PS 230 final Flashcards
American terror groups
Right-wing: KKK and Christian Identity movement
Left-Wing: Anarchists, Weather Underground, and black panther party for self-defense
Single issue groups: anti-abortion violence, animal and Earth liberation fronts, Puerto Rican nationalist groups
Right Wing American Terror groups
KKK
Christian Identity Movement
KKK terror group
white supremacy (not a lot of influence today)
Christian Identity Movement
white supremacy (anti-government, anti-jew, and anti-minority.)
Left-Wing American terror groups
Anarchists
Weather Underground
black panther party for self-defense
Anarchists American terror group
No belief in government
Weather underground Amercian terror group
Leftist anti-Vietnam group, saw themselves as fighting against social inequality. Started out with riots and fights with police. After the war they died out
Black Panther Party for self defense
Formed in California in 1966, the general agenda was to protect black Americans from police brutality. Heavily armed police battles in the streets. They begin to further develop and do bombings and hijackings. Some leaders are more radical than others. Mainly died out in 1969, but they have resurfaced there are no the old black panthers and the new black panther party, and they don’t like each other.
Single issue terror groups in America
Anti-abortion violence
Animal and earth liberation fronts
Puerto rican nationalist groups
Early terrorist groups
Zealots, Assassins, Thugs, and Anabaptists
Zealots
in Israel- ended 73 AD
(anti-rome and want to force romans out. Carried out attacks on roman officials + supporters. #1 targets tax collectors of rome. Method- up close and personal, come up and stab you with a sword in the arm and run away.)
Assassins
11th to 13th century
(extreme branch of shia islam. Active in Persia (Iran and Syria) and they targeted Sunis, the other branch of Islam. Ani-suni wanted to throw off sunni leadership in Shia areas. Public and personal, attacked at close range with daggers. After they carried out attacks they did not even try to flee. They would sit and wait to be captured; they were committed to their cause.)
Thugs
11th century
(active in northern India until the British eventually destroyed them. Thugs would strangle targets with silk scarves, up close and personal. Mainly attacked travelers on the road. We really don’t know their purpose, after they killed them to rob them but it seemed to be based on control.)
Anabaptists
around reformation
(milennal sect. Targeted what they believed to be the antichrist. They defined that as protestants and sinful catholics that worked with protestants. They believed if they killed enough they would cause Christ to return.)
Anarchists
-anti government
-possibly first global terror group (broad reach)
-not coordinated, loose people who all agree on similar ideas who would take action.
-they have been very successful because they do not coordinate or form big groups so it’s hard to weed out cells
-assisnation was their main weapon:
French president sadi carnot
Spanish prime minister canovas
King umberto of Italy
Empress Elisabeth of Austria
President garfield and mckinley
Structure:
major branches/ divisions of UN
Secretariat, Security council, General assembly, World Court (ICJ).
Secretariat
International civil servants (people who work for UN)
Head of secretariat: Secretary - General of UN
-5 year term and 2 term limit
Elected
Security council
-military/ security issues
5 permanent members
-US, UK, France, Russia, China, winners of ww2
-Perk: Permanent members can veto any security council resolution
People complain because bc we will never vote for something that will ever harm us or our allies
-expansion
-Really hard to get things past the security council. Must be majority 9/15 and all 5 permanent members
10 non permanent members
-rotate off and are elected to two year terms and 5 of them are replaced every year. Regular change
General assembly
-legislature
-193 states
-Every state gets 1 vote
-Observers (representation but not state like holy catholics or palestinians)
Resolutions are Non binding. It can create norms but states do not HAVE to follow it.
World Court (ICJ)
-judicial body and states only
-optional clauses- can restrict areas where court has authority over you
Functions :
-settle disputes based on IR law
-advisory opinions: Court can rule on legality of something that hasn’t happened yet and hypotheticals. They will rule on it in advance. Only other parts of the UN can ask for it.
Members
-15 members elected to a 9 year term. Assembly and council vote for justices. Members rotate every three years, and you can be reelected. Membership is restricted by country. It can also expand when necessary in individual cases. In some cases they have to add a temporary member.
Goals:
Goals of ICJ
1) war avoidance
1st in charter
2) Human Rights
3) Justice/ International Law
4) Economic and Social progress
-ecosoc: economic and social council focuses on eliminating poverty, food shortages, education, gender equality.
Hamas
“Islamic Resistance Front”
Palestinian terror group
Goal- destruction of Israel and its supporters
Attacks too numerous to count. Every year all the time. Bombings, shootings, etc.
