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Essay on Terrorism in 500+ Words in English for School Students

Updated on
Mar 29, 2024

Essay on Terrorism: The horrific events of 9/11 at the World Trade Centre and the terrorist strikes on the Taj Hotel in Mumbai on June 26, 2011, come to mind when we discuss terrorism. Terrorism is an act of violence to achieve political or ideological gains. Terrorism is a threat to life. Killing innocent people in the name of religion or politics shows that it’s an act of a coward. The motive for terror activities is to create fear inside people. Terrorist activities include different types of violent activities, communal fighting, riots, kidnappings, rapes, robbery, assault, and the list is endless. Barrack Obama once said ‘No religion is responsible for terrorism. People are responsible for Terrorism and Violence.’

Table of Contents

1.1 Types of Terrorism
2 Consequences of Terrorism
3 How to Fight Terrorism?
4 Top 10 Quotes On Terrorism

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Factors That Contribute to Terrorism

Terrorism is not born overnight. Several factors are responsible for giving birth to terrorism. Political grievances and religious extremism are the two main factors causing terrorism.

It happens quite often when a certain group or individuals feel marginalized, oppressed, or disenfranchised by their government or ruling authority. In situations like these, they try to resort to terrorism as a means of expressing their grievances and seeking change. Corrupt government, authoritarianism, lack of political representation, human rights abuses, and discrimination, are the major factors causing political grievances.

Religious extremists are also responsible for terrorism. These people brainwash younger people against other communities and wage religious war against them. Extremist ideologies distort religious teachings to promote hatred, intolerance, and the justification of violence against perceived enemies.

Apart from these two factors, socioeconomic situations and geopolitical rivalries can also provoke people against others; resulting in terrorist activities. Poors and the unemployed are the most vulnerable as terrorist or extremist organisations try to offer them financial incentives or a sense of purpose.

Types of Terrorism

Terrorism is not just about holding an assault rifle and shooting at innocent people. Terrorism is of two types: Political Terrorism and Criminal Terrorism . Both these harm the credible image of a country or a region and affect in a nation’s daily political and economic activities.

Consequences of Terrorism

The consequences of terrorism are worse than a 7.7 magnitude earthquake or any other natural disaster. This man-made disaster not only kills innocent but creates fear, which is everlasting.

Terrorist activities hamper the economic and political development of a country. In a state where terrorism exists, people are always in fear of death or any mishap. Thanks to terrorism countries like Pakistan, Syria, Afghanistan, etc. are not able to develop.

The consequences of terrorism are loss of life, physical injuries, psychological trauma, economic damage and social disruption. It can also lead to increased security measures, erosion of civil liberties, and heightened ethnic or religious tensions.

How to Fight Terrorism?

Anti-terrorism is a fight between justice and evil, civilisation and savagery. To fight terrorism, we need international cooperation and a multi-faceted approach. Addressing the root cause of terrorism can be the first step in fighting terrorism. When we understand the cause of a problem, we can come up with better and more comprehensive solutions.

Strengthening law enforcement capabilities can help in the prevention and investigation of terrorist activities. It can also improve intelligence gathering and analysis to disrupt terrorist networks.

India, for a long, has been accusing some countries of state-sponsored terrorism. But, it was only after 9/11 that India received global cooperation. Today, global powers are determined to eradicate terrorism from its root.

Building trust and cooperation between communities is very important. It can help law enforcement agencies to prevent radicalization and promote early intervention.

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Top 10 Quotes On Terrorism

Here are 10 quotes on terrorism.

‘Terrorism has no nationality or religion.’ – Vladimir Putin

‘Terrorism is the tactic of demanding the impossible, and demanding it at gunpoint.’ – Christopher Hitchens

‘The only way to deal with terrorism is to understand why it happens.’ – Arundhati Roy

‘Terrorism is the war of the poor, and war is the terrorism of the rich.’ – Peter Ustinov

‘Terrorism is the price of empire. If you do not wish to pay the price, you must give up the empire.’ – Pat Buchanan

‘One man’s terrorist is another man’s freedom fighter.’ – Gerald Seymour

‘Terrorism is a psychological warfare. Terrorists try to manipulate us and change our behaviour by creating fear, uncertainty, and division in society.’ – Patrick J. Kennedy

‘The greatest threat to our way of life isn’t terrorism, it’s the response to terrorism.’ – Simon Jenkins

‘The object of terrorism is terrorism. The object of oppression is oppression. The object of torture is torture. The object of murder is murder. The object of power is power.’ – George Orwell

‘Terrorism is the war of today, and war is the terrorism of yesterday.’ – Howard Zinn

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Ans: Terrorism is an act of violence to achieve political or ideological gains. Terrorism is a threat to life. Killing innocent people in the name of religion or politics shows that it’s an act of a coward, a monster. The motive for terror activities is to create fear inside people. Terrorist activities include different types of violent activities, communal fighting, riots, kidnappings, rapes, robbery, assault, and the list is endless.

Ans: Political Grievances, religious extremism, ethnic or nationalist conflicts, socioeconomic factors and geopolitical relations are the primary causes of terrorism.

Ans: ‘No religion is responsible for terrorism. People are responsible for Terrorism and Violence.’ – Barrack Obama (Former US President)

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Shiva Tyagi

With an experience of over a year, I've developed a passion for writing blogs on wide range of topics. I am mostly inspired from topics related to social and environmental fields, where you come up with a positive outcome.

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Terrorism Essay in English [100, 150, 200-250, 300 Words]

Terrorism Essay in English: Terrorism is the use of indiscriminate violence for political ends. In this article, you are going to learn how to write an essay on Terrorism. Here we’ve provided 4 short and long essays (100, 150, 200-250, and 300 words). These essays will be helpful for the students from class 1 to class 12. So, let’s begin.

Table of Contents

Terrorism Essay: 100 Words

Terrorism is the result of widespread discontentment that has gone deeper into the minds of the poor and exploited class of people. Being instigated by some power-hungry politicians, these people take up arms against the establishment to voice their protest. When the language of protest violence and cause takes the shape of immense damages to mankind, it becomes terrorism.

Poor, ordinary people remain helpless at the hands of terrorists who want to exercise their authority against the government. Explosions and other terrorist attacks make the country unsafe and take away the peace of common people. The government has taken many steps to curb terrorist attacks, yet the menace of terrorism is still rocking the foundation of a stable country like India.

Essay on Terrorism: 150 Words

Terrorism is the use of violence to attain one’s political ends. Every day there are reports of sensational and shocking terrorist activities. A worldwide phenomenon, today it has struck terror in the hearts of the people. Terrorism includes kidnapping of eminent personalities, bombing of civilian territories, blowing of buses, trains, aeroplanes and killing innocent people all with a view to spreading fear among the masses. It is a kind of proxy war against the existing elected government.

The evils of terrorism are obvious and the world has become very familiar with its acts. It is a crime against humanity Terrorism must be curbed with a heavy hand. A group of senseless people cannot be allowed to hold the country to ransom. Law and order enforcement agencies should be made more effective to combat the terror campaign and prevent the creation of fear. The root causes should be analyzed to eradicate terrorism. If that is done people all over the world can live in peace and prosperity.

Terrorism Essay in English: 200-250 Words

Terrorism becomes now a days a great problem all over the world. It is also a great threat to mankind. It is the use of terror or violence. A certain group of people adopt it as tactics for a purpose. This group is said to be the terrorists. The purpose is a gain, Most gains are political. Sometimes there may be a personal gain. The criminals operate violence to fulfill their wishes or demands. They have various modes of operation.

Sometimes it is in the form of kidnapping or hijacking. Sometimes it is a kind of blasting bombs in a crowded train or bus. In some cases, they release their hostage on a big ransom. At times their terms and conditions are hard to accept and impossible to fulfil. On most occasions, a dateline is fixed. If they are refused or dishonoured, they turn hostile. The criminals kill their captives. It is a matter of great regret that some countries harbour the militants.

Terrorism creates social unrest. It intends to damage the national progress. Even a government falls victim to their wishes. Such a group hijacked an Indian Boeing from Nepal on the 24th December, 1999. They released it when India freed their leader Masood Azhar from the jail. The militants skyjacked American planes and crashed them into World Trade Centre. It was destroyed completely. The massacres in our Parliament and the American Embassy are the glaring examples in the recent times. We can combat and perish it from the face of the earth. But we must keep it in mind: United we stand, divided we fall.

Terrorism in India Essay: 300 Words

Communal disharmony is one of the causes of terrorism in India. People here are belonging to the different ethnic groups. Prejudiced, some of them show their commitment to their own minority. And this kind of conservative attitude is the genesis of terrorism in India.

