Structuralist Perspectives On Terrorism

Socially, terrorism is viewed as a deviant act against the public. From a structuralist perspective, terrorism is a result in a faulty public structure. Structuralist believe terrorism is a result of society’s failure to include a social group within its structure, especially politically. In western politics, terrorism is often defined as an unlawful use of violence, force, and intimidation in the pursuit of political goals. It often is aimed at civilians in order to gain a response from a government or an organization.
The main actors that participate in terrorism are civilian groups or individuals fighting against a current ideology or form of government. An example of this is Al-Qaeda, a militant Sunni Islamist multi-national organization, better known to western politics as a terrorist organization. Al-Qaeda was formed by civilians who agree with Osama Bin Laden’s grievances with the local government and believed terrorism (in the name of their religion) would be the best way to reach their aspirations. This does not mean that government leaders cannot be terrorists. By the vague definition of terrorism
given by many sources, states can also be considered terrorists. Some argue that state terrorism is a form of terrorism performed by the state against its challengers. An example of this is the Kazakh government actions against the journalist and media that opposed them. The tactics used by the state were parallel to tactics used by terrorist groups.
Terrorists perform acts of terrorism to achieve goals.
These goals motivate leaders of terrorist groups and the people recruited by terrorist groups to perform extreme acts of violence. The motives of terrorists frequently reflect political and religious objectives. An example of this is Al-Qaeda’s goal to reshape the Muslim world by replacing secular states with a single Islamic political leadership. Terrorists use unconventional violent tactics to achieve the goals they set. They also use tactics to inspire others to perform terrorist attacks. Tactics like suicide bombers, bombs, and mass shooting are often used. Terrorist use any tactic that causes a large amount of civilian harm with little organization. For instance, recent attacks in Syria organized by ISIS, like executions style killings and bombing, are often to harm civilian and intimidate
civilians.
A violent act should be considered an act of terrorism when it is organized by civilians or state, has low organization, has motives aimed at political or religious concerns, and the tactics are unconventional. What makes terrorism different from other forms of political violence is the motivations and goals the terrorist groups want to achieve. Terrorist groups normally don’t want to take over. Their motives are not as simple as protest and not as complex as insurgency. Terrorist groups are a gray area somewhere between the two. The most important aspect that defines terrorism is political and religious motives and the violent acts against civilians. Usually, political violence is civilian versus state. Whereas terrorism is civilian using civilians against the state. An example of this is international attacks inspired by ISIS. These attacks would be considered hate crimes because there was variety in the civilians harmed in places like France and surrounding European countries.