Editing Terrorism (section)

==Etymology and definition==

=== Etymology ===
{{See also|Reign of Terror}}

[[File:JacobinVignette03.jpg|thumb|upright=0.6|Seal of the [[Jacobin]] Club]]
The term "terrorism" itself was originally used to describe the actions of the [[Jacobin Club]] during the "[[Reign of Terror]]" in the [[French Revolution]]. "Terror is nothing other than justice, prompt, severe, inflexible", said Jacobin leader [[Maximilien Robespierre]].<ref>{{cite book |last1=Bienvenu |first1=Richard |title=THE NINTH OF THERMIDOR {{!}} THE FALL OF ROBESPIERRE |date=January 1, 1968 |publisher=[[Oxford University Press]] |isbn=9780196806198 |pages=30–50}}</ref> In 1795, [[Edmund Burke]] denounced the Jacobins for letting "thousands of those hell-hounds called Terrorists&nbsp;... loose on the people" of France.<ref>[[Edmund Burke]] – To The Earl Fitzwilliam (Christmas, 1795.) In: Edmund Burke, ''Select Works of Edmund Burke, vol. 3 (Letters on a Regicide Peace)'' (1795).<br/>This Internet version contains two, mingled, indications of page numbers: one with single brackets like [260], one with double brackets like [ [309] ]. Burke lengthily introduces his view on 'this present [[French Directory|Directory government]]', and then writes on page [359]: "Those who arbitrarily erected the new building out of the old materials of their own [[National Convention|Convention]], were obliged to send for an Army to support their work. (...) At length, after a terrible struggle, the Troops prevailed over the Citizens. (...) This power is to last as long as the Parisians think proper. (...) [315] To secure them further, they have a strong corps of [[irregular military|irregulars]], ready armed. Thousands of those Hell-hounds called Terrorists, whom they had shut up in Prison on their last Revolution, as the Satellites of Tyranny, are let loose on the people. (...)"</ref> [[John Calvin]]'s rule over Geneva in the 16th century has also been described as a reign of terror.<ref name="de Niet Paul 2009 p. 275">{{cite book | last1=de Niet | first1=J. | last2=Paul | first2=H. | title=Sober, Strict, and Scriptural: Collective Memories of John Calvin, 1800-2000 | publisher=Brill | series=Brill's Series in Church History | year=2009 | isbn=978-90-474-2770-4 | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=cBuwCQAAQBAJ&pg=PA275 | access-date=October 21, 2022 | page=275 | archive-date=October 21, 2022 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221021161414/https://books.google.com/books?id=cBuwCQAAQBAJ&pg=PA275 | url-status=live }}</ref><ref name="Oechsli Paul Paul 1922 p. 166">{{cite book | last1=Oechsli | first1=W. | last2=Paul | first2=E. | last3=Paul | first3=C. | title=History of Switzerland, 1499-1914 | publisher=The University Press | series=Cambridge historical series | year=1922 | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=oS1pAAAAMAAJ&pg=PA166 | access-date=October 21, 2022 | page=166 | archive-date=October 21, 2022 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221021161414/https://books.google.com/books?id=oS1pAAAAMAAJ&pg=PA166 | url-status=live }}</ref><ref name="Association of American Law Schools 1916 p. 297">{{cite book | author=Association of American Law Schools | title=The Continental Legal History Series | publisher=Little, Brown, & Company | issue=v. 6 | year=1916 | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=-eb3FqiVzLoC&pg=PA297 | access-date=October 21, 2022 | page=297 | archive-date=October 21, 2022 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221021161413/https://books.google.com/books?id=-eb3FqiVzLoC&pg=PA297 | url-status=live }}</ref>