Since 1947 India and Pakistan are regarded as two different free countries, although they were undivided India during the reign of the British colonialists. The British left India by conferring freedom on both India and Pakistan, but the relationship remained unfriendly. Although it is not right to say that Pakistan directly gave shelter to the terrorists, there is little doubt that the terrorists have to some extent nourished by Pakistan.

The terrorists threatened the peace in Jammu and Kashmir. Even the terrorists often attacked India between these two countries by way of causing explosions in large cities like Mumbai, Delhi, and Hyderabad. Some Tamil terrorists have also been constantly threatening the peace of India. The most crucial problem that India has now been facing is the activities of the Maoists in West Bengal.

Indians are now uneasy because of the price hike, corruptions in a large scale, and the problem of unemployment. At this time terrorist activities are obligatory to the progress of the nation. All of the political leaders and the Government should be aware of the fact that communal disharmony causes this terrorism. Thus, the liberalism of Indians and proper development of the country, and above all, good administration are very necessary to stop this evil of terrorism.

If it continues, the nation will soon lose its integrity and become the most disgraceful country in the world. Unfortunately, political leaders do politics for the sake of politics only, not for the sake of the making of their country. Every Indian should be conscious of the curse of terrorism and should do well in order to restore the peace of India.

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Terrorism Essay

Essay on Terrorism

Terrorism is a blunder committed by the terrible individuals around us. To demonstrate their strength, a group of people attempts to govern a specific arena. Terrorism has a negative impact on both society and personal life. As a result of their acts, a large number of families are destroyed. Regrettably, the number of crimes in India is increasing on a daily basis. Ancient India was ruled by a monarchy, and the ruling was a source of pride for the king. However, India later accepted democracy, and everyone is treated equally under the Indian constitution. Even so, some cowards try to keep their power over the impoverished and weak.

Terrorism represents the foolish act done by the cruel people around us. The bunch of groups tries to rule the certain arena to show their power. Terrorism had a adverse effect on the society as well as a personal life. Their number of families gets destroyed due to their actions. In India, it's sad to say, but the number of crimes is increasing day by day. Ancient India was in Monarchy where ruling was a pride to the king, but later on India accepted democracy and everyone is treated the same under the Indian constituent. Still some cowards try to maintain their dominance over poor and helpless people.

Who could forget the date 26th November, better known as 26/11! Where 10 terrorists entered the country and attacked the economic city in India. Bringing grenades, pistols, automated rifles and other destructive weapons they almost destroyed the city and shocked the Indians in the midnight. The people are helpless, weaponless and in their own world of enjoyment at the railway station, hotels and in the drives on the roads, and suddenly a danger happens in their lives, which they did not expect.

Osama Bin Laden was the greatest terrorist in the world! People are still afraid of hearing his name. He had destroyed a building named ‘world-trade center’ with the help of an airplane. It has also been stated in the reports that frequently Osama had been amorphous with him. Even the police themselves got confused and captured the wrong one. After his death there was lots of time still required to recognize the originality of him.

Lying in court is an offense. Frequently the needy and poor people lie in court for the sake of a certain amount of money. But, this money would be a help to criminals outside the world. Even, we purchased CDs and DVDs at an economic rate. To save a certain amount of money, we help piracy. These pirates invest this money in the armonony and indirectly we are sponsoring a bullet in every war which would be used against us only.

The origin of terrorism starts with a little things. The first pen stolen from a friend could even lead to mortal works. Everything has a start and if left unmanaged, they can leave the astray and lose the right path. In the school, if the adverse effects of being bad are explained properly with illustrations to some real life examples, the students may get aware about all the facts and take an initiative to stop the spread of crime. Instead of making criminals with heroic roles in the television serials, the more heroic movie super cops are to be made. Instead of writing biographies of terrorism supporters, write articles about terrorism demonization. The start of this cleaning starts from home, if you have a child, teach them the ways to be a great person in good habits rather than supporting him when he starts stealing something. Terrorism has an end, if we are united the terrorism can be thrown is out of the windows!

Various Forms Of Terrorism

Political terrorism, which raises mass concern, and criminal terrorism, which involves abduction for ransom money, are the two sorts of terrorism. Political terrorism is significantly more essential than criminal terrorism since it is carried out by well-trained personnel. As a result, apprehending them in a timely way becomes increasingly challenging for law enforcement agencies.

Terrorism has spread across the country and around the world. Regional terrorism is the most dangerous type of terrorism. Terrorists feel that dying as a terrorist is a priceless and sacred experience, and they will go to any extent to attain it. Each of these terrorist groups was founded for a different motive.

Who can forget November 26th, often known as "26/11"? Ten terrorists infiltrated the country and assaulted India's economic centre. They nearly devastated the city and astonished the Indians by bringing explosives, pistols, automatic rifles, and other lethal weapons. People are defenceless, without weapons, and engrossed in their own realms of pleasure at the railway station, motels, and on the highways when an unanticipated menace enters their life.

The Origins of Terrorism

The invention or manufacture of vast quantities of machine guns, atomic bombs, hydrogen bombs, nuclear weapons, missiles, and other weapons fuels terrorism. Rapid population expansion, political, social, and economic issues, public dissatisfaction with the country's system, a lack of education, corruption, racism, economic disparities, and language disparities are all key factors in the development of terrorism. Terrorism is sometimes used to establish and maintain one's stance. Despite the contrast between caste and terrorism, the most well-known riots have taken place between Hindus and Muslims.

Consequences of Terrorism

Individuals are filled with fear as a result of terrorism, and people of the country feel vulnerable as a result. Millions of goods have been destroyed, thousands of people have died, and animals have been slaughtered as a result of terrorist assaults. People lose trust in humanity after seeing a terrorist attack, which fosters more terrorists. Terrorism comes in many forms and manifests itself in different parts of the country and outside.

Terrorism is becoming a problem not just in India, but also in our neighbouring countries, and governments throughout the world are battling it. The World Trade Center attack on September 11, 2001, is considered the world's worst terrorist strike. Osama bin Laden launched an attack on the world's tallest tower, resulting in millions of injuries and thousands of deaths.

FAQs on Terrorism Essay

1. Who was Osama bin Laden?

Osama Bin Laden was the world's greatest terrorist! Hearing his name still makes people fearful. With the help of an aeroplane, he had destroyed the 'world-trade centre.' According to the rumours, Osama had been amorphous with him on several occasions. Even the cops got mixed up and arrested the wrong person. There was still a lot of time required after his death to acknowledge his uniqueness.

2. Identify the countries that are the most impacted by terrorism.

Iraq, Afghanistan, Nigeria, Pakistan, and Syria were the countries most hit in 2014, with the highest number of terrorist incidents. This year has been dubbed "Terrorism Year." Furthermore, it has been reported that these five countries were the primary targets of 78 per cent of all attacks last year. Apart from them, there are 39 countries that endured the most attacks, and their index rating is based on the severity and frequency of attacks they experienced.

3. What is the true cause of terrorism?

Terrorism is defined as the use of violence for a specific purpose. This motivation could stem from a sense of social and political injustice, or just a belief that violence can bring about change. The main cause of terrorism is usually perceived unfairness or rage against specific societal conditions. Many people join terrorist groups out of desperation or to exact personal vengeance on powerful authorities. Terrorism is also a result of strong feelings of injustice. Millions of young people aspire to make a difference by utilising violence as a tool for social upheaval. As a result, in order to combat these extremists, we must provide them with alternatives to violence that can be useful to them.

4. What is the best way to combat terrorism?

The reduction of terrorism threats and the safeguarding of the state, its interests, and citizens against all types of terrorist activity are two of the State Security Service's top priorities in the battle against terrorism. It is critical to detect and suppress operations carried out by international terrorist groups and anyone linked to them. It is necessary to conduct an active search for persons linked to terrorist organisations. Enhancing the capacity of readiness and reaction to terrorist threats should receive special focus.

5. Give an overview of the history of terrorism.

The term "terrorist" was coined by François-Nol Babeuf, a French philosopher, in 1794. As a result of his denunciation of Robespierre's regime as a dictatorship, the Brunswick Manifesto threatened Paris with military punishment and complete devastation. This threat, however, only fueled the Revolution's determination to overthrow the monarchy. Tyranny, according to ancient philosophers, was the greatest political threat to Greco-Roman civilization prior to the French Revolution. Philosophers in the Middle Ages were also preoccupied with the concept of tyranny.

6. Explain the historical background of terrorism.

The word "terrorist" was first used in 1794 by François-Noël Babeuf who was a French philosopher. He denounced Robespierre's regime as a dictatorship therefore Brunswick Manifesto threatened Paris that the city would be subjected to military punishment and total destruction. But this threat only increased the Revolution's will to abolish the monarchy.

