Terrorism Definition

In order to clarify the focus of MonTREP's research, it may be worthwhile to make a few preliminary remarks about terrorism and the general categories of terrorist groups. Perhaps the first desideratum should be to draw a clear analytical distinction between "terrorism" in the strict sense of the term and other types of non-state violence, a distinction that unfortunately needs to be made at the outset precisely because most definitions of terrorism - including those employed by many government agencies - are imprecise if not seriously misleading. Perhaps the best way to distinguish between terrorism and other forms of violence is to recognize that most acts of violence are dyadic, i.e., they involve only two parties or protagonists, the perpetrator(s) and the victim(s):

Perpetrator > Victim

In marked contrast, bona fide acts of terrorism are triadic, i.e., they involve three parties or protagonists, the perpetrator(s), the victim(s), and a wider target audience (or audiences):

Perpetrator > Victim > Wider Target Audience

In short, terrorism is violence that is consciously carried out by the perpetrator(s) in order to influence the attitudes and behavior of a wider target audience (or multiple target audiences). It is, as Brian Jenkins and others have aptly pointed out, violence for psychological effect

Indeed, one of the many perverse ironies of terrorism is that, although the actual victims suffer its effects disproportionately and in the most direct and brutal manner, their importance is strictly secondary and derives principally from the fact that they have been specifically selected because they are viewed as symbolizing something larger or representing a broader category of persons. To put it another way, the most important nexus in any terrorist act is between the perpetrators and the target audience(s) they are trying to influence. It follows from this that targeted assassinations of particular individuals for purely instrumental reasons (e.g., murders of particularly effective or brutal policemen) or attacks that are solely designed to kill large numbers of people (e.g., massacres) are not, strictly speaking, acts of terrorism. They would only constitute acts of terrorism if their primary purpose was to traumatize and influence the behavior of wider target audiences. In many real-world cases, of course, attacks are carried out for both instrumental and psychological reasons, but the latter would have to predominate in the eyes of the perpetrators if such attacks are to be regarded, strictly speaking, as terrorism. Hence violent acts that inadvertently end up traumatizing people other than the actual victim, e.g., a series of rapes in a particular neighborhood, should not be characterized as acts of terrorism.

Thus terrorism is nothing more than a violent tactic or technique of psychological manipulation, and like other techniques it can be used by anyone, whatever their ideological orientation or relationship to the state. It can be employed on behalf of state power or in opposition to state power, by left-wingers, right-wingers, or centrists, by the irreligious or the religious, and for an infinite variety of causes. One man's terrorist is therefore not another man's freedom fighter, as many claim; rather, one man's terrorist should invariably also be another man's terrorist, since regardless of the underlying cause involved - or whether one sympathizes with or deplores it - a terrorist can be identified purely by the methods he or she chooses to employ. It follows that only those organized groups that rely primarily on terrorist techniques can legitimately be described as terrorist groups.

However, it should be emphasized that MonTREP carries out research on both violence by non-state actors and on unconventional state-sponsored violence, even when these do not technically fall into the category of terrorism in this carefully delimited sense

The Main Categories of Non-State Terrorist Groups
Now that the meaning of the term "terrorism" has been clarified, the principal categories of non-state terrorists in recent decades need to be identified. There are five primary types of subnational terrorist groups that have had historical significance during and after the Cold War:

1. Ethno-nationalist separatist and irredentist groups - groups relying heavily on terrorism that seek either to establish an independent state for the ethnic, linguistic, cultural, or national community with which they are affiliated, or (especially if they already have their own independent state) to unite all of the members of their community - including those that live in neighboring countries - under the aegis of such a state. The most important groups in this category have been the Armenian Secret Army for the Liberation of Armenia (ASALA), Euskadi ta Askatasuna (ETA: Basque Fatherland and Freedom), the Front de Libération Nationale de la Corse (FLNC: National Liberation Front of Corsica), the Irish Republican Army (IRA), the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO), the Partiya Karkarên Kurdistanê (PKK: Kurdistan Worker's Party), the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE, also known as the Tamil Tigers), and Sikh groups seeking to create an independent state of "Khalistan."

2. Secular left-wing groups - groups relying heavily on terrorism that seek to overthrow the capitalist system and either establish a "dictatorship of the proletariat" (Marxist-Leninists) or, much more rarely, a decentralized, non-hierarchical sociopolitical system (anarchists). The most important groups in this category have been the Fuerzas Armadas Revolucionarias de Columbia (FARC: Revolutionary Armed Forces of Columbia), Sendero Luminoso (SL: Shining Path) in Peru, various Maoist groups in Nepal, and the so-called "fighting communist organizations" in Europe, such as Action Directe (AD: Direct Action) in France, the Brigate Rosse (BR: Red Brigades) and Prima Linea (PL: Front Line) in Italy, the Rote Armee Fraktion (RAF: Red Army Faction) and Bewegung 2. Juni (June 2nd Movement) in Germany, the Cellules Combattantes Communistes (CCC: Fighting Communist Cells) in Belgium, the Grupos de Resistencia Antifascista Primero de Octubre (GRAPO: October 1st Anti-Fascist Resistance Groups) in Spain, the Epanastatike Organose 17 Noemvre (17N: November 17th Revolutionary Organization) in Greece, and Devrimci-Sol (DEV-SOL: Revolutionary Left) and other groups in Turkey.

