Aug 17, · Terrorism refers to threats, violence, bombings, etc. Terrorism is known to have a long history, but even today, the reason behind this terror by the super powers and the government remains explicit. The acts of terror are very common these days and could be found in current political and social environment Terrorism According to Chomsky terrorism can be defined as “the calculated use of violence or the threat of violence to attain political or religious ideological goals through intimidation, coercion, or instilling fear.” (). The terms terrorist or terrorism are relatively new, even though it has been going on for centuries Terrorism, an issue that plagues our world every minute of every day. You never know when or where a terrorist organization is going to strike. The point is that all terroristic groups have their own reasons to act violently. While some of them have political or religious reasons, the others are driven by hatred only
Essay on Terrorism or Terrorism Essay Writing: Useful Tips, Guidance, Example
The author, a retired U. Foreign Service officer, sets forth a thoughtful and thought-provoking analysis of the terrorism phenomenon, one that repays a careful reading. Without defending terrorist acts in moral terms, Nicolson raises questions about their efficacy and coherence, and about civilian responsibility therefor. Terrorist movements have an essay on terrorism, if ever, succeeded militarily; when they succeeded, it was by bringing a superior power to the bargaining table. We reflexively condemn terrorism after each new outrage —- in Northern Ireland, Israel, Indonesia, and elsewhere —- without a real attempt to understand and dissect it.
Dissection is clinical, stripped of emotion, and does not imply approval: I emphasize the point lest any be tempted to view this essay as an apologia. It is not. It is an attempt to examine how some terrorists pursue a political goal beyond pure malice; why their tactics, if bloody, may be the most effective path open to them and have worked on occasion; how the familiar Western distinction between civilian and military combatants is ethically questionable in the modern age; and how, above all, we must an essay on terrorism in the future between movements we may be able to address by negotiation and those which we must annihilate.
That is a moral question with an essay on terrorism answer that differs little in practical context from the decision by a national state to wage war. It is a moral fiction to draw a sharp distinction between resort to force an essay on terrorism states and employment of force by sub-national, including terrorist, groups, an essay on terrorism. Both cases bring death and entail the use of violence. The chief distinction is a surface legitimacy to the state premised on little more than its greater longevity and organized control of territory. A separate but closely related issue: the stress on the distinction between human beings called soldiers the first casualties of warring states and civilians the frequent first casualties of terrorist groups is to deem the former as dispensable cannon fodder while asserting Marques of Queensbury rules protecting the latter.
That violates modern morals. In a modern democratic state, soldiers can be categorized as civilians, not a separate caste. The civilian electorates who govern the state more than soldiers are responsible for the decisions of the government they elect, for its application of armed force, and thus for the negative consequences, and thus also for the fact that they are the logical targets of pressure for change. This, an essay on terrorism, of course, raises the question of means vs. To the extent a consensus definition of terrorism exists, it may be described as the deliberate killing of non-military personnel in order to pursue a claimed political goal through exertion of pressure on a society.
The literature is rife with other definitions, but their core comes down to this: murderous attacks on civilians for political purposes, an essay on terrorism. Their acts are pointless, an essay on terrorism. They are a psychotic, not a political, phenomenon and the only an essay on terrorism answer is the use of force to kill or incarcerate them, while seeking in the longer term to address the social pathologies which produce new recruits. The Irgun was far from the decisive factor in achieving Israeli independence, an essay on terrorism was opposed by many in the Zionist movement, but it made a contribution and that contribution to independence eventually absolved its leader of his past and he went on to become prime minister of Israel, Menachem Begin.
The pattern is familiar. Who resorts to terrorism and why? Terrorism is the tool of the weak, an essay on terrorism by disaffected groups or minorities to oppose the rule and as they see it the oppression of an established and militarily superior power. The goal instead is to so upset the civilian economic and social life of an adversary state as to force negotiations on more equal terms. The specific methods of a given terrorist group depend on the nature of the regime it opposes. In democracies e. Of course, there is always the possibility of backlash, as is evident in the case of Israel, where terrorism against the body politic successfully put the PLO on the map but more recently proved self-defeating by feeding Israeli doubt that Palestinians could ever be appeased short of the destruction of the Israeli state.
