Warfare by Other Means: Revolutionary Organization 17 November, Hezbollah, and Anti-Abortion Terrorism
Date
2002
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Haverford College. Department of Political Science
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Award
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eng
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Haverford users only
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Abstract
Although statistical evidence may indicate that the practice of terrorism has been in decline over the last decade, the reality is that these fewer attacks have been increasingly lethal and that the number of groups embracing the use of terror is continually climbing. In the post-Cold War era, more and more minority groups have come to view the use of violence in order to achieve political goals as legitimate and as potentially rewarding. In the post-Cold War world, terrorism has centered around nationalist, ethnic, religious, and right-wing causes. In contrast, Cold War terrorism, characterized by Marxism and nationalism, has virtually disappeared in most areas. With the collapse of communism and the Soviet Union, leftist groups have lost considerable support and credibility. Although these types of groups still remain, and continue to cause a great deal of terror, these terrorists have been eclipsed in the press and in the U.S. national consciousness by ethnic, religious, and right-wing groups, ranging from the U.S. militia movements to Hezbollah. Moreover, terrorism has become a larger, still undefined type of conflict often referred to as low-intensity conflict (lie), operations other than war (OOTW), or complex emergencies. Persons and groups have committed terrorist acts for at least two thousand years. During this considerable span of history, such acts have been carried out by an enormously varied range of persons with an enormously varied range of beliefs, in order to achieve an enormously varied range of ends. What all these groups share is a fervent belief in their respective causes and a belief that their violent methods are justifiable in the name of a greater power or for the promise of a greater future. The willingness to make use of violent methods is not the result of a terrorist's mad and irrational desire to inflict harm upon a large population, but is the outcome of a rational choice that terrorist acts may prove to be the most viable way for their message to be heard and be taken seriously by a large audience, so that their goals have a greater chance of being attained. What has sustained the use of terror by persons and groups over so many years is due to the fact, in part, that terrorism has ultimately worked in the favor of these groups. For a group with limited resources, terror can have a more dramatic impact than other means, such as through civil and legal processes.