What is Terrorism?

Terrorism is a criminal act that influences an audience beyond

the immediate victim

History of Terrorism

• Terrorist acts or the threat of such action have been in existence for millennia Over the past 20 years, terrorists have committed extremely violent acts for alleged political or religious reasons

Terrorist Behavior

• There is clearly a wide choice of definitions for terrorism. Despite this, there are elements in common among the majority of useful definitions. Common threads of the various definitions identify terrorism as:

• Political• Psychological• Coercive• Dynamic• Deliberate

Differences between Terrorism and Insurgency

• A key difference is that an insurgency is a movement - a political effort with a specific aim. This sets it apart from both guerilla warfare and terrorism, as they are both methods available to pursue the goals of the political movement.

State Sponsored Terrorism

• Three different ways that states can engage in the use of terror are:

• Governmental or "State" terror• State involvement in terror• State sponsorship of terrorism

Goals and Motivations of Terrorists

• common form of symbolism utilized in terrorist targeting is striking on particular anniversaries or commemorative dates

Terrorist Groups

•

• There are two general categories of organization; hierarchical and networked. The age of an organization is one of the determinants of whether it is likely to adopt a network or hierarchical structure

The Evolution of Terrorism

• Terrorism is continually changing. While at the surface it remains "the calculated use of unlawful violence or threat of unlawful violence to inculcate fear

Future Trends in Terrorism

• As a conflict method that has survived and evolved through several millennia to flourish in the modern information age, terrorism continues to adapt to meet the challenges of emerging forms of conflict, and exploit developments in technology and society

Terrorism Glossary

• Definitions of some common terrorist and counter-terrorism terms (A-B)