Chapter 6: Terrorism

Defining Terrorism and Giving a Typology

The concept of terror dates back to the antiquity. It refers to a situation of panic and fear of the Roman people caused by the nearing Cimbri killers in 105 B.C. (The Cimbri was one of the forerunner German tribes such as the Teutons, and it echoes in the proverb “terror cimbricus” (Sage, 2018). However, the concept of terrorism is essentially a product of the Modernity .

Modernity is a period dating back to the 17th and 18th centuries and extending to the mid-20th century (Kırılmaz and Ayparçası, 2016: 33). It is a historical era that refers to concepts such as the nation state, nationalism, industrialization, proletariat, nuclear family, secularism, urbanization, democracy, bureaucracy, bourgeoisie, the rule of law (Terzi, 2016: 105).

Defining Terrorism

According to Thornton (1964:73), terrorism is a symbolic action that is designed to influence political behavior through the use of non-normal means of violence or threats.

According to Marighella (1969: 97), bombed assassinations need to be considered as terrorism. These operations would not involve anyone other than those with technical knowledge of making explosives and coldblooded persons.

For Crenshaw (1981:300), terrorism is mainly thought in relation to the rise of nationalism, anarchism, and revolutionary socialism. The phenomenon of terrorism as a struggle against the state authority has emerged from the difficulties experienced by the revolutionaries in trying to replicate the popular revolt of the French Revolution.

For O’Connor (2011), terrorism is the use of unlawful power or violence against persons or property to intimidate or force a government, civilian population, or any segment of the society for political or social purposes.

For Aydın (2005: 10), terrorism refers to all acts involving violence that may be committed to overthrow a government, change the authority and order of the state, or achieve certain political goals.

For Özcan (2012), terrorism is far more than the damage to the target person or the property; it communicates certain messages to the society and the state. Terrorism cannot survive without propaganda.

For Schmid (2004: 403-404), terrorism refers to 1) the enthusiastic use of violence against humans, 2) the conditional threat of more violence, 3) the deliberate fear production against the target group, 4) targeting the civilians, nonsoldiers, and innocent people, 5) the intimidation, coercion, or propaganda, 6) the method or strategy of conflict waging, 7) the transmission of violence, 8) the illegal, criminal, and nonmoral nature of violent demonstrations, 9) the dominant political character of the movement, and 10) using psychological warfare as a means to mobilize the public sector or to prevent them from taking action.

Giving a Typology of Terrorism

Table 6.2 illustrates one of the most comprehensive typology in the literature. This typology classifies terrorism and terrorists into five distinctive subgroups: by location, by personality trait, by purpose, by target, and by issue.

Although O’Conner’s typology of terrorism is one of the most comprehensive typology in the literature, it has some flaws. For example, cyber terrorism does not exist in the list. Therefore, one can conclude that O’Conner’s typology is very helpful to better understand and analyze terrorism but it is also open to improvement.

Reasons of Terrorism

The Roots of Terrorism

Terzi (2016:162-172) classifies the reasons (causes) of terrorism into two main categories: subjective reasons and objective reasons.

Subjective Reasons : Cultural and social psychological reasons constitute the subjective reasons. Cultural reasons refer to the material practice and spiritual practice of a society. A culture that values violence or war may be given as an example for cultural reasons of terrorism.

Objective Reasons : Objective reasons include

1. Misgovernment,
2. Loose Democracy,
3. Poverty,
4. Wealth Inequality,
5. Ignorance
6. Intellectual awakening or intellectual stimulation, and
7. Other reasons such as adventure, personality predisposition, financial incentives, and mercenary militancy.

Terrorism as a New Means of war in the 21 ^st Century

Throughout history, individuals, states, or political groups have tried to achieve their goals by resorting to violence and war (Mark, 2009). Sometimes the aim was to dominate a region, sometimes to struggle for power, and sometimes to colonize a region.

War and terrorism are both forms of violence that aim at defeating an opponent (University of Minnesota, 2018). War and terrorism are very similar in many ways. Both involve extreme violent acts, both motivated by political, ideological or strategic goals, and both are inflicted by one group of individuals against another (Council of Europe, 2017).

In the 21st century, terrorism continues to be a vital threat to national and global security. Modern terrorist attacks include kidnapping of businesspeople, assassination of political leaders, bombing of embassies, and hijacking of aircrafts. Terrrorism has also introduced new types of violence in terms of technology, victimization, threats, and responses (Alexander, 2002:1).

Proxy Wars

Today, groups or states employ yet another method to realize their political objectives: using some other states, groups or organizations instead of directly fighting with each other- which is called “proxy wars.” Proxy war may be defined as “conflicts in which a third party intervenes indirectly in order to influence the strategic outcome in favor of its preferred faction” (Mumford, 2013:40). Another source defines proxy war as “an armed conflict between two states or non-state actors which act on the instigation or on behalf of other parties that are not directly involved in the hostilities” (Wikipedia Free Encyclopedia, 2018).