Prior to the French Revolution, ancient philosophers wrote tyranny as the greatest political threat to Greco-Roman civilization. Medieval philosophers were similarly occupied with the concept of tyranny.

7. How to fight against terrorism?

One of the main priorities of the State Security Service in fighting against terrorism is the reduction of the risks of terrorism and the protection of the state, its interests and citizens against all forms of terrorist activities. The detection and suppression of activities carried out by international terrorist organizations and persons related to them is important. Active search of individuals connected with terrorist organizations needs to be conducted. Considerable attention should be paid in enhancing the capabilities of readiness and responses to terrorist threats.

8. What is the real reason behind terrorism?

Terrorism is the use of violence for a certain cause. This cause may be due to the perceived social and political injustice or simply a belief that violence can lead to change.

Usually perceived injustice or anger against a certain social conditions is the main cause that foster terrorism. Many people join terrorist groups because of poverty or to take their personal revenge from the powerful authority. Strong feelings of injustice also results in terrorism. There are millions of young people who want to create change by using fight as the tools for social upheaval. So, in order to counter these extremists we need to give them alternatives to violence which can prove beneficial for them.

9. Name the countries which are most affected by terrorism.

Iraq, Afghanistan, Nigeria, Pakistan and Syria are the most affected countries which suffered the largest number of terrorist attacks in 2014. This year is called the year of terrorism.

Also it has been recorded that these five countries were the major victims of 78% of all attacks that happened last year. Apart from these countries there are 39 countries which saw the greatest number of attacks, and their index ranking is calculated against severity and frequency of attacks they experienced.

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How to Write an Essay on Terrorism: Complete Guide

Terrorism became a global problem as soon as we decided to make it a global problem. Terrorist acts have always been a part of the history of conflicts between countries, nations, religions, and ideologies. It became global when we started sharing these horror stories and broadcasting them around the globe. This topic is current and complex: there is a good chance that you’ll have to write a terrorism essay at least once in your life.

We want you to be ready. We’ve prepared this guide to simplify the writing process as much as possible. Tips, terrorism research paper topics, reliable sources – everything is here.

How to Make Your Terrorism Essay Better: 10 Tips

We’re sure that you know how to write an essay on terrorism – the same way as any other essay. But we want to remind you of a few things that can simplify the writing process and entail a better result and a higher grade. So, be attentive:

1. Pick a narrow topic.

You won’t be able to develop a broad topic in your terrorism essay properly. You’ll only have two or three pages, so don’t try to bite more than you can chew. You can pick one of the topics that we’ve gathered for you in this guide below.

2. Conduct thorough research.

You don’t have to spend days at the library digging through ancient dusty scrolls to find necessary information. A few hours of surfing the internet is usually enough to find many sources and pick important quotes that might enforce your arguments.

3. Choose reliable sources.

And speaking of sources, you should be very picky at this point. The internet is full of garbage: fake news, unverified facts, and “expert” opinions of bloggers. Don’t fall in this trap! Use only trustworthy sources: online encyclopedias (not Wikipedia), scientific journals, non-fiction books, reputable newspapers, etc.

4. Make an outline.

This is an obvious tip, but a really helpful one. An outline will establish the structure of your essay about terrorism and help you organize your thoughts. We also recommend you to include keywords if you don’t want to forget about the essential details.

5. Compose your thesis statement.

The thesis statement is the starting point of your essay. It won’t let you get off your writing track. Imagine that you have to explain the main points of your essay in one sentence – this would be the perfect thesis statement.

6. Find an original point of view.

Don’t be afraid of expressing your personal opinion. Of course, the topic of terrorism is debatable and painful, but you have to be honest with yourself and your readers. Writing a terrorism essay can be quite challenging, but you have this guide and your logical thinking, so it’s not that bad.

7. Use strong arguments.

Let’s define a strong argument first. A strong argument is a piece of evidence that proves your point in such a way that your readers are persuaded to believe you. We suggest you to use real-life examples, quotations from reliable sources, statistical data, and verified facts as your arguments. Avoid logical fallacies, as attentive readers will notice them, and you’ll lose their trust.

8. Stick to an academic writing style.

No matter what type of essay you’ll choose, you have to use an academic writing style. No jargon, no contractions, and no exclamation marks! If you’re new to academic standards, you should read about the requirements in your college code.

9. Format your terrorism essay properly.

Using the proper formatting style is another peculiarity when it comes to writing essays. MLA, APA, Chicago, and Harvard are the most common formats. Your instructor will specify the required style in his or her task. Sticking to the proper formatting style influences your general grade.

10. Use online tools.

Online services make students’ lives much easier. These tools can check your writing and make it free of mistakes. If you don’t have much time to write your essay, you can always rely on one of these writing services – for example, EssayBulls.

Tips – DONE! You know how to write an essay on terrorism, and we’ve shown you how to make it better. Now, let’s focus on what topics you can analyze in your essay. We’ll start with the types of terrorism.

7 Types of Terrorism to Write About in Your Terrorism Essay

The types of terrorism differ in their causes, purposes, and methods. We hope that you’ll learn more about this global problem from the section below:

Religious terrorism

Also known to be non-political, religious terrorism is aimed at religious purposes and is motivated by the reasons of a predominantly religious character.

Dissent terrorism

Dissent terrorists want to overthrow the existing government or to change the state policy drastically using terrorist attacks as a political tool.

Political terrorism

This type of terrorism is used by political parties and organizations against other political factions. Civilians are the most frequent victims of such attacks.

State-sponsored terrorism

Such terrorist acts are initiated by the government, often secretly, to achieve a specific goal. This method is frequently used in conflicts with other countries.

Quasi-terrorism

A quasi-terrorist is a person who acts like a real terrorist and uses the same methods but doesn’t have the same motivation. They’re often criminals who take hostages and threaten their lives to achieve a particular goal.

Civil disorder

Civil disorders are a form of violent protests that frequently cause the destruction of private property and injury to civilians. As a rule, the participants want to demonstrate their resentment against the government.

As you see, terrorism is a complex and multifaceted concept. You can describe and analyze any type in your terrorism essays. If you don’t feel inspired enough, we also offer a list of terrorism research paper topics below.

30 Unique Terrorism Research Paper Topics for Your Writing

Compare and contrast a few acts of terrorism during the Civil War and in the 21st century.
How does terrorism influence US immigration laws?
Is there any connection between terrorist acts and immigration laws in Europe?
Is terrorism the most important problem in our society?
Why do people become suicide bombers?
Is terrorism a more significant problem for the USA or for the Middle East?
How do terrorists use technologies for their attacks?
Is religion the main cause of terrorism in the 21st century?
Is cyberterrorism the most dangerous form of terrorist attack?
How have the September 11 attacks changed the image of terrorism?
Are immoral methods justified when it comes to fighting terrorism?
Will the GWOT (Global War on Terrorism) ever end?
Can the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki be considered terrorist acts?
How can be the internet be used to further terrorists’ goals?
What is Al Qaeda? What are the main purposes of this organization?
Define the term “Jihad.” Why is its literal meaning not well known?
What factors shape public opinion toward terrorism?
Can terrorism be considered a political tool?
Is the death penalty an effective method to fight terrorism?
Compare and contrast dynamic and economic models of terrorism.
Why has the level of domestic terrorism increased recently?
Define the term “selective terrorism.”
Terrorists: criminals or combatants?
How does terrorism affect the global economy?
What are the advantages and disadvantages of a soft-line approach to terrorism?
How does terrorism affect the perception of Arabs in society?
How has the stereotypical image of a terrorist changed over the last 50 years?
How can individuals fight terrorism?
Does Islam approve of terrorist acts?
What makes terrorism so frightening in comparison to other global problems?

Well, have you found something special? We hope so. You have the instruction, and you have the topic. Now, you need to pick a range of sources to use for your writing. We have some suggestions for you right here.

Helpful Resources for Your Terrorism Essay: Articles and Books

You don’t have to use these sources if they aren’t appropriate for your essay. Your instructor may have recommended you particular sources. But if you have any difficulties in gathering information, don’t hesitate to check these lists.