In autocratic states e. Thus, though it seems perverse, one may argue that terrorism in some cases is more justified, or at least more effective, when directed against democratic governments. Terrorist movements in such states typically arise from confrontation between an oppressed minority and a dominant majority e. Civilians guide such a state, the state commands the military, the military applies force, including death, to its opponents. The democratic nation in the modern age, certainly since World War I, is a nation in arms. Every citizen has a role in deciding its fate through the vote or by military effort expressed in mass mobilization or industrial support of the war machine. Thus, every citizen must accept the consequences of state policies.
We resist that notion of equal responsibility and we hate the idea of terrorism. Because terrorism seeks to alter the status quo and shake complacent dominant populations or elites out of their complacency. It threatens our comfortable and insulated everyday lives…including the moral barrier we have sought to erect by the increasingly strained distinction between military combatants and the civilians who ultimately direct them in a democratic state. It puts electorates squarely up against the lethal consequences of their own voting decisions. Or, if you prefer, it acknowledges the civilian electorate as politically influential agents who are targeted by terrorists seeking to influence or blackmail their political decisions. In the an essay on terrorism West, terrorism is a handmaiden of democracy: everyman has the power, so everyman is now a target.
And stoically accepting that fact, accepting our responsibility as citizens without whimpering or whining as potential combatants and agents of resistance is, in my view, required now as an act of patriotism on the part of participants in the modern democratic state. In that respect we are coming closer to the model of the ancient Greek city states which gave birth to democracy: our physical safety is more directly bound to the future of our polity than it has been in a long time…and it should be. All governments condemn terrorism. There is a life cycle to successful terrorist movements. If they represent a serious and widely shared grievance, an essay on terrorism, they may grow stronger, more effective more lethaland still more condemned.
At some point, that very effectiveness can turn condemnation into reluctant acceptance of them by states as a negotiating partner. They have won a place at the table by the classic means any actor ever has in politics: by demonstrating the capacity to exert force or other influence. That is a critical moment for such terrorist movements. That in the past has defined the difference between the success or failure of a number of such movements. An example of success: Nelson Mandela in South Africa. The an essay on terrorism era of terrorists with a nationalist vision appears on the decline, an essay on terrorism, since many of them have realized their goals in the post-World War II period.
Increasingly we confront instead violently psychotic millenialist groups which must be extirpated rather than engaged. Nonetheless, some ethnic-based movements will continue to arise, perhaps with terrorist components, seeking in the traditional mode independence or autonomy for more or less narrowly defined populations. It behooves us to recognize the difference between those movements and irreconcilable millenialist groups and, where appropriate, to suspend our moral qualms and adopt our tactics and even negotiate with the former. We will have to put them down insofar as they affect us. So, an essay on terrorism, as a matter of pure economy, it behooves us to recognize an essay on terrorism we are dealing instead with genuine political movements, albeit using terrorist means, an essay on terrorism may be dealt with more cheaply if holding our noses by negotiation.
Born in California inMarc E. Nicholson graduated from Yale University, served in the U. Army in West Germany, and entered the Foreign Service in Skip to main content. Submit Search.
Essay on Global Terrorism -- 300 words
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Aug 01, · Because terrorism seeks to alter the status quo and shake complacent (dominant) populations or elites out of their complacency. It threatens our comfortable and insulated everyday lives including the moral barrier we have sought to erect by the increasingly strained distinction between military combatants and the civilians who ultimately direct them in Terrorism According to Chomsky terrorism can be defined as “the calculated use of violence or the threat of violence to attain political or religious ideological goals through intimidation, coercion, or instilling fear.” (). The terms terrorist or terrorism are relatively new, even though it has been going on for centuries Aug 17, · Terrorism refers to threats, violence, bombings, etc. Terrorism is known to have a long history, but even today, the reason behind this terror by the super powers and the government remains explicit. The acts of terror are very common these days and could be found in current political and social environment
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