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Notes of All Lectures Terrorism & Counterterrorism
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Terrorism and Counterterrorism Lecture NotesLecture 1: what is (counter)terrorism? 1
Lecture 2: political violence and state terrorism 4
Lecture 3: Antecedents to modern terrorism 10
Lecture 4: from anarchists to jihadists: the four waves of modern terrorism 18
Lecture 5: Critical terrorism studies 22
Lecture 6: key concepts and the state of art in research 30
Lecture 7: analyzing terror groups: provisional IRA & KKK 34
Lecture 8: Understanding involvement in terrorism 44
Lecture 9: terrorist tactics and their evolution 48
Lecture 10: lone-actor terrorism 54
Lecture 11: impacts of terrorism 57
Lecture 12: counterterrorism: approaches & effectiveness 60
Lecture 14: recap 64
Lecture 1: what is (counter)terrorism?
Setting the stage
> 2019 sri lanka bombings
> 2019 christchurch attack
> 2019 Halle attack
But also:
> 2009 Camp Chapman attack
> 2009 Queens Day attack
> 2021 Capitol Riot
- clips about them in the slides!!
- political or religious justification
- violence against civilians
- to sow fear
- indiscriminate nature: no personal nature
What is terrorism?
> Two main observations
- No commonly accepted definitions exists
- Highly politicized debate → ‘terrorist’ is everyone we don’t agree with? (bombing of building
- terrorism or militarism?)
> More than an academic level
- (Counter)terrorism can affect entire populations
- Nuanced & critical approach key to informed citizenship
The definitional debate
> Ongoing since field’s inception
, - Negative connotations ‘terrorism’
- Subjective: freedom fighters vs terrorists
- Interesting article in slides about Osama Bin Laden being a ‘warrior’
- Too infrequent to generalize?
Results:
> Condemnation rather than description
> Terrorism as a definitional weapon;
- prescribes and rules out policy responses
- normatively influences research agenda
> Difficulties of building upon others’ research
On definitions
> what is a definition’s purpose?
- descriptive: just describing, not giving a moral or emotional verdict
- clear demarcations
- objective and neutral
> Various types (legal, governmental, academic)
- How can they impact research
- How can they influence debate
→ intersection of perspectives from Law & Criminology, Public Policy & Governance
Key elements in a definition of terrorism? (Options in a menti meter)
- political +1
- violence, force +1
- psychological
- clandestine, covert
- threat
- civilian victims +1
- criminal
- fear +1
- violence without restraint
- victim-target difference
Little consensus on defining terrorism → what about elements of a definition
> Schmid & Jongman (1988)
- Violence, force
- political
- Fear
- Threat
Clarity through comparison
> Terrorism vs insurgency (goals, organizational requirements, rel to the populace)
- Insurgency: about having control over people and territory 24/7, attack government
structures and the state to replace those government structures
, - As terrorist are you not interested in governing, just disruption
- One doesn’t exclude the other (ISIS both terrorists and insurgents)
> Terrorism vs organized crime
- financial vs political motives
- Marengo organization → murdering Peter etc and threatening the PM (is there still a
distinction?)
> Terrorism vs terror
- Terror: term used when states use this kind of violence (to not call it terrorism)
> Terrorism vs war
Schmid’s 2011 definition of terrorism
‘Terrorism refers on the one hand to a doctrine about the presumed effectiveness of a special form or
tactic of fear-generating, coercive political violence and, on the other hand, to a conspiratorial
practice of calculated, demonstrative, direct violent action without legal or moral restraints,
targeting mainly civilians and non-combatants, performed for its propagandistic and psychological
effects on various audiences and conflict parties’
→ most important definition regarding terrorism!!!
- doctrine about coercive political violence
- practice as in a way of operating
- terrorism used as a rallying movement
Victim-target differentiation: victims represent different target groups
Terrorism as violent communication
Murder on Theo van Gogh as example (2004)
Different kinds of terrorism
→ emphasis on the historical discipline
> Left-wing: Marxist/Leninist, revolutionary, struggle for a class-less society. Defined terrorism in the
1960s-1980s
> Right-wing: Mistrust of government, conspiracy theories, racist, neo-fascist, highly conservative,
religious. (27 July trailer)
> Nationalist/Separatist: Self-determination, anticolonial, strong driver insurgency
> State terror: Large-scale violence to intimidate or control populations. Numerous examples, eg
Europe, Latin America
> Religious: revolutionary, millenarian, reform or destruction, worldly goals
> Criminal: FARC? Taliban? IRA? Mob-activities?
> Single-issue: Not too focused on a particular ideology, but a particular grievance
> Lone actor: Individuals who plan, prepare & execute attacks in isolation
> Cyber: The increasing importance of the internet
Rightwing terrorism most number of attacks (in USA), however, because religious attacks have
highest number count, they are number 1 priority
Type of terrorism: facts & figures
> Contemporary terrorism is about more than jihadism
, > Emphasis on jihadism explained/justified by their deadliness
> Danger of another ‘failure of imagination.’
Conclusion
> Terrorism as a quintessential ‘contested concept’
> Familiarity with the definitional debate as a key learning outcome
> Schmid and ‘terrorism as demonstrative violence’
> Terrorism is not exclusively a non-state activity and knows many forms
> Counterterrorism as a continuum of interventions
Lecture 2: political violence and state terrorism
Critiques of terrorism research
> Critical Terrorism Studies argues that post 9/11 scholarship:
- is ahistorical → People seem to forget that political violence has existed for thousands of
years and not only after 9/11
- treats terrorism as emerging in a social vacuum
- lacks multi-level analysis → The root causes are generally understood as being solely on the
perpetrators. There is not a lot of research on the wider role of the state in it.
- state-centric
- focuses on secondary rather than primary data → lot of literature is just repeating previous
literature. No one is going out on the field anymore. Not pushing the field forward.
- and is policy-oriented → the field has created this really perverse structure where they write
things that align with the state. Wasn’t critical with the state because of funds
Advantages of Social Movement Theory
- Relocates terrorism within its social and temporal context → terrorism can only be
understood if we look at the context
- De-exceptionalizes terrorism → normal human interaction that takes place within
contentious policies
- underlines its temporal fluidity → it changes all the time. counters ahistoricity and lack of
context of terrorism research → Necessity to have a contextual understanding
- integrates macro, meso and micro-level explanations → both at individual, group, and
structural level. Combine all levels.
- brings the state into focus → any political interaction is the result of contentious politics, as a
result, you cannot just focus on the ‘ruli’ who turns violent. You also have to look at the
‘ruler’. Terrorism happens more often if the ‘ruli’ do not have another way of having their
voice heard
- brings international movement dynamics into focus → bunch of different groups that
co-exist in this big social movement, they all kinda work together to achieve the same thing
(but don’t cooperate)
Social Movement Theory
> An interdisciplinary study that seeks to:
- explains why social mobilization occurs
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