Foreign Policy Association: Terrorism|Terrorism

What is terrorism? That's a difficult question to answer. Most people believe they know terrorism when they see it, but few are able to come up with a concise definition. Terrorism is a strategy that has a long history, but one that took on a particularly deadly caste beginning in the 20th century. The deadliest terrorist attack in history was that of 11 September 2001 in the United States.

I would like this page to grow to be a comprehensive source of information about terrorism and, in particular, a gateway to the vast amount of information on this subject available on the web. I would appreciate if those of you who also have an interest in this field could help me make this a reality by contributing to the Discussion List and posting relevant items to our Resource Library. In the meantime, some Key Facts about terrorism are laid out below, along with News Updates, a Commentary section, and links to some of the best Resources on the subject of terrorism available on the Net.

Key Facts

1. Defining Terrorism

There is no globally accepted definition of terrorism. Most scholarly texts devoted to the study of terrorism contain a section, chapter, or chapters devoted to a discussion of how difficult it is to define the term. In fact, various US government agencies employ different definitions of the term. The most widely accepted definition is probably that put forward by the US State Department, which defines terrorism as “premeditated, politically motivated violence perpetrated against noncombatant targets by subnational groups or clandestine agents, usually intended to influence an audience" [Title 22 of the United States Code, Section 2656f(d)].

2. Etymology

The word ‘terrorism' was coined during France's Reign of Terror in 1793-94. Originally, the leaders of this systematized attempt to weed out "traitors" among the revolutionary forces praised terror as the best way to defend liberty, but as the Revolution progressed, the word soon came to be associated with state violence and the guillotine. Today, most terrorists eschew the label, preferring to perceive themselves as irregular military forces [e.g. Irish Republican Army (IRA), Revolutionary Armed Forces of Columbia (FARC), Symbionese Liberation Army (SLA), etc.].

3. Historical Background

Terrorism has its roots in first-century Palestine where Jewish Zealots publicly slit the throats of Romans and their collaborators. In seventh-century India, the Thuggee cult would ritually strangle passers-by as sacrifices to the Hindu deity Kali, and in the eleventh-century Middle East, a Shiite sect known as the Assassins were known to murder civilian foes while high on hashish. Scholars traced recognizably modern forms of terrorism back to such late-nineteenth-century organizations as Narodnaya Volya (People's Will), a Russian nihilist organisation, and it's successor organisation, the Socialist Revolutionary Party.

4. Types of Terrorism

Experts have identified at least four different types of terrorism:

A. Nationalist-Separatist Terrorism: violence undertaken by those seeking to establish a separate state for their own national/ethnic group [e.g. the Irish Republican Army (IRA), Basque Homeland & Liberty (ETA), the Kurdish Workers Party (PKK)].

B. Religious Terrorism: the use of violence by those seeking to further what they conceive as divinely commanded purposes, often targeting broad categories of ‘enemies' in an attempt to bring about sweeping changes [e.g. Aum Shinrikyo, al-Qaida, Hizbollah, Hamas].

C. Left-Wing Terrorism: violence undertaken by those seeking to destroy capitalism and replace it with a communist or socialist regime [e.g. Red Army Faction (RAF), German Red Brigades, Prima Linea, the Weather Underground/Symbionese Liberation Army].

D. Right-Wing Terrorism: The use of violence by those seeking to dispense with liberal democratic governments [e.g. Timothy McVeigh].

News Updates

'Attack on the UN and strengthening UN security measures abroad'

The unprecedented terrorist attack on the Baghdad headquarters of the United Nations revealed huge gaps in UN security measures, according to a recent panel. In the "Report of the Indedepent Panel on the Safety and Security of UN personnel in Iraq," the UN security management system is critiqued. Read the report.

'The role of the UN in fighting terrorism'

Since the escalation of terrorist attacks throughout the world, the United Nations has played a pivotal role in countering terrorism. This web-site lists a multitude of reports such as "New Threats to International Community and the Responses of the United Nations," UN press releases on terrorism, fact sheets, and lists resolutions passed by the UN Security Council in response to such attacks. Scroll down to the Policy section on Terrorism and the US.

