After the September 11th attacks on New York City and Washington, D.C.,
the U.S. Army enlisted the help of Hollywood's top action screenwriters
and directors - including the writers of Die Hard and
McGyver - to conjure up possible scenarios for future assaults.
While this may seem unorthodox, the next major terrorist attack will
probably come in a form as unexpected as the one we witnessed on September
11th (Homer 61). Whether it is perpetrated by an asymmetric threat or a rogue state using a weapon of mass destruction remains to be seen.
Here, the purpose is not to gaze into a crystal ball; instead, the aim is
to sketch the debate on definitions of terrorism, discuss the methods of
counterterrorism, and analyze the consequences of counterterrorism.
Definitions of Terrorism
Academic discussions of "terrorism" begin by explaining that a
universally accepted definition of the term still eludes scholars and
government officials. Sharryn Aiken has suggested that the words
"terrorist" and "terrorism" are nearly meaningless as a legal category
(Aiken 65). The U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia deplored
"the lack of any precise definition of the term 'terrorism' as a major
hurdle in determining when illegal, sanctionable terrorist activity had
occurred" (Ross 82). One survey of leading researchers uncovered 109
different definitions (Takeyh 70). So many exist that a mere
compilation of these would form a fair-sized book (Qadir 333).
The term "terrorism" first emerged to describe a period of the French
Revolution, the Reign of Terror, in which the Jacobins unleashed a
campaign of repression that resulted in thousands of people being
tortured, imprisoned, and guillotined (Aiken 54). In this context, T. H.
Mitchell states that "terrorism was perceived as an unspeakable crime -
the product of moral depravity and madness" (see Defining the Problem in
D. A. Charters, ed., Democratic Responses to International
Terrorism, 1991). Hence, terrorism was coined to indicate a state's
brutal treatment of its citizens. During the course of the nineteenth and
twentieth centuries, however, the term became increasingly
politicized (Aiken 54).
This politicization reveals
the power of semantics in demarcating the moral and ethical parameters of
a conflict. For some, the definition of terrorism includes both state and
non-state participants, but excludes acts motivated by revenge (Qadir
334). For others, the definition encompasses only "subnational groups or
non-state entities" (Dishman 44). A poignant illustration of the murky
nature of the term rests in the fact that the U.S. State Department, U.S.
Department of Defense, and the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) all
employ different definitions (Johnson 895). The primacy of the U.S. State
Department in international affairs has caused its definition to gain
widespread acceptance: "premeditated, politically motivated violence
perpetrated against noncombatant targets by subnational groups or
clandestine agents, usually intended to influence an
audience" (Donohue 35).
Equally important, the definitional ambiguity of terrorism is
intensified by the rhetorical power of the word "terrorist," which causes
governments to apply the term according to political preferences
(Falkenrath 150). No country wants to admit to terrorist actions or
support of terrorist groups, yet many states, including the U.S., have
been involved with or have lent support to groups considered by other
countries to be terrorists (Donohue 19). At the heart of the matter is
that one person's terrorist is another person's freedom fighter (Aiken
58). J. Zulaika and W. Douglas ask, "What can we make of the fact that
terrorism has become such a shifty category that yesterday's terrorists
are today's Nobel Peace Prize winners?" (Terror and Taboo, 1996).
Likewise, Zulaika and Douglas argue that the use of terrorism as a
conceptual category, in lieu of a universally accepted definition, must be
seen for what it is: a highly charged political position embedded in the
particularity of a given cultural, social, and tactical context.
Despite debate over the definition, core characteristics of the term
are agreed upon within the literature. These include the use of threat
and/or violence, the existence of political motive, the selection of
targets who are representative of a target category, the aim of
terrorizing, the goal of modifying behavior, the use of extreme or unusual
methods, and the use of terrorism as an act of communication (Monaghan
Methods of Counterterrorism
Just as attempts to define terrorism generate political controversy,
the debate over the necessity and appropriate reach for antiterrorist
legislation in the U.S. stems from disagreement over what constitutes
terrorism and when it exists (Michel Wieviorka, Foreword to The Making
of Terrorism n.1, 1993). There are just as many ways to prevent
terrorism and to bring known terrorists to justice as there are
motivations behind terrorist acts. Possible state responses to terrorism
include political and diplomatic measures, economic measures, overt
military action, covert military action (e.g., intelligence operations),
and law enforcement (Malvesti 85-86).