Yet, nowadays proxy wars are waged through terrorist organizations. Not only major powers but also relatively small states such as Iran and Israel wage proxy wars against each other through terrorist organizations.

International Terrorism: The Globalization of Terror

Globalization is not a new phenomenon. However, technological development (and especially advances in the information technology) has dramatically transformed, and provided an enormous boost to, the globalization process (Haq, 2010:7). Globalization has its own technological tools such as computerization, miniaturization, digitization, satellite communication, optic fiber, and the internet (Ştibli, 2010:1).

One of the fundamental problems in addressing the phenomenon of international terrorism is that there is still no consensus on a definition of “international terrorism.” The existing definitions tend to fall into two broad categories: academic and political. For example, while the British Intelligence Service defines international terrorism as “the terrorism that goes beyond national boundaries in terms of the methods used, the people that are targeted or the places from which the terrorists operate” (MI5, 2018), Brian Jenkins defines international terrorism as “acts of violence or campaigns of violence waged outside the accepted rules and procedures of international diplomacy and war”( Jenkins, 1975: 20).

Cyber Terrorism: A New Form of Terrorism

Cyber terrorism enters the scene as a new kind of terrorism. It means much more than the propaganda spread by terrorist organizations through the internet. Spreading propaganda has been one of the basic means of traditional terrorism. Cyber terrorism, on the other hand, makes use of (or abuse) information and communication technologies (ICTs).

Defining Cyber Terrorism

The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) defines cyber terrorism as “unlawful attacks and threats of attack against computers, networks, and the information stored therein when done to intimidate or coerce a government or its people in furtherance of political or social objectives” (Wilson, 2008: 4). However, this definition does not give enough information to understand the destructive results of cyberterrorism such as economic damages.

The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) defines cyber terrorism as “the premeditated, politically motivated attack against information, computer systems, computer programs, and data which result in violence against noncombatant targets by subnational groups or clandestine agents” (Elmusharaf, 2004). This definition, however, is problematic because it reduces cyber terrorism only to violence.

A rather successful definition can be found in the works of Sofaer and his colleagues (2000:2 6); according to which, cyber terrorism is the “intentional use or threat of use, without legally recognized authority, of violence, disruption or interference against cyber systems, when it is likely that such use would result in death or injury of a person or persons, substantial damage to physical property, civil disorder, or significant economic harm.”

According to Terzi (2015: 194), cyber terrorism is politically motivated, and its instrument is the terror act itself; that is, it aims at influencing the behavior of millions of people. Its intent is to create impact; it aims at intervening in our daily lives as a result of the prevention of performance.

Some Facts and Possible Scenarios about Cyber Terrorism

Terrorist organizations’ propaganda via internet is an ordinary example of cyber terrorism. Among others, the Brochure on the Countering Cyber Terrorism Course ( held by the Centre of Excellence Defence against Terrorism in Turkey in 2006) lists the following incidents of cyber terrorism:

• A hacker disabled the computer system of the airport control tower at Worcester/ Massachusetts in 1997.
• A hacker from Sweden jammed the 991 emergency telephone system in the west-central Florida in 1997.
• Someone hacked into Maroochy Shire, which is the Australian waste management control system, and released millions of gallons of raw sewage on the town in 2000.
• A hacker was able to control the computer system that governs the flow of natural gas through the pipelines (Centre of Excellence Defence against Terrorism, 2006: 35).

Potential Solutions to Cyber Terrorism

At the national level, it is needed to create specialized staff to combat cyber threats and to increase the capacity of institutions to improve their infrastructures on information and communication technologies. The National Judicial Network Project of Turkey (UYAP) is a good example of this, because it has a special department for the security of the system (Uysal, 2016:80).

The National Judicial Network Project (UYAP) is a management information system which fully automates the judiciary and judicial support units, using all the necessary modern technological improvements. UYAP, developed in a way compatible with the electronic signature infrastructure, has created a central information system, and this system insures complete functional integration between the judiciary and judicial support units (For further information, see Havelsan, 2017).

Countering Terrorism

In countering terrorism, the general guide to success is not only to neutralize the attackers but also to stop the enlisting of new members to terrorist organizations. In a democracy, this requires both the effort of the government and the wide public support. For a democratic government, prior to crafting an appropriate counter-terror policy, it is important to properly identify the threat and analyze the terror acts. The other priorities of counter terrorism include:

• Minimizing the support for terrorist groups,
• Understand the motivation of the groups and relevant recruitment factors,
• Understand the strategic importance of labeling of a group (terrorist, guerilla or revolutionaries etc.) (Holmes, 2007:93-94).

Economic and Social Solutions

Some terrorist organizations have built their ideologies around social injustice and economic inequalities. They also pick new militants from the families in respective regions who suffer from social and economic problems. The continuation of this situation helps the terrorist oganizations to keep their ideology alive as well as to receive political support. Socio-economic development policies may contribute to defeating terrorism through fighting social injustice and reducing economic inequalities (Cragin and Chalk, 2003).

