Preview

Walzer's View On Terrorism

Good Essays
Open Document
Open Document
127 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
Walzer's View On Terrorism
Yes, I to agree that "the failures of the dominant view of terrorism should lead us to adopt either a more critical attitude toward conventional war or a less condemnatory attitude toward terrorism." My stance is a more critical attitude toward war, in fact more critical thinking in general.

Terrorism is defined in more ways than one, it can also be used in a variety of ways.

Michael Walzer "considers the moral justification for terrorism and finds such activity not permissible." Lionel K. McPherson even "argues that terrorism like war, can be justifiable despite the harm it does to noncombatants"

After reading both chapters twenty nine and thirty, containing many valuable points; I've adopted both critical attitude toward conventional

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Powerful Essays

    EXPOSITION The justification of war — both in terms of jus in bello and jus ad bellum — is a difficult and complex task. This difficulty is increased immensely when trying to apply just war principles to terrorism, a complicated mix of typical and unconventional tactics that can be performed by both established and state governments. In the essay, I will critically address the discussion of terrorism by Michael Walzer in chapter 12 of “Just and Unjust Wars” (1977) and advocate for the justification of revolutionary terrorism. Walzer’s judgment of terrorism oversimplifies and neglects important complexities that must be considered in the ethical analysis of terrorism.…

    • 1768 Words
    • 8 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Good Essays

    He argues that terrorism and war are similar and because of that they should be criticized equally. Even though I agree with some of his claims, I disagree with McPhersons conclusion. I will begin this essay by summarizing McPherson’s argument and then I will generate my own argument explaining why McPherson’s conclusion is incorrect. To begin McPherson’s argument, he starts by discussing a set of meetings called the Geneva Conventions. These conventions set out rules to be followed during war.…

    • 784 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    The main point of the article was to convey that "today's terrorists are ultimately more apocalyptic in their perspective and methods." In short, their mindset changed from; a means to an end to becoming the end in itself. Most recently studies have shown that terrorism changed from the ideas of the past. Paul Wilkinson, Professor of International Relations and Chairman of the Advisory Board of the Centre for the Study…

    • 1211 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    “The Terrorist Outlaw,” William McGurn argues that “terrorism is irredeemably evil.” Implicit in this claim is the belief that acts of terrorism are never justified.…

    • 257 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    Chapter three in aproches to peace helps us better understand terrorism. Many of us have a skewed perception on what we believe terrorism is. This chapter is trying to get us out of the mind set of thinking that only terrious are Muslims from the middle east. The chapter focus on why people from the middle east do the unthink able. How we may see them as terrioris. But other see them as there freedom fighters. That we cant count the United State out of the equation of being terrious, because the United States government is very much so part of the problem. We may try to justify are wrong doing but it still doesn't help. United has inflicted just as much pain to people around the world. Chapter three focuses on terrorism between the United States…

    • 520 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    The author holds that there is a “nihilistic edge to terrorism” as their goals are for brutal destruction in some hope of ludicrous utopian goals. She also compares the training videos of our U.S. military with that of one Islamic radical terrorist group. The U.S. military training videos teach our soldiers to distinguish combatants from noncombatants, called the principle of discrimination, and to disobey illegal orders under the laws of war which have evolved from the just war tradition and have become international conventions and arrangements. The terrorist training video however, depicts the decapitation of enemies who had already been disarmed which is forbidden…

    • 1855 Words
    • 8 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Good Essays

    He goes on to explain that for an act of terrorism to be considered before an act of war is because of the just war tradition. The just war tradition has two main divisions which help us to understand when a war should happen and what needs to be considered during the…

    • 961 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Best Essays

    9/11 Justification

    • 1434 Words
    • 6 Pages

    Solomon, N. The World 's View of the US 'War on Terror ', published 9th September 2006, viewed on 18th June 2013…

    • 1434 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Best Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    Terrorism is the simple fact of threatening another country of violence and carrying on with deathly results such as destruction and casualties.…