12 Articles to Quote in Your Essay on Terrorism

Annette Schaefer. Inside the Terrorist Mind. Scientific American Mind.
Katarina Jonev. Terrorist Influence on Children in Cyberspace. The Market for Ideas.
Jasper Jackson. Police Urge Public to Help Counter UK’s Complex Terror Threat. The Guardian.
Douglas Pratt. Terrorism and Religious Fundamentalism: Prospects for a Predictive Paradigm. Research Gate.
Max Abrahms. Why Terrorism Does Not Work. Quarterly Journal: International Security.
Scott Atran. Genesis of Suicide Terrorism. Science.
CNN Library. US Terrorist Attacks Fast Facts.
Steven E. Miller. After the 9/11 Disaster: Washington’s Struggle to Improve Homeland Security. Axess.
Peter Bergen. Why Do Terrorists Commit Terrorism? The New York Times.
Mario Arturo Ruiz Estrada. The Economic Impact of Terrorism: A New Model and Its Application to Pakistan. Journal of Policy Modeling.
Zulaika, Joseba, and Imanol Murua. How Terrorism Ends – and Does Not End: The Basque Case. Critical Studies on Terrorism.
Parag Khanna. Terrorism As War. Hoover Institution.

20 Books to Quote in Your Essay on Terrorism

Jonathan R. White. “Terrorism and Homeland Security.”
Clifford E. Simonsen and Jeremy R. Spindlove. “Terrorism Today: The Past, the Players, the Future.”
Yael Danieli. “The Trauma of Terrorism: Sharing Knowledge and Shared Care, an International Handbook.”
Jonathan Matusitz. “Terrorism and Communication: A Critical Introduction.”
Laura Scaife. “Social Networks As the New Frontier of Terrorism: #Terror.”
Louise Richardson. “What Terrorists Want: Understanding the Enemy, Containing the Threat.”
Bruce Hoffman. “Inside Terrorism.”
Stephen Vertigans. “ The Sociology of Terrorism: People, Places and Processes.”
Anna Geifman. “Thou Shalt Kill: Revolutionary Terrorism in Russia, 1894-1917.”
Dilip Hiro. “War Without End: The Rise of Islamist Terrorism and Global Response.”
Dawson, M., & Omar, M. “New Threats and Countermeasures in Digital Crime and Cyber Terrorism.”
Gabriel Weimann. “Terrorism in Cyberspace: The Next Generation.”
Igor Primoratz. “Terrorism: A Philosophical Investigation.”
Richard Jackson. “Writing the War on Terrorism.”
Walter Laqueur. “A History of Terrorism.”
John R. Liederbach et al. “Digital Crime and Digital Terrorism.”
Cynthia C. Combs. “Terrorism in the Twenty-First Century.”
Vincenzo Ruggiero. “Understanding Political Violence.”
Patrick Sookhdeo. “Understanding Islamist Terrorism: The Islamic Doctrine of War.”
Brigitte L. Nacos. “Mass-Mediated Terrorism: The Central Role of the Media in Terrorism and Counterterrorism.”

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Terrorism - Essay Examples And Topic Ideas For Free

Terrorism, defined as the use of violence and intimidation in the pursuit of political aims, is a global issue that has seen a significant rise in the 21st century. Essays on this topic could explore the root causes of terrorism, its various forms, and the measures taken by different countries to counter terrorist activities. A deeper analysis could delve into the psychology of terrorists, the impact of terrorism on global politics, and the ethical considerations surrounding counter-terrorism measures. We have collected a large number of free essay examples about Terrorism you can find at Papersowl. You can use our samples for inspiration to write your own essay, research paper, or just to explore a new topic for yourself.

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Article contents

Terrorism as a global wave phenomenon: an overview.

David C. Rapoport David C. Rapoport Professor Emeritus, Department of Political Science, University of California, Los Angeles
https://doi.org/10.1093/acrefore/9780190228637.013.299
Published online: 26 September 2017

Global terror began in the 1880s, but it took a century before a few scholars began to understand its peculiar dynamic. One reason for the difficulty was that many scholars and government officials had “historical amnesia.” When they saw it disappear, they assumed it had become part of history and no longer had contemporary relevance. But global terror disappears and then reappears. Another reason they failed to understand the pattern is that the concept of generation was rarely used to describe politics, a concept that requires one to recognize the importance of life cycles. Modern global terror comes in the form of waves precipitated by major political events that have important global significance. A wave consists of a variety of groups with similar tactics and purposes that alter the domestic and international scenes. Four very different waves have materialized: the Anarchist, the Anti-Colonial, the New Left, and the Religious. The first three have been completed and lasted around 40 years; the fourth is now in its third decade, and if it follows the rhythm of its predecessors, it should be over in the mid-2020s, but a fifth wave may emerge thereafter.

historical amnesia
empirical international relations theory
Paris commune
global organizations
over-reactions
First Wave Anarchist
Second Wave Anticolonial
Third Wave New Left
Fourth Wave Religious

Introduction

Terrorism is violence for political purposes that goes beyond the legal rules established to regulate violence. Consequently, governments have difficulty treating captured terrorists as prisoners of war or criminals, a problem that affects different governments in various ways. 1 Terrorism confined to particular states has been an intermittent feature of history for a very long time. At times, terror took an international dimension that included only two states. Irish immigrants in the United States, for example, created the Fenians who, after the American Civil War, struck Canadian targets hoping to create a war between the United States and the United Kingdom, which would enable efforts in Ireland to create an independent state. When that failed, the American Fenians bombed targets in England with the same purpose and futile end (Steward & McGowan, 2013 ). Only Irish groups participated. The global international form of terrorism developed later. It involves efforts to change the entire world or transform regions involving more than two states. These activities generate cooperation between foreign terrorists and populations in a variety of states.

Although global terror began in the 1880s, a century elapsed before a few scholars began to understand its peculiar dynamic. One reason for the difficulty was that many scholars and government officials had “historical amnesia.” When they saw terrorism begin to disappear, they assumed it had become part of history and no longer had contemporary relevance. But global terror disappears and then reappears. Another reason they failed to understand the pattern is that the concept of generation was rarely used to describe politics, a concept that requires one to recognize the importance of life cycles. Global terror comes in the form of waves that are precipitated by major political events that have important global significance. A wave consists of a variety of groups with similar tactics and purposes that alter the domestic and international scenes. Four very different waves have materialized: the Anarchist, Anti colonial, New Left, and Religious. The first three have been completed and lasted around 40 years; the fourth is now in its third decade. If it follows the rhythm of its predecessors it should be over in the mid-2020s, and a fifth wave may emerge thereafter.

Historical Amnesia

It took considerable time to understand that global terrorism appeared first in the 1880s and has remained since (Rapoport & Alexander, 1989 ). One reason for the problem was that global terrorism has a special rhythm that makes it seem to disappear often. Note how the Encyclopedia of the Social Sciences treated the subject. In the first edition ( 1930 ), J.B.S. Hardman’s interesting terrorism article argued that “revolutionary terrorism” began in the 1880s and reached its high point two decades later. No group ever attained success, and terrorism would soon disappear completely because modern technology made the world so complex that only classes and masses mattered! The second edition ( 1966 ) had no terrorism article. Did the Hardman article persuade the new editors one was not needed even though some successful campaigns materialized after World War II in overseas European empires, or did the editors believe that because those empires had disappeared, terrorism did, too?

Other differences between the two editions suggest that another matter may have shaped the decision. The first edition contained interesting pieces on violence, assassination, and praetorianism that were eliminated in the second edition. 2 The election and succession articles in the first edition emphasized that the processes often produced violence. But the second edition’s election article ignores the fact elections sometimes breed violence (Rapoport & Weinberg, 2001 ). There was no article on succession, perhaps because one could not be written without emphasizing that in some systems violence frequently determines who the successor will be. Why did the “best social scientists” in successive generations understand violence so differently?

For the long span from about 1938 to the mid-1960s . . . the internal life of the country was unusually free of violent episodes. The 1930s generation found it easy to forget how violent “their forebears had been and so it is not simply that historians have found a way of shrugging off the unhappy memories of our past; our amnesia is also a response to the experience of a whole generation.” (Hofstadter, 1970 , pp. 3–4)

The National Commission on the Causes and Prevention of Violence established after the 1968 assassinations of Reverend Martin Luther King, Jr., and Senator Robert Kennedy also emphasized the idea that the United States suffered from “historical amnesia.”

Ironically, while the first edition of the Encyclopedia of the Social Sciences stated that terrorism had disappeared, when the second edition was published, terrorist activity had become an important element in the Cold War, dominating the international scene, an upsurge that ended in the 1990s after the Soviet Union’s dramatic, unexpected collapse. Historical amnesia then reappeared; this time it was reflected in the U.S. government’s belief that global terrorism no longer existed. The government never seemed to understand that it had been very significant decades before the Soviet Union was even established. Just as Hardman ignored the fact that a new kind of terrorism emerged after World War I, the U.S. government seemed oblivious to the conspicuous fact that various religions in the 1980s produced terrorist groups without Soviet aid that were still functioning. Believing that “terrorism was over, the State Department abolished my office,” wrote Scott Stewart, a Security Service Special Agent (Stewart, 2012 , p. 2). Government subsidies for the Rand Corporation’s useful terrorism research program evaporated and the program disappeared. In 1999 , the Crowe Commission Report Confronting Terrorist Threats examined attacks on U.S. embassies and blamed the government for greatly reducing its intelligence resources. Then the disastrous attacks of September 11, 2011 , occurred. Ironically, the 9/11 Commission Report found that the same indifference made 9/11 easier to perpetrate.

