Editing Terrorism (section)

=== 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>