Defining Terrorism
By: Jevor Stouder
Tags: Homeland Security, Criminal Justice, Terrorism

August 24th, 2020 marked the first day of classes in my Sophomore year in college. One of the classes making up my semester was a criminal justice class called “Homeland Security.” As an introductory activity, our professor tasked us with writing down our definition of terrorism. My definition proceeded as such, “Terrorism is a high impact (or highly visible) attack by an outside or inside threat.” The semester is now almost over. Looking back on my definition, I can see it fell short of the mark. The definition better describes a terrorist attack than it describes terrorism.

Terrorism is not a simple term to define. I wager that if asked, many people could not give an accurate definition of terrorism. The issue is that terrorism is not physical. It is a social construct.¹ Culture, beliefs, and history can all affect how terrorism is socially defined. The values and narratives a society takes on shift their image of terrorism. As Tori DeAngelis puts it, “one group’s terrorist is another group’s freedom fighter, as the millions of Arabs who support Palestinian suicide bombers will attest.”.² So, what is terrorism?

The term “terrorism” was first coined by Edmund Burke, a noted British philosopher. He used it to describe the mass executions and attacks during the French Revolution.³ Terrorism’s meaning has shifted throughout the years. After the events of 9/11, terrorism often became associated with radicalized religious ideology. Yet, equating terrorism to religious violence is a dangerous oversimplification. Terrorism can be culturally driven, politically motivated, religious, or for any number of reasons. To gain a clearer understanding of terrorism, we can look to the past.

The ETA (Euskadi Ta Askatasuna [Basque Homeland and Freedom]) was a separatist group turned terrorist. Their homeland, the Basque region (a region primarily located in Spain), had its own culture and language.⁴ The Basque culture and language were oppressed under Francisco Franco’s dictatorship.⁵ This angered the Basque people who wished to separate from Spanish rule, establish their own nation, and practice their culture. In the 1970s, disgruntled Basque separatists began a campaign of assassinations, robbery, and banditry. They hoped to coerce the Spanish by utilizing a terror campaign. Their bloody campaign lasted for decades before they finally declared an end to hostilities in October 2011.⁶

Political terrorism takes form in both revolutionary and counterrevolutionary violence. Revolutionary groups wish to overthrow and replace the established system. Revolutionary terrorism is violent activity meant to terrorize a political system towards its agenda. Counterrevolutionary terrorism involves suppression of those deemed “enemies of the state” using methods of coercion outside the law. A case study of these concepts is the Uruguayan Tupamaros. Disenchanted with the repressive Uruguayan government, the Tupamaros resolved to fight back.⁷ They robbed banks, kidnapped high-ranking officials, bombed business enterprises, and killed police officers (Pike).⁸ In response, the Uruguayan government captured and tortured suspected Tupamaros. The purpose of this torture was not only to gather information, but it was meant to serve as a deterrent to any would-be revolutionary.⁹

Terrorism does not have a central ideology driving it. There are Islamic extremists such as Al-Qaeda who flew the planes into the twin towers. The ETA fought for their right for ethnic separation and autonomy. The Tupamaros challenged the Uruguayan government for political control. In return, they were viciously attacked by the Uruguayan government in response. While the motivations behind terrorism may not be the same, there is a central idea to terrorism. Terrorism is a tool. Terrorism utilizes violence or the threat of violence to escalate fear and intimidate a group into submission. Simply put, terrorism is a method of coercion utilizing psychologically damaging attacks, both selectively (police officers and people in authority) and indiscriminately (civilians), to spread fear. Thus, terrorism is not an attack or any group, but an underhanded and unethical warfare tactic.