Terrorism studies generally ignore history, an odd fact when we remember how much history obsessed Clausewitz, who founded the “science” of war:

Examples from history make everything clear, and furnish the best description of proof in the empirical sciences. This applies with more force to the Art of War than to any other. If we wish to learn from history we must realize that what happened once can happen again.” (Clausewitz, 1991 , p. 231) 3

Clausewitz’s view of the pertinence of military history still resonates because states retain their armies even though there may be long periods between wars. But many still regard terrorism differently.

After 9/11, President George W. Bush’s “Address to the Joint Session of Congress and the American People” declared that terrorism would be eliminated. “Our enemy is a radical network of terrorists and every government which supports them. Our war . . . will not end until every terrorist group of global reach has been found, stopped and defeated” (Bush, 2001 , p. 68).

Although 9/11 was unique, President Bush’s declaration had a largely forgotten predecessor a century before. On September 6, 1901 , after an anarchist assassinated President William McKinley, his successor, Theodore Roosevelt, called for all states to participate in a “crusade” to exterminate anarchist terrorism everywhere, and Congress passed the Anarchist Exclusion Act of 1903 to reduce immigrant numbers who came from countries where many Anarchists lived (Jensen, 2001 ). But four years later, the United States withdrew from the first and only other global counterterrorist campaign.

Generations

Our historical amnesia is partly due to the inadequacy of our analytical tools. Using the concept of generation as a key analytic concept compels one to recognize that as a generation gets older, its energy dissipates. Generation is very different from the more commonly used concepts like class, interest, ethnic identity, etc. Energies inspiring those entities may dissipate in time, too, but that process is not associated with specified short periods. Because very few analysts use the idea of generation to explain important social scenes, it is not surprising that when the activity they are describing dissipates, they believe it has disappeared. 4

The striking differences between generations in the 1960s finally stimulated some academics to use generation to explain change (Rapoport, 1970 ). 5 In 1986 , Arthur Schlesinger, Jr., published the first systematic detailed study of generations in his illuminating The Cycles of American History . He used Alexis de Tocqueville’s argument that in democracies “each generation is a new people” to analyze American politics from the 18th century to the present day as a process of successive 40-year cycles. The initial generation was consumed with “political activism and social egalitarianism,” which was then followed by a 40-year period of “quiet conservatism and personal acquisition.” 6

Each new phase flows out of the conditions and contradictions of the phase before and then itself prepares the way for the next recurrence. A true cycle . . . is self-generating. It cannot be determined short of catastrophe by external events. Wars, depressions, inflations may heighten or complicate moods, but the cycle itself rolls on, self-contained, self-sufficient and autonomous. (Schlesinger, 1986 , p. 27) 7

Wave Concept

While linking generations to cycles is useful for studying democratic politics, global terrorism must be viewed differently. Profound, dramatic, unexpected international political events stimulated global terror, inspiring new generations with hope that the world could be transformed. But one cannot assume precipitating events of the same magnitude will always recur and at the same time. While a period lasted roughly 40 years, the rhythm or development process of each period, was different. Wave, rather than cycle, clearly is the appropriate term to describe those periods.

A wave consists of organizations with similar tactics and objectives. Organizations normally do not survive as long as the wave that gave them birth does, though a few organizations are likely to be active when their wave disappears. In those special cases, the organization sometimes incorporates features of the new wave. Surprise attacks are essential because small groups must find ways to publicize their actions to get attention and generate recruits. Surprise attacks sometimes produce overreaction, which terrorists know they can profit from. Each wave has experienced some dramatic overreactions with enormous international consequences. In the First Wave, World War I was precipitated when the Austrian-Hungarian Archduke Franz Ferdinand and his wife were assassinated and their government claimed without evidence that Serbia was involved. The anxiety produced by 9/11 made the U.S. government think that Al-Qaeda would use weapons of mass destruction if they could get them, and the United States invaded Iraq in 2003 to prevent that from happening. But no evidence was available that Iraq had those weapons, and the invasion intensified Islamic hostility to the United States and also alienated many U.S. allies. Several other important overreactions in global terror history are discussed below.

The need to secure information to prevent surprise leads governments to employ unusual interrogation techniques that are not used to deal with criminals. Thus, in the First Wave, torture, which had disappeared in Europe, became common everywhere and it has remained a feature of every subsequent wave. Government agents frequently infiltrate groups, a process that induces those agents sometimes to provoke terrorist actions that may not occur otherwise. Another problem in dealing with terrorists comes from the fact that there are no accepted rules for dealing with them. On the one hand, governments generally claim they should be treated as criminals, but rules that designate appropriate responses to criminal deeds are never found to be fully appropriate. Terrorists, on the other hand, usually claim they should be treated as enemy soldiers, but they do not follow the accepted rules of war.

Each wave is driven by a distinctive purpose. The First or Anarchist Wave was committed to equality. Nationalism or the self-determination principle inspired the Second or Anticolonial Wave after World War I; then in the 1960s, more radical aspirations become conspicuous again in the Third or New Left Wave. In 1979 , religion replaced secular principles of legitimacy, and the Fourth or Religious Wave began, which should dissipate in the 21st-century ’s third decade. If history repeats itself, a Fifth Wave will appear with a new purpose, one unlikely to be known ahead of time. In each wave, groups often emerge dedicated to single issue like the Earth Liberation Front, or to support the government, like the Ulster Volunteer Force. Because those groups do not aim to transform the domestic and/or international systems, they are not examined here as part of the wave.

Important unanticipated political events were crucial in generating each wave. The Paris Commune catastrophe ( 1871 ) inspired the belief that a new method of insurrection was necessary and helped ignite the First Wave. The Anticolonial Wave was linked to the Versailles Treaty after World War I, which demonstrated how much the international world had become committed to the principle of self-determination. In Europe, the empires of the defeated powers like Austro-Hungary were divided into sovereign nation states. The overseas empires of defeated states largely became League of Nations mandates administered by one of the victorious states until the mandate’s population was deemed able to govern itself. But terrorist uprisings occurred in those territories against the mandate governments and uprisings also occurred in the victors’ overseas empires. The New Left Wave was fueled by Castro’s revolution in Cuba and the U.S. disaster in Vietnam. The Religious Wave was the outcome of four events in 1979 . The Iranian Revolution was the first and most important; it transformed a secular state into a religious one, a state that promoted religious terror. Other events demonstrated the weakness of secular elements in pushing popular international political agendas within the Middle East, such as the Soviet Union's military efforts in Afghanistan to protect a Marxist government.

While waves survive for similar periods, the rhythms of each may be very different. It took some time for the Paris Commune to have its effect. While the end of World War I produced several uprisings quickly, only one was successful. A second major political event, the Atlantic Charter in 1941 , defined the intentions of the Allies toward all imperial territories, making it much easier to generate successful terrorist campaigns after World War II. Indeed, the end of the Second Wave occurred when the energy of governments to resist, not the energy of terrorists to keep fighting, dissipated. The principal event producing Third Wave was the Vietnam War but it lasted 9 years, and not until its fourth year, in 1968 , did the wave get going. The Fourth Wave emerged immediately in 1979 .

Some tactics are used in every wave, but each wave introduces and emphasizes different ones. The First Wave was committed to assassination; the Second Wave aimed to eliminate the police; the Third Wave was consumed with hostage taking; and the Fourth Wave introduced self-martyrdom or suicide bombing. Although the geographic center of each wave is different, Western states have always been a principal target, and they were a major source for terror in the First and Third waves.

A wave contains many individual groups, but the number varies in each wave. Each wave has groups with different purposes. In the First Wave, the populists claimed to represent the masses alienated from a government controlled by an out-of-touch closed elite; the populists had socialist aspirations. Anarchists were the second group aiming to eliminate the state and all forms of inequality. The Anarchist Wave is so named because anarchists seemed to be active everywhere and to produce the most provocative acts, which led the public influenced by the media to make the terms terrorist and Anarchist interchangeable (Jaszi, 1930 ). The third type were the Nationalists, who aimed to create separate states. Nationalists remained present in every wave, though their tactics and rationale varied depending on the wave they were associated with. All Second Wave groups were nationalist, but they had either right-wing or left-wing programs for the states they intended to establish.

