Abstract
I will not venture to suggest exactly what factor or combination of factors may be necessary to turn political violence into terrorism, but perhaps when either the intention to spread fear or the intention to harm non-combatants is primary, this is sufficient.1
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Notes
For further discussion, see the original version of this chapter. In his perceptive book on terrorism, Grant Wardlaw notes that ‘whilst the primary effect is to create fear and alarm the objectives may be to gain concessions, obtain maximum publicity for a cause, provoke repression, break down social order, build morale in the movement or enforce obedience to it.’ Political Terrorism (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1982), pp. 41–2.
Paul Wilkinson, Political Terrorism (London: Macmillan, 1974), p. 17 (emphasis added). In a later book, he does not build the moral judgment quite as directly into the definition, but he still concludes that terrorism is ‘a moral crime, a crime against humanity.’
Paul Wilkinson, Terrorism and the Liberal State (New York: New York University Press, 1986), p. 66.
Benjamin Netanyahu (ed.), Terrorism: How the West Can Win (New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 1986). pp. 29–30.
Burton Leiser, Liberty, Justice, and Morality, second edition (New York: Macmillan, 1979), chapter 13.
Michael Walzer, Terrorism: A Critique of Excuses,’ in Steven Luper-Foy (ed.), Problems of International Justice: Philosophical Essays (Boulder, Col.: Westview Press, 1988), p. 238. His position is effectively criticized by Robert K. Fullinwider in ‘Understanding Terrorism,’ in the same volume.
See John Dugard, ‘International Terrorism and the Just War,’ Stanford Journal of International Studies 12 (1976).
On this point see especially Richard Falk, Revolutionaries and Functionaries: The Dual Faces of Terrorism (New York: Dutton, 1988).
Robert L. Holmes, ‘Terrorism and Other Forms of Violence: A Moral Perspective,’ paper presented at the meeting of Concerned Philosophers for Peace, Dayton, Ohio, 16 October 1987. See also his On War and Morality (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1989).
See, e.g., C.A.J. Coady, ‘The Morality of Terrorism,’ Philosophy 60 (1985),
And Jan Schreiber, The Ultimate Weapon: Terrorists and World Order (New York: Morrow, 1978).
Michael Walzer, Just and Unjust Wars: A Moral Argument with Historical Illustrations, third edition (New York: Basic Books, 2000), chapter 16.
R.M. Hare, ‘On Terrorism,’ Journal of Value Inquiry 13 (1979).
Carl Wellman, ‘On Terrorism Itself,’ Journal of Value Inquiry 13 (1979).
Burleigh Wilkins, ‘Terrorism and Consequentialism,’ Journal of Value Inquiry21 (1987).
Walter Laqueur, The Age of Terrorism, revised and expanded edition (Boston: Little, Brown, 1987).
Albrecht Wellmer, ‘Terrorism and the Critique of Society,’ in Jürgen Habermas (ed.), Observations on ‘The Spiritual Situation of the Age’: Contemporary German Perspectives, trans. A. Buchwalter (Cambridge, Mass.: MIT Press, 1984), p. 300.
See Charles Tilly, ‘Collective Violence in European Perspective,’ in Hugh Davis Graham and Ted Robert Gurr (eds.), Violence in America: Historical and Comparative Perspectives (New York: Bantam, 1969);
And Lewis A. Coser, ‘Some Social Functions of Violence,’ Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science 364 (1966).
See Virginia Held, Rights and Goods: Justifying Social Action (New York: Free Press and Macmillan, 1984).
See, e.g., Committee on Foreign Affairs (comp.), Human Rights Documents (Washington DC: Government Printing Office, 1983).
For discussion see e.g. Alan Gewirth, Human Rights (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1982),
And James W. Nickel, Making Sense of Human Rights (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1987).
Sara Ruddick, Maternal Thinking: Toward a Politics of Peace (Boston: Beacon Books, 1989), p. 138.
See also Adrienne Harris and Ynestra King (eds.), Rocking the Ship of the State (Boulder Col.: Westview Press, 1989).
Pam McAllister, ‘Introduction’ to Pam McAllister (ed.), Reweaving the Web of Life: Feminism and Nonviolence (Philadelphia: New Society, 1982), p. iii.
See e.g. Robin Morgan, The Demon Lover: The Roots of Terrorism (New York: Washington Square Press, 2001).
William Borman, Gandhi and Non-Violence (Albany, NY: State University of New York Press, 1986), p. xiv.
Igor Primoratz, ‘The Morality of Terrorism,’ Journal of Applied Philosophy 14 (1997).
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Held, V. (2004). Terrorism, Rights, and Political Goals. In: Primoratz, I. (eds) Terrorism. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1057/9780230204546_6
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