3. Secular right-wing groups - groups relying heavily on terrorism that seek to restore national greatness (radical nationalists), suppress "subversive" opponents (nativists), expel or subordinate troublesome ethnic and cultural minorities (racists), or overthrow the existing democratic and "plutocratic" capitalist systems in order to establish a revolutionary "new order" (neo-fascists). The most important groups in this broad category have been Organosis X (the X Organization) in postwar Greece, the Organisation de l'Armée Secrète (OAS: Secret Army Organization) in French Algeria, Aginter Presse and the Exército de Libertação Português (ELP: Portuguese Liberation Army) in Portugal, Ordine Nuovo (ON: New Order) and Avanguardia Nazionale (AN: National Vanguard) in Italy, the Aktionsfront Nationaler Sozialisten (ANS: National Socialists' Action Front) and the Odfried Hepp/Walter Kexel group in West Germany, Westland New Post (WNP) in Belgium, the Grupos Antiterroristas de Liberación (GAL: Anti-Terrorist Liberation Groups) in Spain, the Bozkurtlar (Grey Wolves) paramilitary squads affiliated with the Milliyetçilik Haraket Partisi (MHP: Nationalist Action Party) in Turkey, the Frente Nacionalista Patria y Libertad (PyL: Fatherland and Freedom Nationalist Front) in Chile, vigilante ("death") squads in various Central American countries, the Afrikaner Weerstandsbeweging (AWB: Afrikaner Resistance Movement) in South Africa, and the Minutemen in the U.S.

4. Religious terrorist groups - groups relying heavily on terrorism that seek to smite the purported enemies of God and other evildoers, impose strict religious tenets or laws on society (fundamentalists), forcibly insert religion into the political sphere (i.e., those who seek to "politicize" religion, such as Christian Reconstructionists and Islamists), and/or bring about Armageddon (apocalyptic millenarian cults). This type of terrorism comes in five main varieties:

1) Islamist terrorism;
2) Jewish fundamentalist terrorism, primarily inside Israel;
3) Christian terrorism, which can be further subdivided into fundamentalist terrorism of an Orthodox (mainly in Russia), Catholic, or Protestant stamp (which, in the U.S., is especially aimed at stopping the provision of abortions) and terrorism inspired by the idiosyncratic Christian Identity doctrine;
4) Hindu fundamentalist/nationalist terrorism;
5) terrorism carried out by apocalyptic religious cults.

The most important groups in these subcategories have been Islamist groups such as al-Qa'ida (the Base or Foundation; later renamed Qa'idat al-Jihad: The Base of the Jihad), Hizballah (Party of God) in Lebanon, al-Harakat al-Muqawwama al-Islamiyya (HAMAS: Islamic Resistance Movement) and al-Jihad al-Islami al-Filastini (Palestinian Islamic Jihad, also known as PIJ) in Palestine, the Tanzim al-Jihad (Jihad Organization, also known as EIJ) and al-Jama`a al-Islamiyya (Islamic Group) in Egypt, al-Takfir wa al-Hijra (Excommunication and Migration) in North Africa, the Groupe Islamique Armé (GIA: Armed Islamic Group) and Groupe Salafiste pour la Prédication et le Combat (GSPC: Salafist Group for Preaching and Fighting) in Algeria, the Groupe Islamique Combattant Marocain (GICM: Moroccan Islamic Fighting Group) in Morocco, al-Jama'at al-Tawhid wa al-Jihad (Unity of God and Jihad Group) in Iraq (later renamed Qa'idat al-Jihad fi Bilad al-Rafidayn [The Base of the Jihad in Mesopotamia]), al-Hizb al-Tahrir al-Islami (HT: Islamic Liberation Party) in Central Asia and elsewhere, Jemaah Islamiyah (JI: Islamic Community) in island Southeast Asia, the Abu Sayyaf Group (ASG) in the Philippines, and various organizations operating in Kashmir; Teror Neged Teror (TNT: Terror Against Terror) in Israel; the Phineas Priesthood and the Covenant, the Sword, and the Arm of the Lord (CSA) in the U.S.; elements from Bajrang Dal (BD: Mighty Hanuman's Army), the youth wing of the extremist Vishva Hindu Parishad (VHP: World Hindu Council) in India; and Aum Shinrikyo (Aum Supreme Truth) in Japan.

5. Single-issue groups - groups relying on terrorism that obsessively focus on very specific or relatively narrowly-defined causes of various sorts. This category includes organizations from all sides of the political spectrum, e.g., animal rights groups such as the Animal Liberation Front (ALF); anti-communist groups such as the Cuban exile organization Omega 7, the Comando de Caça aos Comunistas (CCC: Communist-Hunting Commando) in Brazil, and the the Alianza Anticomunista Argentina (AAA: Argentine Anti-Communist Alliance or Triple A) in Argentina; and anti-abortion groups such as the Army of God (AOG) in the United States. Note, however, that these violent single-issue groups tend to fall within broader ideological categories, e.g., anti-abortion groups tend to fall into the Christian religious terrorist category and radical ecological groups tend to fall into the secular left-wing or secular right-wing terrorist categories.

Needless to say, groups from each of these five broad categories have distinct ideologies that help to explain what they are for and against, who their friends and enemies are, and what targets they believe they can legitimately attack, but it is also the case that even superficially similar groups within each of these categories and subcategories have their own distinctive and often idiosyncratic doctrines. Moreover, it should be emphasized that these major categories of terrorism are not entirely discrete. Some essentially ethno-nationalist terrorist groups, e.g., have had a Marxist gloss (the PKK, factions of ETA), a religious gloss (certain Sikh groups), or a combination of the two (factions of the IRA). In more recent times, essentially religious terrorist groups have also displayed acute nationalist sentiments (the Islamist groups HAMAS and al- Jihad al-Islami in Palestine), and essentially ethno-nationalist terrorist groups have adopted an increasingly prominent religious coloration (important pro-Islamist factions within the Chechen separatist movement, such as that of Shamil Basayev). These types of complexities need to be kept in mind when considering their motivations for or against the use of WMD.