The Third or New Left Wave produced two major forms: revolutionaries and separatists. There were two kinds of revolutionaries, the transnational and the national. The transnationals were very small groups that emerged in the developed world of Western Europe and North America and saw themselves as Third World agents. Their internationalism was reflected in their targets and in their commitment to cooperate with foreign groups. But they were the wave’s least durable groups. The priorities of both the national revolutionaries and the separatists were to remake their own states immediately. National revolutionaries sought a state based on radical equality, while the separatists wanted to create a new state from an ethnic base that often transcended state boundaries and thus could create serious tensions with neighboring states. Separatists were present everywhere except Latin America, where all groups were national revolutionaries, a unique quality that is discussed in the analysis of the Third Wave.

Secular causes inspired the first three waves, but religious ingredients were sometimes important because they were connected with ethnic and national identities, as the Irish, Armenian, Macedonian, Cypriot, Quebec, Israeli, and Palestinian examples illustrate (Tololyan, 1992 ). But these earlier groups did not seek to eliminate secular influences by recreating religious regimes within their original boundaries, a process that would uproot the existing international system, an aim that would be a crucial feature for the Fourth Wave.

Fourth or Religious Wave groups are classified by the respective religions that inspired them. Islam initiated the wave. Iran was a secular state that became a religious one; it committed the first terrorist act and was deeply involved throughout the wave in supporting global terrorist activity, a pattern not seen before. Iran originally aimed to bring the Shia and Sunni, the two principal Islamic sects, together, but instead it produced a variety of serious deadly conflicts between those sects that had not been experienced for centuries. One of the conflicts was the Iran–Iraq War ( 1980–1988 ), the 20th century ’s longest conventional war. 8 The wave’s most important durable groups were Islamic, and they devised the wave’s distinctive tactic, self-martyrdom (i.e., “suicide bombing”), which made the wave the most indiscriminate and destructive one. The 9/11 attacks were the deadliest and most spectacular suicide bombing events in history, killing 2,996 people and injuring more than 6,000 others, thus producing more casualties than the 1941 Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, which brought the United States into World War II.

A few Islamic groups like Hamas aim to create a national religious state. But many want to transform the international world by eliminating the system of independent states where each has sovereignty over its territory and equal standing in international law, an arrangement the Treaty of Westphalia created in 1648 . Al-Qaeda and the so-called Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS) aim to establish a caliphate that all Muslims, no matter where they live in the world, are obliged to obey. The Islamic diaspora intensified the wave’s global character; immigrants occasionally made attacks in their new homes and some went back to join groups in Islamic territories. The First Wave also produced a similar pattern, though the two waves seem very different otherwise.

Other Fourth Wave religions have produced groups with more limited territorial aspirations and therefore pose no threat to the international system as a whole. Sikhs aimed to secede from India and re-establish the religious state of Khalistan (Land of the Pure), which the British made part of India in 1849 . The Tamils of Sri Lanka also aimed to secede. Although it was not a religious group, the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) used the tactic of suicide bombing to fight against Buddhist efforts to make Sri Lanka a religious state. Sikh and Tamil diasporas in the West were significant supporters and provided much of the finances needed. Religious Jews in Israel want to transform the country into a religious state that would regain all its ancient Biblical territories. Some Christian groups in the United States fought to make it a religious state. Jews and Christians produced far fewer casualties than other groups in the wave, but the apocalypse is a theme in Jewish and Christian groups and could under certain circumstances produce catastrophic experiences.

The number of groups varies in each wave, and that number dissipates when no new ones emerge to replace those destroyed. Waves overlap each other in time and space. A few Second Wave groups in Africa were still alive in the 1970s, and some Third Wave groups aided them in their struggles for independence. The Fourth Wave emerged in the middle of the Third Wave. That induced some Third and Fourth Wave groups to fight each other bitterly, especially in the Middle East, something that never happened before.

Creation of the Global Political and Technological Contexts

The wave phenomenon cannot be understood fully without seeing it as a byproduct of the French Revolution. The first three waves embraced some key aspirations of the Revolution, while the Fourth explicitly rejected the Revolution’s ideals altogether, especially its hostility to religion.

After Napoleon was crushed, the relationship between domestic and international politics in Europe became transformed. Many insurrections occurred, inspired by desires to achieve the French Revolution’s unfulfilled promises, particularly with respect to new state boundaries, republicanism, secularism, and egalitarianism. In 1820 , 1830 , 1848 , and 1871 , uprisings in one European state generated comparable ones elsewhere. Europeans crossed borders easily (as no passports were needed) and became deeply involved in revolts elsewhere. The French Revolution abolished the practice of extraditing individuals for political reasons, and most European states continued this practice afterwards, intensifying the uprisings’ international character (Bassiouni, 1974 ). A new type of person emerged, described by de Tocqueville as the “professional revolutionary” (Richter, 1967 ), an intellectual devoting all his time to revolutions, moving from one country to another to foster them (e.g., Filippo Buonarroti, Mikhail Bakunin, Pierre-Joseph Proudhon, and Peter Kropotkin). 9

Uprisings created Belgium, and helped produce Italy and Germany, but there were so many failures that many after 1848 sought a more radical revolutionary model. In 1864 , the First Internationale, claiming 8 million members, emerged to unite socialist, communist, and anarchist groups with trade unions for the impending class struggle. When France was defeated in the Franco-Prussian War ( 1871 ), radicals established the Paris Commune, abolishing private property. The French response was devastating. Some 20,000 communards and sympathizers were killed, more than the Franco-Prussian War casualty numbers, and more than 7,500 were either jailed or deported to distant places overseas. Thousands fled to Belgium, England, Italy, Spain, and the United States. Radicals became convinced that the support of standing armies for their governments made mass uprisings unrealistic. A new method was necessary—small groups employing terror.

Important technological changes contributed to terrorism’s global character. In the First Wave, the telegraph enabled one to transmit information immediately across the world, enabling daily mass newspapers to describe incidents and plans quickly to very large numbers of people. The railroad and the steamship made international travel easy, quick, and inexpensive. Each successive wave was associated with communication and transportation innovations that intensified its global dimension, making it possible to bring global elements even closer together. The telephone and the radio were important in the Second Wave, television and airplanes were crucial in the Third, and the Internet shapes the Fourth.

In 1867 , Alfred Nobel patented dynamite for mining purposes. But soon it was used to make a new type of bomb, much easier to construct, conceal, and move than previous bombs; it could be detonated by a timer, enabling attackers to escape before the explosion. The bomb became the major weapon for terrorists, a major reason Nobel gave his fortune to establish the annual Nobel Prizes, especially the one devoted to peace! 10 The bomb is still the terrorist’s principal weapon, and it is likely to remain so, though many analysts have argued that terrorists will soon use weapons of mass destruction.

Before the 1880s, terrorism was confined to group activities in a particular territory, activity that had no specific impact elsewhere, lasted for different time periods, and therefore had no relationship to the concept of generations. The Zealots and Siccari who led the Jewish uprising against Rome in the 1st century were active for 25 years (Rapoport, 1984 ), the Assassins of the late 11th century survived for three centuries in the Muslim world, the Sons of Liberty who helped stimulate the American Revolution were active for a decade, and the Ku Klux Klan fought a successful 5-year campaign uprooting Reconstruction policies after the American Civil War (Rapoport, 2008 ). But global terror groups interact with each other, states, foreign social entities, and international organizations, and in a generation, the wave appears in most or all inhabited continents and then dissipates.

The First Wave began in Russia and quickly spread throughout Europe. Within a decade, it appeared in North and South America, and in the 20th century , in Asia, Australia, and Africa. Foreign personalities sometimes founded domestic groups (e.g., the Russian Mikhail Bakunin in Spain). Immigrants and diaspora communities became critical elements. Some states gave terrorists aid and sanctuaries. Events in one state often had significant impact elsewhere. Prominent nationalist struggles created serious potential threats to international peace. Armenians and Macedonian militants aimed to provoke major European states to invade the Ottoman Empire. Those European states knew intervention could produce a great war, putting major European powers on different sides, and avoided the situation several times. But somehow that lesson was forgotten in 1914 when the Ottoman Empire was not involved.

A century passed before a scholar recognized that one could not understand global terrorism without putting it in the context of international waves. In 1986 , Zeev Ivianski wrote

The terrorist wave is the work of a generation . . . as a result of some profound historical shock. . . . The generation of the terror destroys itself, has no direct continuation, yet the tradition renews itself in later waves of violence, (Ivianski, 1986 ) 11

The four global waves are discussed in detail in additional articles: the Anarchist, Anti-Colonial, New Left and Religious.

