Understanding Terrorism, Insurgency, and State Failure

What do we think when we hear the word terrorism? What images are conjured in our minds? Do we see planes crashing into skyscrapers, bombs exploding in marketplaces, masked men armed with guns and bombs? The images that the term terrorism creates vary from person to person. As a concept, terrorism is one of the hardest phenomena to define. There are hundreds of ways to define terrorism and hundreds of more ways to outline its characteristics. The problem with this is that without a solid understanding and definition of the concept, it can never really be understood in its entirety. The aim of this chapter is to try to develop a context for understanding terrorism as clearly as possible. It will begin by trying to define terrorism in the modern context by providing an overview of some of the most commonly used definitions used today, and also by trying to develop a working definition to be used as a basis of understanding for the remainder of this book. From that, this chapter will then move on to look at the various different forms of terrorism that affect our world today. The focus of this section, however, will be on four distinct types of terrorism: ethno-nationalist or ethno-separatist terrorism, right-wing terrorism, state-sponsored terrorism, and religiously motivated terrorism, in particular Islamic fundamentalist terrorism.