Study
C H A P T E R
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What Is Terrorism?
After reading this chapter, you will be able to • discuss the most universally accepted definition of terrorism, and competing definitions of terrorism proposed by various scholars and institutions; • explain the history of terrorism and the different types of terrorism today, comparing old terrorism with new terrorism; • discuss the fifteen causes that explain why people resort to terrorism; and • describe the various facets of the terrorist’s identity.
TERRORISM: ORIGIN OF THE WORD
To begin, it seems appropriate to define the term terrorism. Within terrorism lies the word terror. Terror comes from the Latin terrere, which means “frighten” or “tremble.” When coupled with the French suffix isme (referencing “to practice”), it becomes akin to “practicing the trembling” or “causing the frightening.” Trembling and frightening here are synonyms for fear, panic, and anxiety—what we would naturally call terror. The word terror is over 2,100 years old. In ancient Rome, the terror cimbricus was a state of panic and emergency in response to the coming of the Cimbri tribe killers in 105 BCE. This description of terrorism as being rooted in terror is an example of etymology. Etymology is the study of the origin and evolution of words. From this standpoint, language is organic, changeable, fluctuating, depending on the needs of thinkers and speakers over time and place.1 The word terrorism, in and of itself, was coined during the French Revolution’s Reign of Terror (1793–1794). In the Reign of Terror (Le Gouvernement de la Terreur), a group of rebels, the Jacobins, used the term when self-reflexively portraying their own actions in—and explanations of—the French Revolution. The Reign of Terror was a campaign of large-scale violence by the French state; between 16,000 and 40,000 people were killed in a little over a year. It is not surprising, then, that the French National Convention proclaimed in
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TERRORISM AND
1
What Is Terrorism?
After reading this chapter, you will be able to • discuss the most universally accepted definition of terrorism, and competing definitions of terrorism proposed by various scholars and institutions; • explain the history of terrorism and the different types of terrorism today, comparing old terrorism with new terrorism; • discuss the fifteen causes that explain why people resort to terrorism; and • describe the various facets of the terrorist’s identity.
TERRORISM: ORIGIN OF THE WORD
To begin, it seems appropriate to define the term terrorism. Within terrorism lies the word terror. Terror comes from the Latin terrere, which means “frighten” or “tremble.” When coupled with the French suffix isme (referencing “to practice”), it becomes akin to “practicing the trembling” or “causing the frightening.” Trembling and frightening here are synonyms for fear, panic, and anxiety—what we would naturally call terror. The word terror is over 2,100 years old. In ancient Rome, the terror cimbricus was a state of panic and emergency in response to the coming of the Cimbri tribe killers in 105 BCE. This description of terrorism as being rooted in terror is an example of etymology. Etymology is the study of the origin and evolution of words. From this standpoint, language is organic, changeable, fluctuating, depending on the needs of thinkers and speakers over time and place.1 The word terrorism, in and of itself, was coined during the French Revolution’s Reign of Terror (1793–1794). In the Reign of Terror (Le Gouvernement de la Terreur), a group of rebels, the Jacobins, used the term when self-reflexively portraying their own actions in—and explanations of—the French Revolution. The Reign of Terror was a campaign of large-scale violence by the French state; between 16,000 and 40,000 people were killed in a little over a year. It is not surprising, then, that the French National Convention proclaimed in
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TERRORISM AND