Anderson, B. (2005). Under three flags: Anarchism and the anti-colonial imagination . New York: Verso.
Bassiouni, M. (1974). International extradition law and world public order . Amsterdam: Luitingh-Sijthoff.
Bush, George W. (2001). Available at https://georgewbush-whitehouse.archives.gov/infocus/bushrecord
Clausewitz, C. (1991) On war . In A. Rapoport (Ed.), Clausewitz on war . Dorchester, U.K.:Dorset Press.
Eppright, C. (1997). Counterterrorism and conventional military force: The relationship between political effect and utility. Studies in Conflict and Terrorism , 20 (4), 333–344.
Hofstadter, R. (1970). Reflections on violence in the United States. In R. Hofstadter & M. Wallace (Eds.), American violence: A documentary history . New York: Alfred E. Knopf.
Ivianski, I. (1986). Lechi’s share in the struggle for Israel’s liberation. In E. Tavin & Y. Alexander (Eds.), Terrorists or freedom fighters . Fairfax, VA: Hero Books.
Jaszi, O. (1930). Anarchism. Encyclopaedia of the social sciences . New York: Macmillan.
Jensen, R. (1981). The International Anti-Anarchist Conference of 1898 and the origins of Interpol. Journal of Contemporary History , 6 (2), 323–347.
Jensen, R. B. (2001). The United States, international policing, and the war against anarchist terrorism. Terrorism and Political Violence , 13 (1), 15–46.
Passell, P. (1996, September 5). Economic scene. New York Times .
Pennock, R. (1967). Revolution . New York: Atherton.
Rapoport, D. C. (1970). Generations in America. In B. Crick & W. Robinson (Eds.), Protest and discontent . London: Penguin.
Rapoport, D. C. (1982). The moral issue: Some aspects of individual terror. In D. C. Rapoport & Y. Alexander (Eds.), The morality of terrorism: Religious and secular justifications . Oxford: Pergamon.
Rapoport, D. C. (1984). Fear and trembling: Terrorism in three religious traditions. American Political Science Review , 78 (3), 658–677.
Rapoport, D. C. (2008). Before the bombs there were the mobs: American experiences with terror. Terrorism and Political Violence , 20 (2), 167–194.
Rapoport, D. C. , & Alexander, Y. (1989). The orality of terrorism (2d ed., revised). New York: Columbia University Press.
Rapoport, D. C. , & Weinberg, L. (2001). Elections and violence. In D. C. Rapoport & L. Weinberg (Eds.), The democratic experience and violence . Portland, OR: Frank Cass.
Richter, M. (1967). Tocqueville’s contribution to the theory of revolution. In C. J. Friedrich & R. Pennock (Eds.), Revolution . New York: Atherton Press.
Schlesinger, R., Jr. (1986). The cycles of American history . New York: Houghton Mifflin.
Steward, P. , & McGowan, B. (2013). The Fenians: Irish rebellion in the North Atlantic World, 1858–1876 . Knoxville: University of Tennessee Press.
Stewart, S. (2012). The myth of the end of terrorism. Stratford Security Weekly , February 23.
Tololyan, K. (1992). Terrorism in modern Armenian culture. Terrorism and Political Violence , 4 (2).
Strauss, W. , & Howe, N. (1991). Generations: The history of America’s future, 1584 to 2069 . New York: Morrow.
Strauss, W. , & Howe, N. (1997). The fourth turning . New York: Three Rivers Press.

1. In the French Revolution, the government created the Reign of Terror, in which the rules governing criminal acts were ignored; individuals were punished not for their acts but because their character was deemed inappropriate for the new world being created. Our subject in this essay is rebel terror. State terror is discussed briefly in the essay on the First or Anarchist Wave.

2. The absence of assassination is odd. Three years before the 2nd edition was published, President Kennedy became the fourth American president assassinated. Six other presidents were attacked before Kennedy’s tragedy. No major state had as many heads of states and/or prime ministers killed in that 100 year period. Many more efforts were made after the 2nd edition was published; eight presidents were targeted, and Ronald Reagan was wounded.

3. For an interesting discussion of the relevance of Clausewitz for terrorist studies, see Eppright ( 1997 ).

4. The importance of generation has an unusual and often forgotten history. Plato discussed the transformation of governments from one political form to another as a generational process. But his successors thought social status, class, and ethnicity were much more useful to explain change. The concept of generation as essential for understanding political change was revived in the 19th century when democracy became a significant feature of political life. Alexis de Tocqueville’s classic study of American politics stated major changes occurred only when a new generation emerg1ed. “Among democratic nations each generation is a new people” that provokes a “struggle between public and private concerns.” Two other prominent figures in Tocqueville’s generation made similar points. Auguste Comte emphasized that generations had an important role in determining “the velocity of human evolution,” and John Stuart Mill refined Comte’s concept, arguing that in each successive age the “principal phenomena” of society are different only when a “new set” of individuals reaches maturity and takes possession of society. Important early 20th-century scholars also became committed to the notion. Karl Mannheim published his “The Problem of Generations” in 1927 and his contemporary Ortega y Gasset contended that generation is “the pivot responsible for the movements of historical evolution”.

5. In popular U.S. discourse, references to generations appeared before the 1960s and were linked to political events. “Baby Boomers” were born after World War II and became wealthy and “optimistic and produced a striking increase in birth rates. The “Lost Generation” fought in World War I and the “Greatest Generation” fought in World War II!

6. Schlesinger developed the concept of generation in Chapter 2. The Oxford English Dictionary indicates that generation usually means 30 years, but sometimes it can mean 40 years.

7. Generation as a tool for analyzing American political history was also employed in two books by Strauss and Howe ( 1991 and 1997 ). They use the term cycle , too.

8. Iran did not start the war, but Iraq was fearful that it would make great inroads in Iraq’s Shia population and decided to attack when Iran had hardly completed its own revolution.

9. Bakunin and Kropotkin were Russian anarchists, Buonarroti was an Italian utopian socialist, and Proudhon a French anarchist.

10. In 1888, Alfred’s Nobel’s brother Ludvig died while visiting France and a French newspaper erroneously thought Alfred had died and published Alfred’s obituary! “The merchant of death is dead . . . who became rich by finding ways to kill more people faster than ever before.” Furious with this description, Alfred became very concerned with how he would be remembered. He had no wife or children, and gave his fortune to establish the annual Nobel Prizes. See Lallanilla, M. , The Dark Side of the Nobel Prizes (2013). Four persons described as terrorists received the Nobel Peace Prize when they made significant efforts to create peaceful solutions: Menachem Begin (1978), Anwar Sadat (1978), Nelson Mandela (1993), and Yasser Arafat (1994). Ironically, four American presidents also got the prize: Theodore Roosevelt (1905), Woodrow Wilson (1919), Jimmy Carter (2002), and Barak Obama (2009).

11. In this article, Ivianski discussed only the First Wave, but in a later piece, he discussed the Second Wave, in which he participated.

Waves of Political Terrorism
Military Defection and the Arab Spring
Women and Terrorism
Civil War and Terrorism: A Call for Further Theory Building
Terrorism as a Global Wave Phenomenon: Anarchist Wave
Terrorism as a Global Wave Phenomenon: Anticolonial Wave
Terrorism as a Global Wave Phenomenon: New Left Wave
Terrorism as a Global Wave Phenomenon: Religious Wave
Suicide Terrorism Theories

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Terrorism in International Relations Problem Solution Essay

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Introduction

Terrorism is no longer a new term in the international system. However, it is apparently clear that terrorism remains to be one of the most challenging problems as far as maintenance of security and order in the international system is concerned. It is quite difficult to clearly attain a complete definition of terrorism because of the increase in the number of terrorist actions in the world today.

Impacts of terrorism have become real and a challenge not only to the small states in the world, but also to the seeming giant nation states in the world, like the United States. A lot of efforts have been diverted at exploring terrorism as a result of the rate of insecurity in the international system that comes from terrorism and the fear of terrorism. One key finding is that terrorism is used both as a strategy and a tactic by diverse groups to advance their interests in the international system.

This paper presents an analysis of terrorism as a problem in international relations. The paper begins by defining terrorism and giving an overview of terrorism in the international system. The paper then explores the various aspects of terrorism and how they impact on relations within and between states in the international system. The paper brings out two main policy areas that are critical in addressing the problem of terrorism.

Overview of terrorism in international relations

As observed in the introduction, the effort of maintaining order and human security in the international system has been hampered by the emergence of terrorism in the international system. Efforts to develop mechanisms of combating terrorism have resulted in the development of the broader definition of terrorism.

