POLSCI 1AB3 Lecture Notes - Lecture 9: State Terrorism, Solomon Judah Loeb Rapoport

• School: McMaster University
• Department: Political Science
• Course: POLSCI 1AB3
• Professor: Todd Alway

Document Summary

A necessary first step before analyzing terrorism is to define it. There is politics associated with defining terrorism. The(cid:396)e a(cid:396)e (cid:272)lea(cid:396) pa(cid:396)allels (cid:271)et(cid:449)ee(cid:374) state (cid:448)iole(cid:374)(cid:272)e a(cid:374)d (cid:862)te(cid:396)(cid:396)o(cid:396)ist(cid:863) (cid:448)iole(cid:374)(cid:272)e: both kill civilians, both are directed at obtaining political ends, both cause terror in their wake. O(cid:396) (cid:449)hat to (cid:373)ake of the (cid:272)li(cid:272)h : (cid:862)o(cid:374)e pe(cid:396)so(cid:374)(cid:859)s te(cid:396)(cid:396)o(cid:396)ist is a(cid:374)othe(cid:396) pe(cid:396)so(cid:374)(cid:859)s f(cid:396)eedo(cid:373) fighte(cid:396)(cid:863) Where the same act is considered illegitimate terrorism from one point of view, but a legitimate struggle for freedom from another, any objective categorization becomes questionable. The point is, defining a group or action as terrorist is an unavoidably political act. There is no obvious definition that would be accepted without vocal opposition from one quarter or another. The academic response to the definitional problem has been to wither reject the idea that the te(cid:396)(cid:373) (cid:858)te(cid:396)(cid:396)o(cid:396)is(cid:373)(cid:859) (cid:272)a(cid:374) (cid:271)e used o(cid:271)je(cid:272)ti(cid:448)ely, o(cid:396) to di(cid:448)ide te(cid:396)(cid:396)o(cid:396)is(cid:373) i(cid:374)to a (cid:374)u(cid:373)(cid:271)e(cid:396) of forms: state terrorism.