Retired U.S. Army Major General William Nash voices concern that the
U.S. is viewed by the world as represented by a military force rather than
as a democratic, free-market, rule-of-law
nation. He also intimates that national security in the 21st century is
far more political, economic, and social in nature, and the security
aspects are more nonmilitary, than ever before ("Reinventing War" 43).
The tenacity and longevity of groups such as the Basque Fatherland and
Liberty (ETA), Irish Republican Army (IRA), and Revolutionary Armed Forces
of Colombia (FARC) are reminders that military-backed counterterrorism
alone is not likely to eliminate the threat. Conversely, progress on the
political front can go a long way in reducing violence (Johnson 911).
The growing gap between the world's haves and have-nots exacerbates the
problem of terrorism (Talbott 75). For example, in Pakistan and to some
extent Afghanistan, the bulk of the people who enter madrissas
(religious seminaries) that provide military training for terrorists are
from a disadvantaged class; parents find it convenient to send their
children there because they know the children will be housed, fed,
clothed, and educated (Qadir 338-9). Victims of the modern world view
Osama bin Laden as a combination of avenging angel and Robin Hood (Talbott
75). It has been said, "Terrorism is the half thinking man's conditioned
reflex to sustained oppression and lack of personal empowerment" (Qadir
333). Countering terrorist activities with military operations will not be
successful without addressing global economic inequality (Talbott 75-6)
and peacekeeping itself is an issue of post-conflict development ("Reinventing
Nevertheless, Strobe Talbott, former deputy Secretary of State, points
out that the September 11th suicide pilots, for the most part, did not
come from the world's desperate and aggrieved. He states that their
fanaticism, like bin Laden's, was nurtured in privilege and in individual
madness (Talbott 75). If this is the case, then is military reaction the
solution? In order for the U.S. to deploy military forces in response to a
terrorist act, six criteria need to be met: a relatively immediate,
positive perpetrator identification; perpetrator repetition; direct
targeting of a U.S. citizen working in an official U.S. government-related
capacity; the fait accompli nature of the incident - i.e., already
accomplished and irreversible in nature; flagrant anti-U.S. perpetrator
behavior; and political and military vulnerability of the
perpetrator (Malvesti 100).
U.S. Senator Richard Selby, vice chairman of the Senate Intelligence
Committee, blamed the September 11th tragedy on inadequate intelligence
funding, a dearth of Arabic-speaking agents, and insufficient
international intelligence-sharing and cross-border cooperation (Sprinzak
72). John Deutch, former head of the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA),
and Jeffrey H. Smith explain that the model of U.S. intelligence was
created in a different era for solving a different problem. The National
Security Act of 1947 produced the CIA, which was envisioned to deal with
enemy states during the Cold War. The result was a collection of
organizations based on distinctions of domestic vs foreign threats, law
enforcement vs national security, and peacetime vs wartime. The FBI is
responsible for the former, while the intelligence community, including
the CIA and others, is responsible for the latter. This fragmented
approach makes it possible for one intelligence agency to have information
before a terrorist attack, but to be unable to share and synthesize in
time to avert the attack (Deutch 64).
Terrorist attacks pose a unique challenge to states in that they are
both a law enforcement and a national security issue, simultaneously a
criminal act and an act of war. The Posse Comitatus Act of 1878 prohibits
the U.S. military from engaging in civilian law enforcement activities,
and many argue that military training for local police and firefighters to
handle (weapons of mass destruction) terrorist incidents falls into this
category (Quillen 55). Two dominant models have been developed to address
this dilemma in Israel. The war model regards terrorism as an act of
revolutionary warfare, whereas the criminal justice model regards it as a
criminal act. The war model places the response to terrorism in the hands
of the military, encouraging the armed forces to use all its power to
quash terrorist action. The criminal justice model accords the police with
the responsibility to respond to terrorism, and its actions are naturally
restrained by the states criminal legal system (Pedazhur 3).
Consequences of Counterterrorism
If the purpose of terrorism is to terrorize, that of antiterrorism is
to terrorize more (Qadir 333). In many ways, counterterrorist efforts must
be viewed on balance because they often involve fundamental alterations to
civil liberties, policies toward ethnic
minorities, international relations, and the economic system. Prudence
must be exercised to avoid using counterterrorism as a blanket
justification for victimizing innocent people (Aiken 127), and C. B. Keely
and S. S. Russell urge the use of caution to prevent the perpetrators from
winning by making "us" like "them" (see Asylum Policies in Developed
Countries: National Security Concerns and Regional Issues in A. Simmons,
ed., International Migration, Refugee Flows and Human Rights in North
America: The Impact of Free Trade and Restructuring, 1992).