The terms "terrorism" and "terrorist" gained renewed currency in the 1970s as a result of the [[Palestine Liberation Organization]] (PLO),<ref>{{cite book |last=Peleg |first=Ilan |title=The Politics of Terrorism |date=1988 |publisher=CRC Press |isbn=978-0-8247-7814-9 |editor-last=Stohl |editor-first=Michael |editor-link=Michael Stohl |edition=third |page=531 |chapter=Terrorism in the Middle East: The Case of the Arab-Israeli Conflict |access-date=February 14, 2019 |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=R60c_2nCcnYC&pg=PA531}}</ref> the [[Irish Republican Army]] (IRA),<ref>{{cite book |last=Crenshaw |first=Martha |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=9nFyZaZGthgC&q=IRA |title=Terrorism in Context |date=2010 |publisher=Penn State Press |isbn=978-0-271-04442-2 |page=xiii |access-date=February 14, 2019}}</ref> the [[ETA (separatist group)|Basque separatist group, ETA]],<ref>{{cite book |last1=Shabad |first1=Goldie |title=Terrorism in Context |last2=Llera Ramo |first2=Francisco Jose |date=2010 |publisher=Penn State Press |isbn=9780271044422 |editor1-last=Crenshaw |editor1-first=Martha |chapter=Political Violence in a Democratic State: Basque Terrorism in Spain |author-link=Martha Crenshaw |access-date=February 14, 2019 |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=9nFyZaZGthgC&pg=PA411 |archive-date=March 29, 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240329132440/https://books.google.com/books?id=9nFyZaZGthgC&pg=PA411#v=onepage&q&f=false |url-status=live }}</ref> and the operations of groups such as the [[Red Army Faction]].<ref>{{cite book |last1=Corrado |first1=Raymond R. |title=The Politics of Terrorism |last2=Evans |first2=Rebecca |date=January 29, 1988 |publisher=CRC Press |isbn=9780824778149 |editor1-last=Stohl |editor1-first=Michael |edition=Third |page=373 |chapter=Ethnic and Ideological Terrorism in Western Europe |access-date=February 14, 2019 |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=R60c_2nCcnYC&pg=PA373 |archive-date=March 29, 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240329132433/https://books.google.com/books?id=R60c_2nCcnYC&pg=PA373#v=onepage&q&f=false |url-status=live }}</ref> [[Leila Khaled]] was described as a terrorist in a 1970 issue of ''[[Life (magazine)|Life]]'' magazine.<ref>{{cite news |last1=Khaled |first1=Leila |date=September 18, 1970 |title=This is Your New Captain Speaking |page=34 |magazine=Life |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=8lUEAAAAMBAJ&pg=PA34 |access-date=February 14, 2019 |archive-date=March 29, 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240329132448/https://books.google.com/books?id=8lUEAAAAMBAJ&pg=PA34#v=onepage&q&f=false |url-status=live }}</ref> A number of books on terrorism were published in the 1970s.<ref>Committee on the Judiciary, [https://books.google.com/books?id=JjkTAAAAIAAJ ''Terroristic Activity: International terrorism''] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240329132435/https://books.google.com/books?id=JjkTAAAAIAAJ |date=March 29, 2024 }}; Lester A. Sobel, [https://books.google.com/books?id=YC5nAAAAMAAJ ''Political Terrorism''] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240329132449/https://books.google.com/books?id=YC5nAAAAMAAJ |date=March 29, 2024 }}; Lauran Paine, [https://books.google.com/books?id=xiLmAAAAIAAJ ''The Terrorists''] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240329132437/https://books.google.com/books?id=xiLmAAAAIAAJ |date=March 29, 2024 }} (1975); Walter Laqueur, [https://books.google.com/books?id=iQS-1jqgeScC ''Guerrilla Warfare: A Historical and Critical Study'']; Paul Wilkinson, [https://books.google.com/books?id=rILaAAAAMAAJ ''Terrorism versus liberal democracy: the problems of response''] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240329132452/https://books.google.com/books?id=rILaAAAAMAAJ |date=March 29, 2024 }}; Albert Parry, [[iarchive:terrorismfromrob0000parr|''Terrorism: from Robespierre to Arafat'']] (1976); Ovid Demaris, [[iarchive:brothersinbloodi00dema|''Brothers in Blood: The International Terrorist Network'']] (1977); Yonah Alexander, David Carlton and Paul Wilkinson, [https://books.google.com/books?id=NDboAAAAIAAJ ''Terrorism: Theory and Practice'']; Christopher Dobson and Ronald Payne, [https://books.google.com/books?id=B4TaAAAAMAAJ ''The Weapons of Terror: International Terrorism at Work'']; Brian Michael Jenkins, [https://books.google.com/books?id=uo_sAAAAMAAJ ''The Terrorist Mindset and Terrorist Decisionmaking''] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240329133030/https://books.google.com/books?id=uo_sAAAAMAAJ |date=March 29, 2024 }} (1979)</ref> The topic came further to the fore after the [[1983 Beirut barracks bombings]]<ref name="Heryant">{{Cite book |last=Heryanto |first=Ariel |author-link=Ariel Heryanto |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=6qSjk2C9x6wC&pg=PA161 |title=State Terrorism and Political Identity in Indonesia: Fatally Belonging |date=April 7, 2006 |publisher=Routledge |isbn=978-1-134-19569-5 |page=161}}</ref> and again after the 2001 [[September 11 attacks]]<ref name="Heryant" /><ref name="Gabriel">{{Cite book |last=Faimau |first=Gabriel |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=y9IwBwAAQBAJ&pg=PA27 |title=Socio-Cultural Construction of Recognition: The Discursive Representation of Islam and Muslims in the British Christian News Media |date=July 26, 2013 |publisher=Cambridge Scholars Publishing |isbn=978-1-4438-5104-6 |page=27}}</ref><ref name="Campo">{{Cite book |last=Campo |first=Juan Eduardo |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=OZbyz_Hr-eIC&pg=PA667 |title=Encyclopedia of Islam |date=January 1, 2009 |publisher=Infobase Publishing |isbn=978-1-4381-2696-8 |page=xxii}}</ref> and the [[2002 Bali bombings]].<ref name="Heryant" />

