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Lecture notes Terrorism and Counterterrorism
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All lecture notes of the BaSS year 2 course terrorism and counterterrorism of the academic year 2020/2021
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Lecture 1 – What is (counter)terrorism?Terrorism does not necessarily require people to have mental health issues. Are Osama bin Laden,
Hannie Schaft and people in the Spanish civil war terrorists?
What is terrorism?
There is no commonly accepted definition. Does this matter? On the one hand, one can argue that it is
not. In a lot of academic debates, there is no clear definition of a certain topic. However, one should
acknowledge the fact there is no clear definition when researching terrorism.
The debate on terrorism is highly politicized. E.g. Hannie Schaft, a Dutch freedom fighter.
The moral in the Netherlands is that she was a good person. However, in the eyes of other states, she
might as well be a terrorist. Portraying other states, particular groups or enemies as terrorists is a very
powerful move in the political world.
The topic does, however, not only cover the academic field, but terrorism can affect entire
populations, making it a societal relevant problem as well. Therefore, a critical and nuanced approach
is very much needed.
Defining terrorism
Defining terrorism is something that has been tried since the field’s inception, but it is very difficult to
find a clear definition because:
There are many negative connotations of “terrorism”
You want to be objective, but have to make subjective distinctions (e.g. freedom fighters
versus terrorists)
Is it a phenomenon that happens too infrequent to generalize?
As a result of this, we can question how to build on each other’s research if definitions do not align.
For example the Global Terrorism Index includes civil war violence as well in their maps, though
some researchers may say that is more so guerrilla warfare.
On definitions
The purpose of a definition is to help understanding a topic (descriptive), to state what does and what
does not fall under the concept that is used (clear boundaries), and it should help to stay objective and
neutral in researching a topic.
There are three types of definitions: legal, governmental and academic. For your research you
can pick any of these definitions as long as you can explain why you have chosen to use it.
Key elements of definition of terrorism?
Alex Schmid sent out a survey in 1988 and in the 2010s on the definition of terrorism. In 1988 the top
five results were: violence, force; political; threat; fear; and (psychological) effects and reactions.
When creating a definition with these five things included, one could ask, however, how this is
different from an act of war.
Terrorism versus insurgency
Terrorists tend to have more limited goals than insurgents. Terrorism groups have to be smaller,
because otherwise they will be caught (quicker), but these smaller groups cannot control for a longer
time. Controlling an area for a longer time is usually not their goal though. Their main goal is for
people to look at them. Also, the relation to the population differs from insurgents, because terrorist
groups need just enough support to keep on doing what they’re doing. For insurgents this is different,
because they want as much power and support as possible.
Insurgents can be terrorists as well, but terrorist groups tend to not really implement
insurgency in their strategies.
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,Terrorism versus organized crime
In organized crime, the attack is more often on particular people instead of a group as a whole. Also,
organized crime is more often about money than terrorism, and organized criminals want to go
unnoticed, whereas terrorists do want to be noticed.
Schmid’s 2011 definition of terrorism
‘Terrorism refers on the one hand to a doctrine about the presumed effectiveness of a special form or
tactic of fear-generating, coercive political violence and, on the other hand, to a conspiratorial
practice of calculated, demonstrative, direct violent action without legal or moral restraints, targeting
mainly civilians and non-combatants, performed for its propagandistic and psychological effects on
various audiences and conflict parties’
A distinction can be made between murder and terrorism on the basis of this definition as well.
In murder, there is a personal aspect. This is (often) missing in terrorism. Terrorists do not care who
they catch, as long as we watch the news for it. The media, thus, in some way is a terrorists’ best
friend, because they gain attention over media attention.
Terrorism as violent communication
Attack on Theo van Gogh is an example here. Not only the deed is a form of communication, the
terrorist created texts that he spread as well.
Different kinds of terrorism
Left-wing Marxism and Leninism. The struggle for a class-less society. This
defined the 1960s-1980s.
Right-wing Mistrust of the government, conspiracy theories, racism, neo-
liberalism, white supremacy.
Nationalist/separatist Self-determination, anticolonial, strong driver insurgency
State terror Large scale violence to intimidate or control populations. Numeral
examples, e.g. in Europe and Latin America.
Religious Next week
Criminal FARC? Taliban? IRA? Mob-activities?
Single issue Not focused on a particular ideology, but a particular grievance (Incels,
2014; led to more and more focus on others committing terrorist
crimes than “Arab people”)
Lone actor Individuals who plan, prepare and execute attacks in isolation.
Cyber The increasing importance of the internet
Before 9/11 the main focus was on the terrorist group IRA. After 9/11 the switch went towards the
Middle East. This is still the case, even though the majority of the US terrorist attacks are committed
by right wing extremists. The religious focus may be because of the amount of victims, but we should
not focus on one and not the other (no tunnel vision).
Terrorism is not only a non-state activity.
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,Lecture 2 – political violence and state-terrorism
Critiques of Terrorism Research
Critical Terrorism Studies (CTS; lecture 6) argues that post 9/11 scholarship on terrorism:
- Is ahistorical: terrorism is a ‘new’ phenomenon, and is being distinct from previous forms of
terrorism
- Treats terrorism as emerging in a social vacuum: it just kind of happens
- Lacks multi-level analysis: the field is the product of interaction between individuals and their
environment/the state.