A struggle between civil liberties and the vulnerability to terrorism
often develops during the genesis of counterterrorist measures. This
clash is seen in the debate over passenger profiling, roving wiretaps,
surveillance, tracking systems, and immigration. Policymakers entertain
proposals to erode posse comitatus; repeal assassination and
torture prohibitions; use criminal informants; introduce military courts,
indefinite detention, and identity cards; and widen powers of information
gathering (Donohue 48). The more aggressive the selected model of
counterterror, the more likely that democratic foundations will be
sacrificed during the process (Pedazhur 22). Paul Wilkinson writes that
the primary objective of counterterrorism should be the protection and
maintenance of the rule of law and liberal democracy (Terrorism and the
Liberal State, 1986), but arguments in favor of secret evidence and
classified deportation proceedings speak not of an open, liberal,
democratic society, but of one cloaked in secrecy (Donohue 48). One must
also consider the words penned by Thomas Jefferson: "A society that will
trade a little liberty for a little order will deserve neither and will
lose both" (Ross 122).
Incursions into civil liberties via stringent counterterrorist law also
risk alienating ethnic minorities within the U.S., and subjecting them to
disproportionate and degrading security checks and procedures, which
marginalize them even more (Donohue 48). For example, the perception of
Arabs as terrorists in the U.S. has come to dominate the public
imagination. Larry B. Stammer and Somini Sengupta eloquently describe the
common perception: "Words and images run together like watercolors on a
child's easel - Arabs, mosque, terrorist, Muslims, extremists - making it
hard to tell where one began and the other left off" (see Muslims Enter
American Mainstream, Los Angeles Times, 6 April 1993). This almost
reflexive association became ingrained during the Iranian hostage crisis
in 1979 and the Persian Gulf War in 1991 (Whidden 2849). Complicating
matters for Arabs in the U.S. is that a number of overseas organizations
that sponsor terrorists also fund religious and charitable projects; Hamas operates orphanages, old-age homes,
hospitals, women's clinics, religious colleges, sports clubs,
kindergartens, vocational schools, and even a match-making service
In addition to the sacrifice of civil liberties and the mistreatment of
ethnic minorities, U.S. counterterrorist actions can have a profound
influence on enemies as well as allies abroad. The Organization of the Islamic Conference's
declarations regarding the September 11th attacks condemned the violence
as being opposed to the tolerant message of Islam; reaffirmed the need to
hold an international conference on rejecting terrorism in international
relations; suggested that the focus on the U.S. should not cause the
international community to ignore state-sponsored terrorism in Israel; and
expressed concern over the death of innocent civilians in Afghanistan,
territorial integrity of Afghanistan, and targeting of any other Islamic
or Arab state under the pretext of fighting terrorism (Takeyh 70-1).
Though the attacks on September 11th reduced the priority of developing a
national missile defense (NMD) or theater missile defense (TMD) ("Reinventing
War" 33), it is widely believed that the creation of a NMD/TMD will
trigger a new arms race, especially with
Russia and China, and strain relations with Europe (Ahrari 83-100). In
terms of deterrence, its effectiveness in
the post-Cold War era remains to be seen ("Reinventing War" 34).
Modern societies such as the U.S. face a cruel paradox: Fast-paced
technological and economic innovations may deliver unrivaled prosperity,
but they also render rich nations vulnerable to crippling, unanticipated
attacks (Homer 52). The total cost of the September 11th attack in lost
economic growth and decreased equity value around the world could equal $1
trillion, and the cost of the attack was probably a few hundred thousand
dollars, so the economic multiplier is close to a million fold (Homer
58-9). Possible changes that would reduce U.S. economic vulnerability to
terrorism include greater use of decentralized, local energy production
and alternative energy sources (e.g., small-scale solar power); increased
autonomy of local food production networks; and increased supplies of raw
materials and parts so that firms can continue production when these
inputs are interrupted. These changes would decrease economic efficiency,
but the extra security of more stable production networks could far
outweigh the costs (Homer 52).
Though it would be easy to introduce this last paragraph with "in
conclusion," it would be premature to do so. In closing, the intent of
this work is to provide a glance at the meaning and politicization of the
term "terrorism," to explicate the different means of countering
terrorism, and to probe the implications of counterterrorist efforts. With
U.S. military operations in Afghanistan, ostensibly to fight a war on
terrorism, as well as renewed violence between Israelis and Palestinians,
where each side alleges terrorism by the other, the definitions of
terrorism and the methods of counterterrorism take on even greater
importance in the quest for peace. Much work needs to be done before
terrorism is concluded.
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