TerrorismS18G2

Erika Dennery Professor Shirk Global Politics Of Terrorism February 5th, 2018 Terrorism Essay           When people talk about terrorism today the conversation almost always remains political in nature. Many define terrorism as requiring a political motive, and thus only certain events can be considered terrorism regardless of the fact that many non politically motivated acts inflict terror in much similar ways that those with political motives do. As times change the definition of terrorism has changed slightly as well, but the need for a political goal has almost always remained a part of the definition with little to no questioning as to why, and this creates a major problem. If the definition of terrorism does not include events such as mass shootings and bombings perpetrated for non political motives then the definition itself diminishes the terror felt by the victims of such events and blinds people to other threats that may be present. Any goal ...

Patrick Dancoes Prof. Shirk POL-357B Defining Terrorism 1/29/18 What is Terrorism? A Definitional Problem          Historically, violence and intimidation have gone hand in hand as strategies to further political and ideological goals. Nowadays, the prevalence of these tactics, commonly generalized as terrorism, on domestic and global soil have created the conditions for a regime backed by the United States to fight the proclaimed “war on terrorism.” To grasp exactly what the U.S. spends hundreds of billions of dollars on, it is best to have a clearly defined vocabulary of terrorism, as the absence of a universal definition encourages future terrorism, and also promotes the continuation of double-standards. Being so, this paper will attempt to synthesize terrorism into a compact definition and defend it against other possible definitions. Most succinctly, terrorism is “the unlawful use of force and violence against persons or pr...

Rachael Feldhausen Professor Shirk Global Politics of Terrorism 1/29/17 The Definition of Terrorism in the 21st Century             After September 11th 2001, the current president George W. Bush, declared a ‘war on terror’. His grandiose statement left many scholars questioning the definition of terrorism. There are many interpretations of terrorism, and even now, seventeen years after the ‘war on terror’ was declared, there is still no scholarly consensus regarding the definition. In order for terrorism to be studied, analyzed, and fought against, it must be viewed as finite instead of a socially constructed thought. The U.S. State Department defines terrorism as “premeditated, politically motivated violence perpetrated against noncombatant targets by subnational groups or clandestine agents”. [1] In addition to this definition, terrorism also contains the use of violence is a tactic or strategy to further one’s politi...