Third Edition Understanding Terrorism Challenges, Perspectives, and Issues

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Third EditionUnderstanding TerrorismChallenges,
Perspectives, and Issues
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Part I

• Terrorism
• A Conceptual Review

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Chapter 3

• Beginnings
• The Causes of Terrorism

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Political Violence as the Fruit of Injustice

• Sociological Explanations of Terrorism
• Psychological Explanations of Terrorism

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Political Violence as the Fruit of
Injustice(continued)

• Sociological Explanations of Terrorism
• Intergroup conflict that leads to collective
  violence.
• Structural theory Social conditions
  (structures) that affect group access to
  societal benefits.
• Deprivation theory Relative deprivation and
  absolute deprivation.
• Cases Leila Khaled and Abu Nidal

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Sociological Explanations of Terrorism
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Political Violence as the Fruit of
Injustice(continued)

• Psychological Explanations of Terrorism
• Individual-level explanations.
• Group-level explanations.
• Generalized psychological explanations.
• Case The Stockholm Syndrome.

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Political Violence as Strategic Choice

• Acts of Political Will
• Adversaries in the War on Terrorism

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Political Violence as Strategic Choice(continued)

• Acts of Political Will
• A rational strategic choice to force change.
• Terrorism as a tool to achieve a desired goal.
• Case Mao Zedong and peoples war.

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Political Violence as Strategic Choice(continued)

• Adversaries in the War on Terrorism
• Perceptions.
• Western A war against Western-style
  civilization.
• Non-Western An imbalance in policies toward
  Muslim countries vis-à-vis Israel.
• Concept The behavior of the West is the cause of
  angry sentiment in the Muslim world.
• Case CIAs 2007 National Intelligence Estimate
  warning Iraq is a new training ground for
  terrorists.

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The Morality of Political Violence

• Moral Convictions of Terrorists
• Simplified Good and Evil
• Seeking Utopia
• Codes of Self-Sacrifice

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The Morality of Political Violence(continued

• Moral Convictions of Terrorists
• Terrorists have an unambiguous certainty in the
  righteousness of a cause.
• Concepts
• A group concludes it has been morally wronged by
  an immoral, evil enemy.
• A group concludes it possesses an inherent moral
  superiority to an enemy.

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The Morality of Political Violence(continued

• Simplified Good and Evil
• A clear line is drawn between good and evil.
• Violent methods are justified by the ennobled
  goals of the cause.
• Seeking Utopia
• The promised good outweighs present actions.
• The end justifies the means.

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The Morality of Political Violence(continued

• Codes of Self-Sacrifice
• Superior codes of living that cleanse those who
  follow the code.
• Case Germanys Waffen SS.
• Case Japans code of Bushido.