Terrorism

[In the aftermath of the attacks of September 11, 2001, it would be nearly impossible to find an American who would elicit a blank stare at the mention of the word "terrorism." Nineteen men from various Middle Eastern countries hijacked three American commercial airplanes and blasted "terrorism" into the minds of not only the Unties States public, but the global population as well. Yet terrorism, as a term, is difficult to define. As Americans, we see terrorists as suicide bombers, kidnappers, assassins, hijackers, and the like. But as the phrase goes: "One man's terrorist is another man's freedom fighter." If we step into the shoes of a terrorist, we may see that they fight for a cause they passionately believe in.] In either case, terrorism can be defined as having the following characteristics: it's purpose is to create fear in a much larger population than the immediate victims, especially in today's media controlled world we live in; it involves a well-organized and pre-planned attack; it is usually the only logical method for terrorist groups to fight a conventionally armed enemy; and, most importantly, it ignores the rules of humanity, targeting the innocent (Understanding Terrorism).

Terrorism is a concept that has been around since history has been written down. From the Sicarii in 66 A.D., and extremist Jewish Zealot sect attacked fellow Jews with a dagger in broad daylight for harboring Romans, to the French "Reign of Terror" and the German Nazi regime to the fatal hostage situation at the 1972 Munich Olympics, groups have been involved in deadly terrorist acts throughout the world. As citizens of the United States and of the world, we should focus a great deal on understanding terrorism. In the age we live in today, terrorism is even more prevalent due to the advancement in communication, transportation, and weapon technology. And with the increasing hostility of some towards the United States, as Americans, we should be very concerned with combating and preventing terrorism.

The Nature of Terrorism. Turk (2004) has shown that what people think they know about terrorist organizations is outdated because over-time the operation of these organizations changes. He described a classic model of terrorist organization as a tightly organized hierarchy made up of small, isolated cells. He said members who belonged to the classic type of organization have limited knowledge of planning and organization above and outside their cells. Members also have no power for operating the organization as a whole, but were indoctrinated to be committed to the organizations without access to other sources of ideas or information. Turk points out that historically the goal of this type of organization was simply to overthrow what they saw as an oppressive system or to drive an alien force from their land. Terrorist activities in these situations typically were financially supported by sympathizers who donated money or other resources. However, in some cases financial resources were obtained through criminal acts such as bank robbery, kidnapping for ransom, or protection racketeering.

According to Turk, today terrorism is more complex because it involves today's sophisticated technology in electronic communications, international transportation networks and in high explosives.

Incidence and Prevalence

Savitch and Ardashev (2001) examined the prevalence of terror in forty cities across the globe by using data from the US Department of State (1993-2000). They found that cities like New York, London, Paris, Jerusalem, Tel Aviv, Athens and Istanbul were the leading candidates for terror attack. They did their survey based of four categories: incidents, fatalities, injuries and physical damage due to terror.. They found that terror can be carried from one region to another. For instance, researchers maintained that often times terror originates in places where there is a high degree of social breakdown, relative ease in resource mobilization and a target that is prone to attack. These go together as social disruption facilitates the flourishing of terrorism. Resource mobilization refers to resources that can be transferred globally for providing the agents for terrorism.

There has been a debate about whether rising urbanization is associated with terror. According to what they have found a number of scholars suggested that there is no causal relationship between the two. In order to test this hypothesis Savitch and Ardashev used a bivariate analysis. They gathered data from seventy eight nations in relation to number of terrorism incidents. These numbers served as dependent variables. In terms of independent variables they used nations' level of urbanization which were defined as percentage of residents living in statistically designated metropolitan areas. The results showed that there was no correlation between the increase of urbanization and incidents of terror. This is shown by the fact that the regression line was flat.

Researchers also compared urban and rural areas to see the prevalence of terror attacks. They divided data into four categories of outcomes: (1) total terrorist incidents, (2) fatalities, (3) injuries and (4) physical or property damage. They found that within a period of eight years cities had incurred over 500 terrorist incidents and more than 13,000 casualties. In addition to that 250 cities across the world experienced at least one terrorist act. These results showed that there was a higher incidence of terror in the cities than in rural areas. Also, the number of people who were killed in the cities constituted 61% of total fatalities, while the proportion of people injured increased to 94% of total injuries. Urban terrorism was also more than six time the total physical damage.

Despite what people might think since the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, Bassioumi (2004) argues that the rate of terrorist attacks has been relatively constant historically. He said contemporary politicians talk vehemently against terror like as if it is something new. Yet, since the end of World War II, in almost every region in the world there have been conflicts characterized by terror-violence.

Terrorists are rational actors who seek maximum pay-offs for their action. Turk explains that people learn to accept terrorism as a political option after they have experienced that their demands are not heard or that they cannot be met by negotiations alone. Furthermore, people who have been exposed to ideologies that justify terrorism are more likely to combine their personal and vicarious learning experiences. Consequently this accumulated knowledge can influence one to be a terrorist. In democratic societies youths who are middle class or from