lecture 11 - terrorism

Question 1

definitions terrorism

Answer 1

• premeditated, politically motivated violence perpetrated against non-combatant targets by sub-national groups or clandestine agents, usually intended to influence an audience (US Department of State)
  clandestine = secret/undercover
• political terrorism is the use, or threat of use, of violence by an individual or a group, whether acting for or in opposition to established authority, when such action is designed to create extreme anxiety and/or fear-inducing effects in a target group larger than the immediate victims with the purpose of coercing that group into acceding to the political demands of the perpetrators (Wardlaw)
• terrorism is a term without any legal significance, it is merely a convenient way of alluding to activities widely disapproved of and in which either the methods used are unlawful, or the target protected, or both (Higgins, ICJ)

Question 2

defining terrorism

Answer 2

• hard to define: no consensus among scholars, practitioners or even in the UN
• ambiguous relation state and terrorism: state terrorism? (Wardlaw argues there can be state terrorism)
  e.g. Argentina, Chile in the 70s acted as terrorist states + French revolution (origin of the concept of terrorism) + USSR 30s + China 60s
• debate: terrorist or freedom fighter?
  Nelson Mandela a terrorist?
  Irish Republican Army terrorist? (had support in senate, was US financing terrorism)?

terrorism as label without definition?
- e.g. non-state actors and state actors

Question 3

four waves of terrorism (genealogy)

Answer 3

1. 1880s: anarchism
2. 1920s-1960s: decolonization movements
3. 1960s-1970s: the radical Left
4. 1980s-now: Islamic-inspired Movements (has 3 waves: Afghan Fighters - Al Qaeda - London, Mardid, Paris, Copenhagen)

Question 4

anarchism

Answer 4

first wave of terrorism: 1880s

anarchist movements in different parts of Europe + in Russia

anarchist belief that existing structures had to be destroyed so that states wouldn’t come back: there should be alternative forms of organization

idea that the centers of power needed to be attacked:
-> assassination Tsar Alexander 2 (1881)
-> Galleanist Bombings (1919): anarchist movements that tried to impose anarchist views on US by simultaneous bombings

led to a anti-anarchist discourse in the US out of the fear for terrorism (now: same type of discourse for different group)

Question 5

decolonization movements

Answer 5

1920s-1960s: second wave terrorism

goal: overthrow of colonial rulers

• 1931-1948: Israel/Palestine (Irgun: Jewish/Zionist military organisation in land of Israel (nakomer Haganda ofzo): had no widespread support)
• 1954-1962: Algeria (FLN: bombings, executions, as strategies in war of independence against war of independence of France)
• 1954-1975: Vietnam (Viet Cong)

= part of broader nationalist agenda (not just terrorism)

Question 6

the radical left

Answer 6

1960s-1970s third wave of terrorism

class struggle and support for decolonization + revolution
- large groups believed the revolution would come + were impatient + wanted to do it better

1970-98: Germany
- Rote Armee Fraktion / Baader-Meinhof Group
1970-1988: Italy
- Brigate Rosse
1969: USA
- Weather Underground (clandestine)

Question 7

Islamic-inspired Movements

Answer 7

1980s-now
Fourth wave of terrorism

has 3 subwaves:
- Taliban 80s (Afghan Fighters, funded/supported by the US fighting against the SU)
- Al Qaeda 90s (turned against US: defined near enemy (dictators islamic world) + far enemy (US))
- late 2000s: London, Madrid, Paris, Copenhagen = groups emerged as off-shout: no extremely well-structured organizations, they are different (sub)groups

Question 8

policy theories of terrorism

Answer 8

• Bush: (terrorism because) they hate our freedom
  ! not true: terrorism often because they think they will obtain freedom through these acts
• Laquer: new terrorism (4th wave of terrorism is a new type of terrorism: barbarism/atrocity in stead of political goals)
  ! not true: 4th wave is also politically motivated
  !everyone always starts talking with terrorists > shows that it is being recognized as political actor (not just barbaric)

radicalisation and the ‘‘stages’’ models
- highly contested + critiqued
- allows talking about ‘root causes’ of terror without justifying it
- appeared 2004-2005: shock of ‘homegrown’ terrorism

