The 1990s: Business-not-as-Usual: In Awe of Terrorism

Abstract

It was during the two-term Presidency of Clinton that the West in general and the United States, in particular, gradually awakened to the realisation that it faced a far more destructive and immutable type of terrorism than that to which it had previously responded, as has been seen, with a pragmatic mix of resistance, appeasement and even encouragement. The ‘new’ terrorists, as they eventually came to be described, possess one or more of the following characteristics: they are willing to cause the mass slaughter of civilians; their fundamental demands cannot reasonably be met or appeased by sovereign states and hence they do not aspire to enter into bargaining; they do not claim responsibility for their deeds; they are inspired by religion per se and not, as has hitherto been more customary in modern times, by religion as merely one of a number of badges of identity; they are willing to commit suicide, singly or even in large numbers; they are not organised in the hierarchical fashion of traditional terrorist groups; and they are willing to use WMD.