'Improving Intelligence System to Counter Terrorism at Home'

According to the House-Senate committee that investigated the weaknesses of the national intelligence system in the context of the tragic 9/11 attacks, there were “serious problems in information sharing…persisted, prior to September 11, between the Intelligence Community and relevant non-Intelligence Community agencies.” The following report recently issued by the Brookings Institution investigates the systems' inefficiencies and provides insightful strategies to improve it from within. For the full policy brief entitled, "Building Intelligence to Fight Terrorism," click on the above.

'Trans-national threats from financing terrorism to disseminating weapons'

In August of 2003, a North Korean freighter was discovered by Taiwanese authorities to have been carrying materials for the production of weapons of mass destruction (WMD). The heightened awareness of North Korea possibly being a world leader in the proliferation of nuclear technology and missile parts has concerned all eleven country participants of the recently established Proliferation Security Initiative (PSI), the goal of which is to intervene in the global trafficking of weapons of mass destruction, delivery systems, and other illegal smuggling. To read the "Transnational Threats Update," visit the Center for Strategic and International Studies website above. For more on the Proliferation Security Initiatives' principles and focus of efforts click on: "PSI"

Leila Khaled: In Her Own Words'

On 5th September 2000, the day preceding the 30th anniversary of the commencement of the Dawson's Field hijacks, Philip Baum, editor of Aviation Security International, met with Leila Khaled at the SAS Radisson Hotel in Amman, Jordan. This page contains an edited version of that encounter.

This is Baader-Meinhof

‘This is Baader-Meinhof: Germany in the Post-War Decade of Terror 1968-1977' is the work of Richard Huffman, a US writer. Contains biographies of all those involved in the terrorist group, along with their victims, family members, state officials, and sympathisers; also contains a timeline composed of detailed year-by-year accounts of the German decade of terror, and the introductory chapter of Huffman's proposed book on the group.

Inquiry into Police Killing by Terror Suspect' (The Times, UK)

Commentary

Women and Terrorism (1/15/2003)

The history of women's involvement in terrorism is long and established. Women were among the leaders of the Russian nihilist organisation Narodnaya Volya (People's Will) in the late 19th century, and were also active in the latter's successor organisation the Socialist Revolutionary Party. One of the most famous instances of modern international terrorism, and the first that received global media coverage, was led by a Palestinian woman, Leila Khaled, in 1970.

On 6 September that year a group calling themselves Black September seized four airliners. The hijackers were, in fact, members of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, a radical Palestinian faction. They demanded the release of Fedayeen (members of various Palestinian factions) imprisoned in Germany, Switzerland and Israel. Two of the planes were flown to a deserted former-RAF airstrip in the Jordanian desert, known as Dawson's Field. A third was blown up in Cairo after the passengers and crew were released. The fourth hijack failed when both terrorists were overpowered on the plane. One was killed and the other, Leila Khaled, was arrested. The plane was diverted to Heathrow, the nearest airport. Khaled, who had been the commando in charge of the operation, was taken into British custody. A few days later, her comrades hijacked another plane, a BOAC - VC-10 on course from Bombay to Beirut, and demanded her release in exchange for the release of the passengers. At 7pm on 13 September 1970, the BBC World Service broadcast a government announcement in Arabic saying that the UK would swap Khaled for the hostages.

Her gender and astonishing beauty led Khaled to become one of the most famous women terrorists ever. After the hijackings and her release from British custody, she embarked on a political lecture tour around the Middle East and became a household name. Her fame meant that, before she could attempt another hijack, she had to undergo extensive plastic surgery, but she was still recognised and the attack foiled.

There have been other famous female terrorists such as Ulrike Meinhof and Patty Hearst. As Rhiannon Talbot of the University of Newcastle, UK, has pointed out, “All of these women undermine our idea of who and what a terrorist is. Our intuitive assumptions presume that terrorists and terrorism is a man's preserve. Most people still believe that women would not kill in such a barbaric and indiscriminate way, that targets innocent children equally with soldiers or police officers. This is why there is usually a public outcry of horror against women terrorists. What is generally not realised is the extent to which women are involved in terrorism.”