Question 9

the 4 phases of radicalization

Answer 9

Sweden intelligence

1. contact with radicalisator
2. gradual change in behaviour + new communication habits (internet)
3. narrowing of social life to include only like-minded individuals
4. radical often goes through a process of (moral) hardening - by watching very violent videos and combat scenes

why these phases?
- idea that we can stop it

now = completely debunked
it doesn’t work that way: terrorism is a social movement

Question 10

terrorism as social movement

Answer 10

• violence is political (focused on the choice to go underground + violence as means of obtaining political profits = collective dimension of violence)
• violence is relational: it is always violent in relation to competing organizations or adversaries (state authorities e.g.)
  *bloody sunday: protest against British army in northern Ireland, was peaceful until British army responded disproportionate -> violence as only legitimate/logical response (no negotiation possible)
• framing is key: there is always a cause (not just external opportunities)
• violence is emergent (develops in action + has its own logic + hard to come back from: reinforces group cohesion, commitment and strategies (people died for it -> difficult to stop being violent, to step back = incentive to keep going, otherwise it was for nothing)

we have to accept that it is a social movement

!terrorism can start without violence

Question 11

Della Porta - Political Violence

Answer 11

sees terrorism as a social movement, wants to call it political violence

political violence = use of physical force to damage a political adversary

terrorism works as a social movement: the major difference is in the repertoire it has/employs

Question 12

clandestine political violence
- Della Porta

Answer 12

clandestine is not the same as:

• armed resistence: targets non-combatants
• civil wars or revolutions: media attention (want people watching, not people dead)

secrecy of the actors

Question 13

3 cases of transnational violence

Answer 13

1. global frame national struggle: BR
2. National frame, transnational struggle: KLA
3. global frame, transnational struggle: Al Qaeda

Question 14

Global Frame National struggle e.g.

Answer 14

Brigate Rosse

• national political opportunity structure: blockage and escalation (historical compromise left-right wing, strategy of tension, extreme violence between wings)
• national mobilizing structures: communist and student movement
• global framing: marxism, anti-colonialism
• repertoires: ‘‘foco’’ theory (provocating the state to overreact), targeted attacks, hostage taking

death Moro (78): isolation from the wider movement

Question 15

National Frame, Transnational Struggle e.g.

Answer 15

national and international political opportunity structures: blockage and escalation
- end of the cold war
- breakdown of Yugoslavia
- Serbian nationalism
- Yugoslav army vs KLA
- Kosovo Democratic League vs KLA

national and transnational mobilizing structures: ethnic + diasporic soldiarity

National framing: Pan-Albanian ethnic nationalism

Repertoires:
- insurgency warfare
- foco theory
- organized crime financing

Question 16

foco theory

Question 17

global frame, transnational struggle e.g.

Answer 17

Al Qaeda

transnational opportunity structures
- The Gulf War
- International vs local jjihad
- Competition with the Islamic State (disagreement about fighting Sjiiet/Soenniet)

Transnational mobilizing structures
- recruitment of ‘‘foreign fighters’’ since Afghanistan (came form other countries)
- religious and political solidarity
- transnational financing

global framing:
- transnational caliphate
- near and far ennemy

repertoires
- insurgency warfare
- bombings
- targeted killings

Question 18

conclusion

Answer 18

• political violence has known different waves and isn’t particularly new
• terrorism and radicalization are contested concepts
• '’clandestine’’ political violence provides a more accurate definition than terrorism
• political violence can by analyzed through regular social scientific social scientific methods, as a specific repertoire of contention
• the global frame and the empirical practices of political violence can vary from very local to transnational