What exactly is "terrorism" and how does one go about defining it?

1. Why is it so difficult to define?

2. Various Definitions
 Oxford English Dictionary
 Terrorist: A political term: …b. Any one who attempts to further his
views by a system of coercive intimidation…
 State Department
 Premeditated, politically motivated violence perpetrated against
noncombatant targets by subnational groups or clandestine
agents, usually intended to influence an audience
 FBI
 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
 Department of Defense
 The unlawful use of – or threatened use of – force or violence
against individual or property to coerce or intimidate
governments or societies, often to achieve political, religious, or
ideological objectives.

3. Problems with defining “Terrorism”
 Extant definitions are too broad/vague or outdated
 Terms are used too much in colloquial speech
 Media has furthered this problem by using the term carelessly
(making it synonymous with terms such as freedom fighter,
militant, or even guerilla)
 Definition has changed over time
 By the state against dissidents
 By revolutionaries against the state
 By the state (totalitarian governments) against its own civilians en masse
 By national liberation groups against opressive occupying powers
 By general revolutionary/separtist movements against the government
 By the weak against the strong
 Term is now seen as extremely negative and thus subjective,
implying moral judgement.

4. Definition through Distinction (Hoffman)
 Not Guerilla Warfare
 Unlike Guerillas terrorists don’t seek to capture or hold onto
territory, engage armies in battle, fight as units or
seek/attempt to hold sovereignty over any territory and
population
 Not Criminials
 Criminals are motivated by self interest and immediate
gratitude. They don’t seek larger psychological repercussions
and care little about changing social or government systems.
The criminal act is the end in and of itself.
 Lunatic Assassin
 For the assassin, killing is deeply personal, and not
necessarily motivated by a desire for larger social or political
change.

5. Traits
 Hoffman
 In general, too broad to characterize
 Lack of rules governing its use
 Primoratz
 Cause terror/fear as a means to an end (coercion/intimidation)
 No discrimination between civilians and combatants/ innocent
and guilty
 Unpredictable
 2 different targets
 Primary- target audience, those who the terrorists want to
influence/coerce
 Secondary- the actual targets of violence, targeted in order to get the
attention of the primary target. These targets are often/usually
civilians/non-combatants/innocents
 Can be political (State/Non-State, Revolutionary/Counter-
Revolutionary, Left Wing/Right Wing) or non-political (Religions,
Criminal)

6. Traits (cont’d)
 Freedman
 Goal is psychological
 Schmidt
 Targets have symbolic meaning
 Split between the Victim and the Target
 Distinguishes between
 Target of violence- those physically targeted
 Target of terror- those feeling most threatened by the terrorist attack
(those terrorized)
 Target of attention- those internationally whom the terrorists seek
attention from (sympathy, support, or just to inform of their frustrations)
 Target of demands- those of whom the terrorists make demands (such as
fuel, food, etc). May also include portion of the target of terror.
 Extranormal
 In its covert nature, the nature of the atrocities, the deliberate targeting of
non-combatants, the use of unconventional weapons, the violation of basic
laws of war, and the time and place of attacks
 Common Traits
 Deliberate threat or use of violence to terrorize a group into changing

7. Author’s Definitions
 Primoratz
 Terrorism is the deliberate use of violence, or threat of its use, against innocent people,
with the aim of intimidating them, or other people, into a course of action they otherwise
would not take.
 Freedman
 deliberate acts of violence, or threats of violence, intended to produce a certain
psychological effect- terror- on the assumption that this will then lead to a shift in the
target’s attitudes and behavior.
 Schmidt
 Terrorism is a method of combat in which random or symbolic victims serve as
instrumental target of violence…Through previous use of violence or the credible threat of
violence other members of that group or class are put in a state of chronic fear (terror). This
group or class, whose members’ sense of security is purposively [sic] undermined, is the target
of terror. The victimization of the target of violence is considered extranormal by most
observers from the witnessing audience on the basis of its atrocity; the time (e.g. peacetime)
or place (not a battlefield) of victimization or the disregard for rules of combat accepted
in conventional war-fare. The norm violation creates an attentive audience beyond the target
of terror; sectors of this audience might in turn form the main object of manipulation. The
purpose of this indirect method of combat is either to immobilize the target of terror in order
to produce disorientation and/or compliance, or to mobilize secondary targets of demand
(e.g. a government) or targets of attention (e.g. public opinion) to changes of attitude or
behavior favoring the short or long-term interests of the users of this method of combat.