Suni Muslims
Stands out because: in 2006 they won an electoral victory (2007 defeated fatah (palestine organization) military) Fatah had control over west bank and Gaza but after the leader died Hamas took over and became legal government there. Also sparked civil war b/w Hamas and Fatah and Hamas won.
October 7th terror attacks against Israel (2023)
-Hizbollah (Hezbollah) “Party of God”
Group that keeps US national security up at night.
South lebanon and Sh’ite Muslim
Strong link to Iran (trained by elite soldiers out of iran and are trained, equipped, and financed by Iran.)
Evangelical Islam (concerned with the state of Islam and the need to spread Sh’ite beliefs)
They run the state. Doctors, schools, etc. are runned by them. They are a mixed group. They have conventional forces, both a military and terrorist organization.
Their target is israel.
Carried out undeclared war against Israel. Conventional war against Israel and earned a lot of prestige because they weren’t necessarily defeated.
Branches of islam
Sh’ite Muslim and Suni Islam
International law:
-”The body of rules and general principles of action accepted by civilized nations as binding on their actions.” (ICJ)
-International law is much more nebalious than it is made out to be. Domestic law you can read laws clearly, but there is no book for international law. It comes from many different places. No clear path in the international realm.
Sources for international law
Treaties, Consensus, Natural law, and writings of legal scholars.
No legislature and no single path. Multiple sources but none of them replicate law how we usually look at law. Very different in its creation
Treaties as source of IL
States establish international treaties to establish law. Problem becomes: what if your state doesn’t sign a treaty? Is it binding upon you or not? Generally it is not.
Consensus as source of IL
Everyone can agree that something is international law. No written form but there is an agreement. How wide the consensus must be is not well defined.
Natural law as source for IL
Derivives from moral law. The idea that you have moral laws. Things that we know morally are right or wrong. Two different paths:
Rational/logic/reason: logically derive good and bad behaviors and what is good and bad.
Religious traditions that decide international law.
Legal scholars as source for IL
Legal scholars can do research and then write an article to try to establish that something is a part of international law.
Two natural law paths
Rational/logic/reason: logically derive good and bad behaviors and what is good and bad.
Religious traditions that decide international law.
Start of modern terrorism
-dominated by left wing groups
radical socialist (against governments) used terrorism to weaken legitimacy of governments with the hope of eventually overthrowing
Fought to overthrow governments they deemed oppressive
ex: anarchist
Interwar years: 1920’s 30’s
-Shift from left learning to rise of right-wing terror groups
(fascism in germany and italy)
Post world war II:
Explosion of terror groups
-anti colonial groups in Africa and Latin America
(want to overthrow the imperialism power and have their own state)
-Leftist groups
Ernesto “che” Guevara in Latin America
Red army faction in Germany
Red brigades in italy
Weather underground in US (some of first urban orgs)
-all saw themselves as a marxist revolution
Late 1960’s early 70’s:
Growth of the terrorist international
-start to see different terror groups work together and help one another
-this greatly increased their effectiveness. They set aside differing belief to get larger goals
1990 decline of left-wing terror
-red army faction resigns- sent a letter to the german newspapers and resigned
(rare, usually hard to figure out when a terrorist group no longer exists)
-end of cold war
1968 Advent of Modern Terroism
(modern terror tactics)
-Very spectacular terrorism dramas
Very focused on gaining media attention Via tv
-Hijacks
Ex: quadruple of israeli planes
-Munich: massacre when a group called black September captured the male Israeli Olympic team.
(part of growth of terrorist international. Other groups helped them carry out the attack.)
Some experts thought there would be not terror groups after cold group but this was
wrong
Post cold war growth of terrorism
Restraint mechanism lost, Growing opposition to modernity and globalization, and Expansion of travel and communication technologies.
Restraint mechanism lost (post cold war growth)
states that supported them put limits on what they could do during the cold war so that war did not break out. So when soviet union was gone, they had all the resources but no one telling them they couldn’t do it anymore
Growing opposition to modernity and globalization (post cold war growth)
(fought against global modern society and economy. Strong groups rising up that had anti-global motivation)
Ex: Osama Bin Laden attacking global trade center
Expansion of travel and communication technologies (post cold war growth)
made it easier for terrorists to move from place to place and coordinate over social media. Easy to get to places faster and it is very easy to move money. Money can move between cells and it is hidden easier. Really expanded range and scope of groups.
Mistakes in defining terrorism:
- One person’s terrorist is another person’s freedom fighter (not true and not academic. Science is not based on feelings. Not based upon whether you agree or disagree with goals. Can’t be relative to views)
- You know it when you see it (not true, can’t have science based on instinct.)
- Terrorists do not see themselves as terrorists (not true. Terrorists know what they are doing.)