targeting dissidents, both at home and abroad, with violence. Argentina “disappeared” more than 9, 000 of its citizens during its “dirty war” (1976-1983), and Chile, under Augusto Pinochet, disappeared more than 3, 000 people. In both Argentina and Chile, the states argued their actions were done to protect the state from “dangerous” elements. Critics of both govern­ments referred to these tactics as terrorism. During the apartheid era in South Africa, anyone who opposed apartheid was by definition a “terrorist”. The govern­ment, arguing self-defence, routinely rounded up citizens for arrest, detention, and torture, choosing middle-of-the-night raids by the police in order to exact the max­imum amount of fear. At the same time, the South African government sponsored (with weapons and intelligence) members of one ethnic group, the Zulus, to incite violence. The South African government also sent letter bombs to dissidents living abroad, killing and maiming dozens. Other targets of state-sponsored terror include NGOs, particularly those contesting a government’s policy. In 1985, French operatives, using scuba gear, entered Auckland, New Zealand’s harbour, and planted a bomb on a Greenpeace ship. Greenpeace is an environmental NGO. Their ship, the Rainbow Warrior, had been used to try to prevent France from conducting nuclear tests in the South Pacific. When the bomb detonated, the ship sank and one person was killed.

The third major type of terrorism is nationalistic. Terrorism has often been used in the initial stages of anticolonial movements, or by groups wishing to secede from a particular state (examples include the Basque movement in Spain, Sikh nationalists in India, and a number of Palestinian movements).

The fourth major type is ideological, in which terrorists use terror either to change a given domestic policy (for example, on abortion laws) or to overthrow a particular government. The latter would include groups such as the Red Army Faction in Germany and the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt.

Thus terrorism is far from being a mindless, irrational force. Acts of terrorism are typically well planned and carried out with military precision. The terrorist’s greatest advantage is that he or she can easily blend into a crowd. The methods used by terrorists vary considerably. Aircraft hijacking has been common since the late 1960s, but kidnapping, destruction of property, hostage-taking, bombings, and assassinations have also been used. There is an important correlation between the methods used by terrorists and their ultimate goal. The more spectacular the method, the more attention the act itself will receive. The kidnapping of a homeless person does not have the same impact as the kidnapping of a head of state or the hijacking of an aircraft. This is because the goal of terrorism is primarily psychological. It is meant to induce panic, fear, and alarm in the general population. In doing so, it puts pressure on its real targets (usually governments) to capitulate to the demands of the terrorists.

Terrorist attacks on civilians are primarily intended to be symbolic. A martyr terrorist bombs a building not so much because he or she seeks to kill indiscriminately but because the act will be publicised across the globe and will draw attention to the cause. In this sense, the mass media can become an unwilling ally of the terrorist. The newsworthiness of terrorist attacks has led some writers to argue that there should be a complete news blackout on such acts.

What we do know about terrorism is that it has been around for generations and it is often used by those who are fighting an enemy that is larger, more powerful, and has access to more resources. It is a tactic and not an ideology. In recent years, the number of officially recorded terrorist incidents has increased markedly. Between 1968 and 1989, 35, 150 acts of terrorism were recorded, an average of 1, 673 per year. Between 1990 and 1996, the figure jumped to an average of 4, 389 attacks per year. And by 2004, there were 651 attacks that killed 1, 907 people. Much more important, global terrorism, in the aftermath of the 9/11 attacks, has called attention to the global jihadist struggle carried out by Al Qaeda, which has included attacks on London on 7 July 2005 and on Spain on 11 March 2004, and the ongoing suicide bombings in Iraq from 2005 to 2007. There are a number of specific reasons why terrorism can be expected to remain the single most important global issue. First, terrorism has proved very successful in attracting publicity, disrupting the activities of government and business, and causing significant death and destruction. Second, arms, explosives, supplies, financing, and secret communications technology are readily available. Some observers warn of new forms of terrorism in an age of globalisation. Sometimes referred to as postmodern terrorism, it would exploit information technology, use high-tech communications and computer equipment, and its targets would be data warehouses and computer network servers. Finally, an international support network of groups and states exists that greatly facilitates the undertaking of terrorist activities. In short, a world without some form of terrorism is highly unlikely and it is up to governments, individually and collectively, to seek ways to minimise the risk that it poses to their citizens.