    • 405 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    The first premise to my argument is the fact that terrorism is not as immoral as war; the majority of proof collected to support this premise is obtained from Lionel K. McPherson’s article, “Is Terrorism Distinctively Wrong?” McPherson raises a rival view to Walzer and suggests, “terrorism is the deliberate use of force against noncombatants, which can be expected to cause wider fear among them, for political ends[1].” The first piece of evidence lies in the fact that noncombatant deaths contribute to between 75 and 90 percent of all war deaths. McPherson points out that we do not know the reason of these deaths, but because it happened during the period of war, it can safely be said that whether it be directly or indirectly, war leads to a high number of civilian casualties. Moreover, terrorism is considered wrong because of the fact that it instills fear in the civilians, but as McPherson asserts, civilians have more to fear when it…

    • 2952 Words
    • 12 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    Terrorism SLIDES Trial 1

    • 1729 Words
    • 11 Pages

    Terrorism It is described variously as both tactic and strategy; a crime and a holy duty; a justified reaction to oppression and an inexcusable abomination. Has been an effective tactic of the weaker side in a conflict. United Nations defined terrorism on 1992, it is ‘an anxiety-inspiring method of repeated violent action, employed by (semi-) clandestine individual, group or state actors, for idiosyncratic, criminal or political reasons, whereby - in contrast to assassination - the direct targets of violence are not the main targets.’ (United States Department of Defense): ‘the calculated use of unlawful violence or threat of unlawful violence to inculcate fear; intended to coerce or to intimidate governments or societies in the pursuit of goals that are generally political, religious, or ideological.’…

    • 1729 Words
    • 11 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    9/11 Terrorism Impact

    • 2354 Words
    • 10 Pages

    I learned that under the leadership of President Bush, we implemented a global war on terror policy that involved going after all parts of terrorism instead of going after the group and individuals that were responsible for 9/11. I took from it that the war on terror has not been successful in keeping the United States safe or even giving the perception that we are safer now than we were during 9/11. Even with all the funding and foreign policy, little success can be shown. We have seen the emergence of more extremist groups such as ISIS who are more aggressive in their tactics than groups in the past. President Obama has tried to end the war of terror that Bushed passed down to him, but often times his hands are tied. I also took from it that we can see the origins of the war on terror back in the 1980’s when the United States took the wrong approach by thinking that terrorism was a part of the cold war and being sponsored by the Soviet Union and not taking into factors that would later have dire consequences. The main thing I took from all these journals together was that the US failed to understand the enemy that they were fighting in the global war on terror, they didn't know back in the 80s and they didn't know in the post 9/11 era. This inability to know who they were fighting and why they were fighting led to trillions of dollars being spent wastefully and…

    • 2354 Words
    • 10 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Better Essays

    A definition of “terrorism” refers to the use of force or violence against persons or property for the purpose of intimidation, coercion (U.S. Department of Health & Human Services, 2011); Terrorists often use violence and threats to create fear among the public. Terrorism is a criminal act such as airline hijackings, bomb scares, weapons of mass destruction that influences an audience beyond the immediate victim. The strategy of terrorists is to commit acts of violence that draws the attention of the local populace, the government, and the world to their cause. (International Terrorism and Security Research , n.d.)…

    • 1122 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Good Essays

    Defining Terrorism

    • 627 Words
    • 3 Pages

    There are many definitions of terrorism. Some of them are: Brain Jenkins said that terrorism is the use or threatened use of force designed to bring about political change. While Walter Lacqueur said that terrorism constitutes the illegitimate use of force to achieve apolitical objective by targeting innocent people. Yet another definition comes from Edward Herman, who said that terrorism should be defined by terms of state repression, such as the corrupt Latin American governments. Still another view of terrorism comes from Alex Schmidt, who said that there is no true or correct definition, because terrorism is an abstract concept with no real presence. A single definition cannot possibly account for all potential uses of the term. The final definition that is covered here is the official definition of terrorism issued by the Federal Bureau of Investigation. They state that it is the unlawful use of force to intimidate a government to further political or social goals. Though these are only a few of the definitions of terrorism, they provide a good cross-section of the term terrorism.…

    • 627 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Best Essays

    Bibliography: 1. Why Has Defining Terrorism Proved So Difficult? Laura Clarke on May 14, 2009…

    • 2093 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Best Essays