=== Definition ===
{{Main|Definition of terrorism}}
[[File:Fusillades de Nantes.jpg|thumb|upright=1.15|Mass killings in the [[War in the Vendée|Vendée]] during the [[Reign of Terror]] in France, 1793]]
No definition of terrorism has gained universal agreement.<ref>{{cite book |author=Schmid, Alex P. |title=The Routledge Handbook of Terrorism Research |publisher=Routledge |year=2011 |isbn=978-0-203-82873-1 |page=39 |chapter=The Definition of Terrorism |author-link=Alex P. Schmid |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=_PXpFxKRsHgC&pg=PA39 |access-date=December 18, 2023 |archive-date=March 29, 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240329132100/https://books.google.com/books?id=_PXpFxKRsHgC&pg=PA39#v=onepage&q&f=false |url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{citation |last=Frampton |first=Martyn |title=History and the Definition of Terrorism |date=2021 |url=https://www.cambridge.org/core/books/cambridge-history-of-terrorism/history-and-the-definition-of-terrorism/9AAA71F34DEDBC0A911AFA0041BA5115 |work=The Cambridge History of Terrorism |pages=31–57 |editor-last=English |editor-first=Richard |access-date=May 11, 2021 |place=Cambridge |publisher=Cambridge University Press |isbn=978-1-108-66262-8 |archive-date=May 11, 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210511215347/https://www.cambridge.org/core/books/cambridge-history-of-terrorism/history-and-the-definition-of-terrorism/9AAA71F34DEDBC0A911AFA0041BA5115 |url-status=live}}</ref> Challenges emerge due to the politically and emotionally charged nature of the term, the double standards used in applying it,<ref>"Scholars have similarly noticed a double standard, in which the media is more likely to adopt an Islamic terror frame when the perpetrator is Muslim, and more likely to explore the attacker's personal life and mental health if the perpetrator is not." Connor Huff, Joshua D. Kertzer, [https://www.jstor.org/stable/26598750 How the Public Defines Terrorism] [[American Journal of Political Science]], January 2018, Vol. 62, No. 1, pp. 55-71 p.56.</ref> and disagreement over the nature of terrorist acts and limits of the right to [[self-determination]].<ref name="Hoffman-1998-p23">Hoffman (1998), p. 23, See [https://www.nytimes.com/books/98/11/01/reviews/981101.01bonnert.html the 1 Nov 1998 review by Raymond Bonner] {{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170417020102/http://www.nytimes.com/books/98/11/01/reviews/981101.01bonnert.html |date=April 17, 2017}} in ''[[The New York Times]]'' of [https://www.nytimes.com/books/first/h/hoffman-terrorism.html Inside Terrorism]</ref><ref name=nlr>{{cite journal |title=Battling Aerial Terrorism and Compensating the Victims |date=1990 |journal=Naval Law Review |volume=39 |pages=242–243 |url=https://archive.org/details/sim_naval-law-review_1990_39/page/240/mode/2up?q=intimidate}}</ref> Harvard law professor [[Richard Reeve Baxter|Richard Baxter]], a leading expert on the law of war, was a skeptic: "We have cause to regret that a legal concept of 'terrorism' was ever inflicted upon us. The term is imprecise; it is ambiguous; and above all, it serves no operative legal purpose."<ref>{{cite book |title=International and Transnational Criminal Law |date=2010 |publisher=Aspen Publishing |page=617}}</ref><ref name=nlr/>

