Section B Flashcards
Stohl: what is terrorism?
‘terrorism is the purposeful act or the threat of the act of violence to create fear and/or compliant behaviour in a victim and/or the audience of the act of threat’
Also: audience more important than immediate victim
Schmid definition of terrorism includes: (4)
- Form of violent political communication
- ‘Illegitimate’ violence
- Deliberate targeting of non-state actors and institutions
- Victims are the exclusive intended recipients of political message
Possibilities of state terrorism
Public warfare
Covert act to instil fear
State-sponsored terrorism
US department of state definition
Specified: premeditated, politically motivated, violence, against non-combatant targets by subnational or clandestine agents
Wight (against state terrorism)
Argument: ‘illegitimate force’ - makes ‘state terrorism’ a contradiction of terms, as if a state does it it is automatically legitimate.
Counter: Stohl: not all actions of a legitimate state are necessarily legitimate themselves. People in state positions can still be held accountable for breaking the law - the ‘state’ is not a person, there is still somebody committing the act. If a person can be considered a terrorist and a person can act for the state, then if someone commits an act of terrorism as the state and for the state- state terrorism. Example of this is Stalin.
Introduction
Definitions
Difference- state terrorism wants to stabilise the state, as opposed to other sorts of terrorism which wants to destabilise it. Unless the state is targeting a different state, that is, then the sovereignty of the other state makes it illegitimate anyway.
Why state terrorism is important
Maxwell Taylor (1988) - allows us to look at insurgency terrorism from a different perspective.
It also unnecessarily complicated the definition of terrorism.
State sponsored terrorism
Clearly a form of terrorism, but differs from internal state terrorism.
Wight (argument against state terrorism.2)
Publicity - terrorism is needed to effect a wider audience, but states tend to keep their ‘sponsored terrorism clandestine.
Counter - doesn’t always need to know what’s going on exactly to be terrorism. Sponsored terrorism and Stalin are examples