- Is state-centric: there isn’t enough focus on the state
- Focuses on secondary rather than primary data: there is too much focus on secondary
literature, creating a circular element.
- Is policy oriented: researchers are too close to the state, for example via funding.
Social Movement Theory
Social Movement Theory (SMT) is an interdisciplinary
study that seeks to explain why social mobilization
occurs and how it manifests. It also explains potential
social, cultural, and political consequences of social
mobilization. SMT rejects classical approaches such as
Figure 1 Advantages of SMT
collective behaviour theory, mass society theory and
relative deprivation.
SMT finds its roots in the growth of social movement activity in both Europe and the United
States during the 1960s, because ‘deprivation’ was not seen as a viable explanation anymore, because
the protests were taking place in countries that were actually very wealthy. Instead, structural
approaches examined how the social and political context enabled or hinder protests.
When talking about social movements, there are a couple of interesting elements. First, there
is a collective challenge, and the people in this collective have common purposes. The aim of the
collective is to change the status quo. An example of a social movement could be a group of students
pushing for lower tuition fee, could be a group advocating for the Caliphate in Iraq/Syria. It can, thus,
be very broad.
Tilly and SMT
Tilly is the ‘grandfather’ of social movements theory. Essentially what he does in his work is
emphasize how dynamics of social protest are tied to their political, social and economic context. One
of the things he does is looking at various periods of time and then look at what social movements
look like in a certain time, in a certain place. The way he conceptualizes SM as a series of contentious
performances, displays and campaigns by which ordinary people make collective claims on others.
Tilly argues that there are three major elements to a social movement: campaigns, repertoire and
WUNC displays (the latter won’t be discussed in this course).
Essentially when he talks about campaigns, he says that these are a sustained, organized public
effort making collective claims of target authorities. He says that these campaigns have two actors;
claim-makers (the collective group), and the object of the claim (the people who hold the authority,
against whom the claim-makers are demonstrating). This can be very broad. An example is the
protesters in Hong Kong versus Carrie Lam (leader of HK). Objects of claim don’t necessarily have to
be politicians, but can be leaders or public figures in all fields of our society. For example, the pope, or
an employer can be Objects of Claim as well.
The second element that Tilly brings forward is the notion of repertoire of contention. He
conceptualizes this as employment of combinations of techniques of political action. It’s essentially
like a menu; one wants to protest for event A, there are several ways to do so. Repertoires of
contention constantly change; what is in it today, will not be in a year, ten years or a hundred years.
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, There are many different forms of techniques of contention. Examples are rallies, boycotts, strikes,
public lectures, hunger strike, etc.
Tarrow’s 3 types of technique of contention
The first are the contained techniques. These are build on routines that people understand and that
elites will accept/facilitate. The second are disruptive techniques. These break with routine, startle
bystanders and leave elites disoriented. These are unstable and turn into violence easily, or become
‘contained’. This can for example be the blockage of highways (by farmers e.g.). The third are violent
techniques. These are most dramatic and easiest to initiate. Under normal circumstances, limited to
small groups with few resources who are willing to risk repression. Terrorism falls under this.
Tilly defines Terrorism as “asymmetrical deployment of threats and violence against enemies using
means that fall outside the forms of political struggle routinely operating within some current regime”.
Veilleux-Lepage: “I consider the techniques contained in claim-makers’ repertoires of
contention, which include the deployment of threats and violence, in a manner that falls outside the
society accepted norms of claim making, to be ‘terroristic’”.
It is important to note that violence is only legitimate if committed by the state (monopoly of
the state, Max Weber).
Political violence
Within the category of political violence is where terrorism lies. Political violence is “the exercise of
physical force with the intention to harm the welfare and physical integrity of the victim motivated by
political goals”. The Holocaust, 9/11, civils wars, the Paris attacks etc. are all notions of political
violence. When trying to understand what is meant
with it, we can use various important dimensions:
- Perpetrators; state or non-state actors.
There is a strain in the literature that
argues that states can never commit
terrorism.
- Targets; non-combatants, state actors
- Means; intentional use of violence
- Goals; affecting political outcomes
Note that in many conflicts, and to many groups, violence is not the only used technique, and it may
not even be the technique that is used most frequent as well.
What happens if a state commits violence? States commit violence way more often than
terrorist groups or civilians who are
not in a terrorist group. There is
several definitions of state
terrorism:
Examples of state terrorism are;
Stalin, China and their actions
towards the population, crackdown
against student protest, the invasion
in Iraq, Yemen, Somalia, etc.
State violence in itself can have different forms. The first is political repression. This entails
an act of a state entity controlling a citizenry by force for political reasons, to restrict or prevent their
ability to take part in the political life of a society thereby reducing their standing. The violence used
in this, by the state, can be made legal. Several techniques of political repression are used by the state.
For example, police brutality, torture, extrajudicial killing, forced disappearance, human rights
violations, imprisonment, etc.
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