Assignment:
Answer the two questions below. Each answer must be double spaced in APA format and be between 250-400 words in length using Arial 11 or Times New Roman 12 point font. One inch margins all the way around.
1. Explain the challenges that arise when using legal definitions of terrorism. Explain your answer in full and provide examples.
2. What is the meaning of "selective terrorism" and how was it implemented by Michael Collins? Explain your answer in full.
Discuss below in a 150 words each:
1. Defining terrorism can be hard to do due to the fact that one man's freedom fighter is another man's terrorist. For the United States, terrorism is defined by many different agencies with different goals in mind. The U.S. Code of Federal Regulations defines terrorism as "the unlawful use of force and violence against persons or property to intimidate or coerce a government, the civilian population, or any segment thereof, in furtherance of political or social objectives" (28 C.F.R. Section 0.85). However this definition can be easily changed depending on the context and who is labeling who or what as terrorist. The label of terrorism can be used by both the terrorist and antagonist of the terrorist to portray horror to its citizens for political means. War, religion, repression, crime, political power, and even media coverage are all potential characteristics and motivators for the use of terrorism.
Regardless of the motives of terrorist are the end state is always the same, progress their ideals by harming the people of a nation directly and producing fear. It can be seen as an outcry against violence and war such as the latest assassination of Russian Ambassador Andrey G. Karlov by a lone gunman who shouted "don't forget Aleppo, don't forget Syria!" after killing the ambassador. Terror acts can be used by both the terrorist and antagonist of the terrorist for their own personal agendas. The 1933 burning of the Reichstag in Germany is a great example of this. Hitler used this event to rally more supporters to his cause by blaming the burning of the government building on the opposing communist party in Germany.
It is arguable that terrorism is used as an underlining military tactic. Throughout World War Two many cities were targeted by our own military to bomb and produce fear in the German populace, such as the bombing of Dresden where 20,000 to 25,000 German citizens were killed due to American bombings. The target of these bombing were not military assets but people themselves and the German moral itself. Terrorism is meant to kill the will to fight.
2. The following terms in some shape or fashion defines terrorism in their own unique way. War and Violence is commonly associated with the term terrorism due to war, traditionally has been said to be a result of terrorism or a terrorist action. The nature of or damage from that action tends to be violent in nature whether against non-combatants, combatants, and infrastructure. History and the Enlightenment Era shows that with government power, tensions rise and sometime results in violence. Such thinking produced tension between the ruling class and the governed, and some of the tension spilled into violence (White, 2014). As class-based revolutions occurred the actions of the government were associated with repression. Media coverage and religion are often contradicting or mis-leading in its intents were even though they are meant to bring awareness or guidance, they sometimes intensify or promote acts of terrorism or the ideology of terrorism and its end result. Crime will continue to be an identifying or defining factor of terrorism as we try to properly label and classify the severity of crimes which the change from past to current is revolving. For this reason terrorism will always be difficult to define cause just as the statue of crime changes over time so will terrorism. Among the many forms of terrorism some distinct forms are civil disorder, political, non-political, quasi, and state terrorism. While not all terrorism needs to be against a human being the result or end state is similar. With technology the threat is increased due to the wide variety of armory available. These attacks may occur at any time or place, which makes them an extremely effective method of instilling terror an uncertainty into the general public (Crimemusem, 2017).
3. Typologies of terrorism differ from definitions of terrorism in numerous ways. One distinct difference is the presentation of the broad scope of the problem. Knowing and understanding that typology deals with a classification system rather than a direct reason or intent is important. Although we can associate the criminal aspect to both the classification and definition, each terrorist incident whether local, national, or international must be understood in its specific social, historical, and political circumstance. We must also understand that terrorism is generally defined differently from every entity and current phase of society.
Although each typology may be beneficial to or complement each other each can be considered a piece to the puzzle on how we deter or manage terrorism rather than trying to eliminate something that is inevitable. First, tactical which would be many individuals first thought allows us to study how to fight and combat efforts in its present state or operation. Historical allows us to gather information on the trends and identify earlier those who are most subtle to engaging in terrorism actions. Lastely, ideological typologies allows us to forecast and think at the same level or perspective of those organizations to implement terrorist prevention measures. How would one cause the most damage or "terror" with the least risk? How critical is timing and location? These blending planning efforts could be essential although they don't define terrorism they provide background information.
4. In simplest form, typology is the study of the different forms of terrorism. In the previous thread, we went over the definitions of terrorism, and come to the consensus that all forms of terrorism surround the illegal use of violence for the acquisition of a political or social end state. Typology delves down deeper into the definition of terrorism to ask when where and how terrorism is performed in order to achieve its end state.
According to Dr. Jerrold Post, there are three major categories in terrorism typology; Political Terrorism; Criminal Terrorism; and Pathological Terrorism. These categories further break down into smaller typologies that grasps the scope of an individual terrorist organizations end goals on a local, national and international scale. Political Terrorism surrounds groups or individuals that conduct operations in order to change the political structure or hijack the existing political structure. Social Terrorism surrounds groups or individuals that conduct operations in response to a particular topic or personal reason or because they are indoctrinated to do so. Finally, Pathological Terrorism surrounds groups or individuals that conduct operations purely out of a love for committing acts of violence.
In regards to how typologies can aid in combating terrorism, you cannot truly defeat an enemy without understanding its motivation for doing what it does. You cannot defeat an idea, which is one of the major challenges of combating terrorism. To break down the terrorist issue into typologies, you can begin to get inside the terrorist mind and think of ways to attack them, or limit their freedom of movement. Typology can allow counter terrorism units to create psychological profiles which can allow for the ability to identify where terrorist organizations would go about recruiting and indoctrination.