, congrats on the book.
Mel Ayton - 5/14/2007
Political scientists are split on the definition of terrorism. Terrorism, by its nature, is difficult to define. As Walter Lacqueur observed, “Even if there were an objective, value-free definition of terrorism, covering all its important aspects and features, it would still be rejected by some for ideological reasons.” Even the agencies of the U.S. government cannot agree on a single definition. However, the common threads are:
*Terrorism is the use or threatened use of force designed to bring about political change.
*Terrorism constitutes the illegitimate use of force to achieve a political objective when innocent people are targeted.
*Terrorism is the premeditated, deliberate, systematic murder, mayhem, and threatening of the innocent to create fear and intimidation in order to gain a political or tactical advantage, usually to influence an audience.
*Terrorism is the unlawful use or threat of violence against persons or property to further political or social objectives. It is usually intended to intimidate or coerce a government, individuals, or groups, or to modify their behavior or politics.
* In a criminal sense, terrorism involves the “deliberate evocation of dread,” and this dread sets a terrorist act apart from “simple murder or assault.”
Bruce Hoffman maintains that an act may be defined as terrorism only if certain features, including “violence committed by non-state entities,” are present. He believes that “even though Sirhan Sirhan’s assassination of a presidential candidate and United States Senator Robert Kennedy . . . had a political motive . . . it is debateable whether the murder should be defined as a terrorist act since Sirhan belonged to no organized group and acted entirely on his own, out of a deep personal frustration and a profound animus that few others shared.” However, Sirhan’s act was not committed simply out of a personal frustration but was provoked by a belief in Palestinian rights which was universally shared throughout the Arab world.
Hoffman’s definition is too narrow for the FBI, which defines a terrorist act as “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.” The FBI, therefore, believes that terrorists need not be part of any organized or loose group and can act individually without any direction from such groups. Still, it is reluctant to categorize an incident as terrorism unless it is claimed by a group.
Christopher Hewitt observed that “Most American terrorism differs from terrorism in other countries in that a significant proportion of terrorist acts have been carried out by unaffiliated individuals rather than by members of terrorist organizations. . . . Such loners will pose the greatest threat to the security of the United States . . . since they are hard to track down. . . . Freelancers are defined as individuals who are not members of a terrorist group, or members of an extremist organization acting under the orders of an official of the organization.” Hewitt calls this type of terrorist “unaffiliated.”
Leonard Robinson - 5/14/2007
I have not yet read your book, so I can't speak to experts upon which you rely for your definition. Taking into account the fact that there is no universally accept definition for the concept of terrorism, I usually employ the State Department's definition in the course I teach on political violence and terrorism. I do this with the full knowledge that there is no other term in politics that is so pregnant with negative connotations as terrorism. Thus, virtually every source on the subject tends to shape their definition, either consciously or subconsciously, to fit their political agenda or worldview.
At any rate, since this was an attack on a US politician who was running for the highest office in the land, it seems to me to make sense to use the US government's definition. Their definition, as provided on the State Department's website is as f