According to the US Department of Defense, terrorism is defined as: “the calculated use of unlawful violence or threat of unlawful violence to inculcate fear; intended to coerce or to intimidate governments or societies in the pursuit of goals that are generally political, religious, or ideological” (Terrorism Research, para. 3).

From the definition, it is clear that terrorism is a broad term that entails a broad range of criminal activities that are pursued by different groups to attain political, religious, as well as other ideologies that are portrayed in the nature of terrorism that is advanced by a given group. While it is argued that terrorism is not a new thing in the international system, it has become apparent that the scale of terrorism is advancing to the levels that are lethal to human security (Terrorism Research, para. 4).

Terrorism presents a challenge to the issue of arms deterrence and the proliferation of arms and weapons in the world. The other daunting task as far as efforts to combat terrorism are concerned is that terrorism has advanced to an extent that different forms of terrorism prevail. Terrorism has gone far beyond the use of real weapons to launch attacks on targets, to the use of biological weapons as well as breaches on information from terrorist groups as a way of causing insecurity and advancing their cause.

This is referred to as cyberterrorism. Other forms of terrorism include narcoterrorism and nuclear terrorism and ecoterrorism. The most important question to ask at this juncture concerns the motivation behind the acts or actions of terrorism in the international system. This question can be explored by unearthing different kinds of terrorism (Lake 18).

Perspectives and impacts of terrorism on actors and behaviors in the international system

From the exploration of the meaning of terrorism, it comes out that terrorism is a term that includes a wide range of activities that are meant to unleash violence and threats for the sake of advancing several goals. The mere linkage of terrorism to extremism as was associated with the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks in the United States has been subjected to criticism due to the diverse number of terrorism forms that prevailed before and after the attack.

However, this does not mean that there are no acts of extremism in terrorism. In fact, terrorism itself is a form of expressing ideas and opinions through the use of outrageous forms of actions that depict extremism. The modern world is characterized by a lot of competition for development (Lake 15). As competition mounts, it is critical to note that the impacts of competition between and among states become real, and so is the contest between states and regions in different matters.

The likening of extremism to terrorism comes from the theories of international relations, where a number of actors in the international system seek relevance and recognition through advancement of extremist courses like terrorism. It is vital to bring out these actors as a leeway for understanding terrorism and what makes it daunting to deal with the problems of terrorism (Lake 18-19).

Actors in the international system as opined by the proponents of idealism include states, religious groups, non-governmental and international organizations, as well as different interest groups pursuing different courses for instance environmental and socioeconomic groups.

It is apparent that terrorism prevails in different regions in the world and is advanced by different groups, which are inclined to different agendas or ideologies. The presence of the Hezbollah terrorist group in the Middle East region and the emergence of Al Shabaab are indicators of the underlying issues of human security that need to be addressed in wholesome by actors in the international system (Lake 15-19).

According to Walter (335), the prevalence of insecurity in different regions due to acts of terrorism affects relations between states in economic and political matters. An example is giving out travel advisories by states as a result of the state of insecurity in a given state as posed by the presence of terrorist groups and the advancement of violence by the groups.

An example that can be given in this case is the de-linkage of a substantial number of states from Somalia due to the prevalence of the state of lawlessness in the country, which further encourages terrorism and sea piracy. This implies that terrorism results in a set of other complexities of states, resulting in socioeconomic and political complexities for states and affecting their status and influence in the international system.

Somalia and Pakistan have been categorized as terrorist zones. This continues to jeopardize the state of economic and social progress of these countries. The most critical question to pose concerns what other countries can do to improve the state of security in the world, and especially in the countries and regions that are prone to conflicts (Walter 335-338).

Jones and Libicki (9) observed that the mere fact that suspects of terrorism in the United States are Muslims has resulted in the tense relations between Islamic states in the world and the United States, and Western Europe in general. Relations between the United States and Islamic States have remained tense even as the United States accelerates its efforts to combat terrorism.

Even with the killing of Osama Bin Laden, who was termed as the leader of AL Qaeda, the state of insecurity as posed by danger of terrorism remains due to the prevalence of other interest groups that seek to pursue their interests in the international system. As a matter of fact, AL Qaeda is still termed as a threat to international security, which means that the group is not just possessed and driven by their leaders, but is influenced by an agenda or ideology that they want to make real.

A lot of focus by the main actors in the international system still looks into nuclear terrorism as a result of environmental extremism and the growth of different sub-forms of ecoterrorism. There are currently two conflicts between the United States and South Korea, on the one hand, and Iran on the other hand due to the development of nuclear power by these countries.

The main argument that comes out of these conflicts is that nuclear development can be diverted to the development and deployment of nuclear weapons that have far reaching impacts on human security (Jones and Libicki 11).

Policy recommendations on combating terrorism

As observed in the discussion, terrorism has evolved into different forms. In this regard, effective combat of terrorism and its subsequent threats to security in the international system requires the deployment of multi-faceted strategies.

A substantial number of antiterrorism policies have been developed as measures to combat terrorism. However, one thing that is eminent in these strategies is that they do not explore the underlying issues behind development and sustenance of terrorist groups in the world (Frey and Luechinger 509-510).

Terrorist groups have diverse ideologies, thus the use of deterrence to lock out these groups from advancing their course has failed to work. There is a need to dig deeper into the diverse strains of terrorism and their underlying factors in order to neutralize the terrorist groups. One thing that is eminent in terrorism is that terrorist groups, in one way or another, have economic, social and political agendas.

Therefore, it is critical to decentralize the decision making environment to allow incorporation of the grievances of these groups in decision making in the national and international arenas, instead of strengthening the grounds to deny the terrorist groups a chance to pursue their activities (Frey and Luechinger 513).

Countries seem to act in a unitary way in the deployment of counterterrorism measures. The diverse forms of terrorism that prevail in the globalized world today require establishment of a thick intelligence network. Such a network cannot be easily advanced by a solitary state, but it requires the cooperation of all states (Trager and Zagorcheva 87-88).

Terrorism has resounding impacts on human security across the globe. From the discussion, it can be concluded that different forms of terrorism have emerged, thus posing a challenge to states and policy makers who aim to combat terrorism.

There is need to adopt a holistic approach in counterterrorism. The implication of this is that states have to cooperate with other states, as well as the terrorist networks as a way of bringing out and addressing the underlying issues that cultivate the ground for advancement of terrorism.

Works Cited

Frey, Bruno S, and Simon, Luechinger. “Decentralization as a Disincentive for Terror.” European Journal of Political Economy 20.2(2004): 509-515. Print.

Jones, Seth G, and Martin C. Libicki. How Terrorist Groups End: Lessons for Countering Al Qa’ida . Santa Monica, CA: Rand, 2008. Print.

Lake, David A. “Rational Extremism: Understanding Terrorism in the Twenty-first Century.” Dialogue IO 1.1(2002): 15-29. Print.

Terrorism Research. What is Terrorism?, n.d. Web.

Trager, Robert F, and Dessislava P. Zagorcheva. “Deterring Terrorism: It Can Be Done.” International Security 30.3(2006): 87-123. Print.

Walter, Barbara F. “The Critical Barrier to Civil War Settlement.” International Organization 51.3(1997): 335-64. Print.

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Weapons of Mass Destruction: The Terrorist Threat
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IvyPanda. (2019, June 12). Terrorism in International Relations. https://ivypanda.com/essays/terrorism-in-international-relations/

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Home / Essay Samples / Social Issues / Terrorism

Terrorism Essay Examples

Terrorism is a topic that encompasses a wide range of issues, including its causes, effects, and strategies to combat it. Essays on this subject can be informative, persuasive, argumentative or a combination of these types.

These essays demand thorough research and critical thinking, as they explore complex and often controversial issues. The goal is not only to present facts but also to make a compelling argument, drawing on evidence and logical reasoning

The structure of an essay on terrorism generally follows the traditional essay format, which includes an introduction, body paragraphs, and a conclusion. However, the specific content within these sections may vary depending on the type of essay (e.g., informative, argumentative, persuasive, etc.).

The Importance of Essays About Terrorism

Essays about terrorism play a crucial role in understanding one of the most pressing global challenges of our time. The purpose of such essays is to analyze the motivations, methods, impacts, and countermeasures related to acts of terrorism. By examining the complexities of terrorism, these essays contribute to informed discussions, policy decisions, and efforts to prevent and counteract terrorism.

One of the primary goals of essays about terrorism is to understand the motivations that drive individuals and groups to engage in acts of terrorism. These essays explore factors such as political, religious, ideological, and social grievances that may contribute to radicalization.

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