Therefore, expectations for socio-economic development strategies and community-based programs should be realistic. Although effective and well-implemented social and economic development can prevent terrorism, it cannot eliminate it (Jasparro, 2007:444). This point of view shows that terrorism cannot be eliminated only by improving socio-economic conditions. Defining socioeconomic solutions, however, may weaken the ideology of terrorism and contribute to the effort to stop the enlistment of new members. However, such social and economic measures may not be enough. Countering terrorism is a longterm fight that can be carried out by employing many tools in a coordinated manner.

The Role of the Military

Military forces may use force both at home and abroad, in both war and peace time. For this reason, it is not surprising that there is a comprehensive literature available on this subject (Alexander, 2016:3). In a democratic state, internal security missions are normally carried out by the police whereas the armed forces protect the country and the citizens against foreign attacks. Sometimes the army is called to help the government to defeat a serious threat to internal security. This is known as the “Military Aid to Civilian Power” (MACP) (Sen, 1991:58).

It is clear that only if other remedies are insufficient, the unique ability of the armed forces to protect the security of, and freedoms in, a democratic state must be used with great care (Alexander, 2016:6). For example, Robertson (2002) gives the following reasons for the continuation of the role of the military in the fight against terrorism:

• The clear distinction between terrorism and war is disappearing.
• The distinction between internal and external security is disappearing.
• It will sometimes be impossible to protect populations against terrorist attacks by using only defensive measures.

Military action is sometimes the appropriate response to terrorist acts. However, a large military may not be able to prevent terrorist attacks for the following basic reasons:

• terrorists are not traditional enemies that may be deterred by traditional military force;
• terrorism is not a traditional warfare;
• terrorists choose the time and the place of their attacks, and their targets are not on military battlefields;
• terrorists do not wear uniforms to distinguish themselves from their enemies;
• terrorists are the antithesis of the type of the enemy that armed forces are designed and trained to fight (Pena, 2001).

Finally, the army has three main roles in combating terrorism (Robertson, 2002):

• anti terrorism: defense measures to reduce vulnerability of populations, territories, and infrastructure, information and communication systems.
• counter terrorism: offensive measures to track down, prevent, deter, and interdict terrorist activities.
• result management: measures to limit the consequences of terrorist attacks, and to stabilize the situation in the aftermath of such attacks with the support of civilian authorities.

The military’s role in countering terrorism is important. However, military solutions alone are often not enough. Holistic, comprehensive, and long-term plans will be more successful by incorporating military means with social, economic, and political means.

International Cooperation against Terrorism

With the advance of technology, the methods of attack by terrorist organizations have also changed and multiplied as well as the damage caused by these attacks has increased. Especially, the September 11 attacks have generated some interest in jointly combating international terrorism. This has led to the intensification of international-cooperation efforts against terrorism.

International cooperation is the only way to effectively tackle the threat of terrorism, and this threat cannot be dealt with at the national level only. In this regard, major international organizations should consider it one of their main tasks to counter international terrorism (Exterios, 2018).

Some examples of international efforts in the fight against terrorism are given below:

The United Nations General Assembly adopted the Global Anti-Terrorism Strategy .

The Counter-Terrorism Implementation Task Force (CTITF) : The primary goal of CTITF is to maximize each entity‘s comparative advantage by delivering as one to help Member States implement the four pillars of the Global Strategy. These four pillars are:

• Measuresto addressthe conditions causative to the spread of terrorism;
• Measures to prevent and fight terrorism;
• Measures to build states’ capacity to prevent and fight terrorism and to strengthen the role of the United Nations system in that regard;
• Measures to provide respect for human rights for all and the rule of law as the fundamental basis for the fight against terrorism” (UN, 2018b).

The Global Counterterrorism Forum (GCTF)

A number of regional organizations

Europe (OSCE)

Inter-American Counter-Terrorism Committee (ICTC)

International anti-terrorism initiatives continue to suffer from three major weaknesses:

1. the problem of how to define terrorism,
2. inadequate efforts,
3. the limited resources and expertise.

The Struggle Against Financing Terrorism

Financing terrorism can be defined simply as “the process of raising, storing, and moving funds, obtained through legal or illegal means, for the purpose of terrorist acts or sustaining the logistical structure of a terrorist organization” (Stringer, 2011:102).

Terrorist organizations need to generate substantial income to survive and continue their operational capabilities and daily activities. Unlike states, terrorist organizations do not have the authority to legally levy taxes on citizens, but groups like the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam in Sri Lanka and the Taliban in Afghanistan have taxed civilians to gain profits.

The Financial Action Task Force (FATF) is an intergovernmental body established in 1989 by the Ministers of its Member jurisdictions. The objectives of the FATF are to set standards and promote effective implementation of legal, regulatory and operational measures for combating money laundering, terrorist financing and other related threats to the integrity of the international financial system. The FATF is therefore a “policymaking body” which works to generate the necessary political will to bring about national legislative and regulatory reforms in these areas ( http://www.fatf-gafi.org/about/whoweare/ ).