International Terrorism

Abstract

The term ‘international terrorism’ is often used so loosely that it implies only that terrorism is a world-wide problem or that most terrorism has some influence, however marginal and indirect, on international opinion and behaviour. More rigorous standards of definition are required for such tasks as scholarly investigation or legal codification. Even academic publications, however, sometimes betray extreme carelessness in the use of the term. A ‘Chronology of Recent Incidents in International Terrorism’ presented to a recent conference committed the faux pas of including Provisional I.R.A. attacks in London while omitting cross-border terrorist raids in the Middle East.¹ Moreover, progress towards more rigorous definition is a precondition for effective analysis and policy prescription, particularly at the levels of intergovernmental negotiation and political and judicial action. The need is well illustrated by the following item in a report of the Fifth U.N. Congress on Prevention of Crime and Treatment of Offenders, Geneva, September 1975: ‘The attention of the participants was focused on the phenomenon of “terrorism” which has no accepted definition in any legal code resulting in real difficulties in considering it in the context of criminal justice processes.’²

‘But the revolution does require of the revolutionary class that it should attain its end by all methods at its disposal — if necessary by an armed uprising: if required by terrorism.’

Leon Trotsky, Terrorism and Communism

‘As soon as men decide that all means are permitted to fight an evil, then their good becomes indistinguishable from the evil that they set out to destroy. The subordination of morals to politics, the reign of terror and the technique of propaganda and psychological aggression can be used by any power or party that is bold enough to abandon moral scruples and plunge into the abyss.’

Christopher Dawson, The Judgement of Nations