Definitions of Terrorism

Terrorism by nature is difficult to define. Acts of terrorism conjure emotional responses in the victims (those hurt by the violence and those affected by the fear) as well as in the practioners. Even the U.S. government cannot agree on one single definition. The old adage, "One man's terrorist is another man's freedom fighter" is still alive and well. Listed below are several definitions of Terrorism.

For the purposes of the TARGET: Australia Web Site, we have adopted the definition used by the Federal Bureau of Investigation.

          In seeking to destroy freedom and democracy, terrorists deliberately target non-combatants for their own cynical purposes. They kill and maim defenceless men, women and children. They murder judges, newpaper reporters, elected officials, government administrators, labour leaders, policemen, priests and others who defend the values of a civilized society. Freedom Fighters, in contrast, seek to adhere to International Law and civilized standards of conduct. they attack military targets, not defenceless civilians. Non-combatant casualties in this context are an aberration or attributable to the fortunes of war. They are NOT the result of deliberate policy designed to terrorize the opposition!

          In their naivety, the so-called Social Revolutionaries do not realize that their predeliction for terrorism is ...most intimately linked with the fact that, from the very outset, they have kept and still keep themselves seperate and aloof from the genuine Working Class Movement!

- Vladamir Lenin

          Terrorism is the cancer of the modern world. No state is immune to it. It is a dynamic organism which attacks the healthy flesh of the surrounding society. It has the essential hallmarks of a malignant cancer: unless treated, and treated drastically, its growth is inexorable, until it poisons and engulfs the society on which it feeds and drags it down to destruction!

- Paul Johnson (British Conservative Polemicist)

          Terrorism is the use or threatened use of force designed to bring about political change.

- Brian Jenkins

          Terrorism consitutes the illegitimate use of force to achieve a political objective when innocent people are targeted.

- Walter Laqueur

          Terrorism is the premeditated, deliberate, systematic murder, mayhem, and threatening of the innocent to create fear and intimidation in order to gain a political or tactical advantage, usually to influence an audience.

- James M. Poland

          Terrorism is the unlawful use or threat of violence against persons or property to further political or social objectives. It is usually intended to intimidate or coerce a government, individuals or groups, or to modify their behavior or politics.

- Vice-President's Task Force, 1986

          Terrorism is the unlawful use of force or 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.

- FBI Definition

See Also:
Responding to Terrorism: US Army Field Manual 100-20

Added: September 16, 2001