Although women as leaders of terrorist organisations are rare, they do exist. In Germany, the Red Army Faction (a.k.a. the Baader-Meinhof Gang) and the Red Brigades had women leaders and co-founders, as did Prima Linea in Italy. The current chief of staff of the Basque separatist organisation, ETA, is allegedly a woman. In addition, the Japanese Red Army, and the Weather Underground (later the Symbionese Liberation Army) all had women leaders at one time or another.

More commonly however, women are deployed as combatants further down the chain of command. In various Latin American organisations, such as Peru's Sendero Luminoso (Shining Path), women accounted for as much as 20 per cent of the fighting force. According to Talbot, every terrorist organisation in Western Europe, with the exception of the loyalists in Northern Ireland, used women combatants. Organisations that are currently composed of large numbers of women include the Tamil Tigers (LTTE) in Sri Lanka, ETA in Spain, and the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Columbia (FARC), among others.

On 27 January 2002, Wafa Idris, a 27-year-old Palestinian woman from the Al-Am'ari refugee camp near Ramallah, became the first female Palestinian suicide bomber, killing one Israeli civilian and wounding approximately 140 others. Three days later, the military wing of Fatah, the Al-Aqsa Brigades, took responsibility for the attack. At the time it was widely reported that Idris was ‘the world's first woman suicide bomber.' This is a wildly inaccurate assertion. The suicide unit of the Tamil Tigers, known as the Tamil Black Tigers, are the only organization that succeeded in assassinating two heads of states one of whom, former Indian Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi, was assassinated in May 1991 by a female suicide-bomber. Sri-Lankan president Prendesa was assassinated in 1993 by a male suicide-bomber. Of the 275 suicide attacks carried out worldwide to February 2000, a majority (approx. 168) were undertaken by the Tamil Black Tigers. A significant number of these attacks were carried out by female operatives. In addition, at least one female member of the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) died in a suicide bomb attack.

Finally, in October 2002 a group of Chechen rebels stormed a Moscow theatre; a number of them were female. The women were said to be wearing suicide belts. All of the female hostage-takers died when the theatre siege was ended by a poison gas attack by Russian authorities. However, the women's participation in the original attack prompted some commentators to suggest that as the US's international war on terrorism continues, there is likely to be an increasing level of female participation in those terrorist networks the US has targeted. As pointed out above, women have been active in various terrorist organisations throughout history. What these groups have/had in common, however, is that they are/were leftist in orientation, or of a nationalist-separatist nature, or both. The US war on terrorism does not appear to be concerned with such groups, but only with violent Islamist organisations. The best available information indicates that there are no women in al-Qaida nor in any of a number of other violent Islamist organisations. It seems to me that the Chechens fall into the classic separatist category. They have been engaged in violent struggle against the Russian state (and formerly the USSR) for decades. It is no surprise therefore that women are involved in that struggle. However, unless the LTTE or ETA are the next target of the US, it is unlikely that the latter will encounter significant numbers of women within those terrorist networks that they are targeting as part of the war on terror.

Additional Resources

‘Myths in the Representation of Women Terrorists.'

This short article, also by Rhiannon Talbot, appeared in a small UK regional newspaper, The Northern Echo (31 January2002). Discusses the phenomenon of female participation in suicide bombings and gives historical background on the pedigree of women as terrorists, which is “long and established.”

Morgan, Robin. 2002. ‘Demon Lover.'

This excerpt from Robin Morgan's ‘The Demon Lover: The Roots of Terrorism' appeared in Ms. News (23 January 2002). Morgan's seminal work on women and terrorism first published in 1989 has recently been republished in a revised and updated edition. The book has been described as a groundbreaking work on the psychological and political roots of terrorism; a personal journey as well as a landmark work of investigative journalism. Travelling to the Middle East refugee camps, Morgan gathered the first interviews with Palestinian women about their lives as women, and re-encountered the core connection between patriarchy and the inevitability of terrorism.

Gender, Class, and Terrorism'

This article by Michael Kimmel, a professor of sociology at the State University of New York at Stony Brook, appeared in ‘The Chronicle of Higher Education' (8 February 2002). Kimmel analyses the motives of Timothy McVeigh and Mohammed Atta in carrying out their individual acts of terror through the lens of gender. Central to the ideology of both, he argues, is the recovery of manhood from the emasculating politics of globalisation.

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Classifying Terrorism

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