Lecture One

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Lecture One

• Thoughts on Terrorism

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Introduction

• A.  Terrorism as Political Activity      1. 
  There is a spectrum of political activity in
  political systems everywhere.      2.  Some
  activity is Conventional voting, contacting,
  speaking, gathering, protesting      3.  Some
  activity is Unconventional strikes, boycotts,
  riots.      4.  Terrorism can be seen as an
  extreme form of Unconventional political
  behavior      5.  Revolution is also an extreme
  form of Unconventional political behavior

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Goals of Terrorism

• B.  All political activity is goal oriented.    
  Lobbying is legal, it has a goal.     Voting is
  legal (most places) and has a goal.     Civil
  disobedience is often illegal, but certainly has
  a goal.     Terrorism is always illegal, but it
  also has goals.

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A Spectrum of Participation

• C.  As one moves from the types of behavior that
  are common and conventional to the ones that are
  uncommon and unconventional, the types of people
  who undertake them change and the costs of
  involvement change, and, very likely, the chances
  of success change.   One central question about
  political terrorism is why would someone or some
  people undertake such a dangerous illegal action?
  An early answer is that most people don't.  Most
  people don't even undertake easy, legal actions
  like voting or contacting government officials. 
  Thus, we may well expect to find that those who
  adopt terrorist activities are different from
  others, but not necessarily in the ends they
  desire.

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Goals of Terrorists

• D.  What sort of ends do Terrorists most often
  seem to want?      1.  nationalist goals
  autonomy or independence      2.  ideological
  goals system change or substantial policy
  shifts      3.  religious goals autonomy,
  religious freedom, theocracyLesser goals rarely
  motivate people to adopt terrorist strategies.

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State Terrorism

• E.  Can states be Terrorists?       Terrorism is
  a strategy.  States can terrorize their citizens
  deliberately as a means of control, and     
  sometimes do.  They may also adopt state
  terrorism to combat internal terrorist threats. 
  And      they may use sponsorship of terrorism
  as a means of foreign policy.

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Terror as Evil

• F.  Is terrorism always bad?  Value judgment
  here.  It is often said that one man's terrorist
  is another man's freedom fighter.  Labels matter
  in this enterprise.  Terrorists rarely accept the
  label.  Few engage in terrorism for terror's sake.