Different legal systems and government agencies employ diverse definitions of terrorism, with governments showing hesitation in establishing a universally accepted, legally binding definition. [[Title 18 of the United States Code]] defines terrorism as acts that are intended to intimidate or coerce civilians or government.<ref>{{USC|18|113B|2331}}</ref> The [[international community]] has been slow to formulate a universally agreed, legally binding definition of this crime, and has been unable to conclude a [[Definition of terrorism#UN Comprehensive Convention (1997–present)|Comprehensive Convention on International Terrorism]] that incorporates a single, all-encompassing, legally binding, criminal law definition of terrorism.<ref>Diaz-Paniagua (2008), [https://books.google.com/books?id=q2qHd6a-slIC&pg=PR4 ''Negotiating terrorism: The negotiation dynamics of four UN counter-terrorism treaties, 1997–2005'']{{Dead link|date=March 2024 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes}}, p. 47.</ref> These difficulties arise from the fact that the term "terrorism" is politically and emotionally charged.{{sfn|Hoffman|1998|p=32}}<ref>{{cite news |url=https://icct.nl/publication/radicalisation-de-radicalisation-counter-radicalisation-a-conceptual-discussion-and-literature-review/ |title=Radicalisation, De-Radicalisation, Counter-Radicalisation: A Conceptual Discussion and Literature Review |date=March 27, 2013 |publisher=The International Centre for Counter-Terrorism – The Hague (ICCT) |access-date=September 6, 2016 |archive-date=December 7, 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191207124224/https://icct.nl/publication/radicalisation-de-radicalisation-counter-radicalisation-a-conceptual-discussion-and-literature-review/ |url-status=live }}</ref> The international community has instead adopted a series of [[Definition of terrorism#The sectoral approach|sectoral conventions]] that define and criminalize various types of terrorist activities.{{citation needed|date=December 2023}}

Counterterrorism analyst [[Bruce Hoffman]] has noted that it is not only individual agencies within the same governmental apparatus that cannot agree on a single definition of terrorism; experts and other long-established scholars in the field are equally incapable of reaching a consensus.{{sfn|Hoffman|2006|p=34}} In 1992, terrorism studies scholar [[Alex P. Schmid]] proposed a simple definition to the [[United Nations Commission on Crime Prevention and Criminal Justice]] (CCPCJ) as "peacetime equivalents of war crimes", but it was not accepted.<ref name="siegel">{{cite book |last=Siegel |first=Larry |url=https://archive.org/details/criminologycore00sieg |title=Criminology |date=January 2, 2008 |publisher=Cengage Learning |isbn=9780495391029 |access-date=November 27, 2015 |url-access=registration}}</ref><ref name="contemp2020">{{cite journal |last=Schmid |first=Alex P. |date=October 7, 2020 |editor1-last=Brunton |editor1-first=Gillian |editor2-last=Wilson |editor2-first=Tim |others=Issue title: Terrorism: Its Past, Present & Future Study - A Special Issue to Commemorate CSTPV at 25 |title=Discussion 1 - Revisiting the wicked problem of defining terrorism |journal=[[Contemporary Voices: St Andrews Journal of International Relations]] |volume=1 |issue=1 |page= |doi=10.15664/jtr.1601 |issn=2516-3159 |doi-access=free}} [[File:CC-BY_icon.svg|50x50px]] Text may have been copied from this source, which is available under a [[creativecommons:by/4.0|Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0)]] licence. (Per [https://cvir.st-andrews.ac.uk/about/research-integrity/ this page] {{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20231004191038/https://cvir.st-andrews.ac.uk/about/research-integrity/ |date=October 4, 2023}}.</ref> In 2006, it was estimated that there were over 109 different definitions of terrorism.<ref name="Arie W 2006 pp. 45-48">Arie W. Kruglanski and Shira Fishman ''Current Directions in Psychological Science'' Vol. 15, No. 1 (February 2006), pp. 45–48</ref>