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'''State terrorism''' is a controversial term |
<sub>Subscript text</sub>'''State terrorism''' is a controversial term used to describe [[terrorism]] carried out by governments. |
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==Scope and definition== |
==Scope and definition== |
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Like the [[definition of terrorism]] and the definition of [[state-sponsored terrorism]], the definition of state terrorism remains controversial. There is no international consensus on |
Like the [[definition of terrorism]] and the definition of [[state-sponsored terrorism]], the definition of state terrorism remains controversial. There is as of yet no international consensus on an accepted definition of state terrorism. Nations also disagree on what distinguishes a "terrorist organisation" from a "liberation movement".<ref>[http://ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=29633 POLITICS: U.N. Member States Struggle to Define Terrorism<!-- Bot generated title -->]</ref> |
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There are however several Conventions on Terrorism by non-state actors. They a) define a particular type of terrorist violence as an offence under the convention, such as bombing, financing, etc...; b) require State Parties to penalise that activity in their domestic law; c) identify certain bases upon which the parties responsible are required to establish jurisdiction over the defined offence; d) create an obligation on the State in which a suspect is found to establish jurisdiction over the convention offence and to prosecute if the Party does not extradite pursuant to other provisions of the convention. <ref>[http://ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=29633 POLITICS: U.N. Member States Struggle to Define Terrorism<!-- Bot generated title -->]</ref> |
There are however several Conventions on Terrorism by non-state actors. They a) define a particular type of terrorist violence as an offence under the convention, such as bombing, financing, etc...; b) require State Parties to penalise that activity in their domestic law; c) identify certain bases upon which the parties responsible are required to establish jurisdiction over the defined offence; d) create an obligation on the State in which a suspect is found to establish jurisdiction over the convention offence and to prosecute if the Party does not extradite pursuant to other provisions of the convention. <ref>[http://ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=29633 POLITICS: U.N. Member States Struggle to Define Terrorism<!-- Bot generated title -->]</ref> |
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According to the Britannica Concise terrorism is "systematic use of violence to create a general climate of fear in a population and thereby to bring about a particular political objective".[http://concise.britannica.com/ebc/article-9380497/terrorism] According to the Encyclopedia Britannica, State terrorism, also known as Establishment Terrorism, is "employed by governments—or more often by factions within governments—against that government's citizens, against factions within the government, or against foreign governments or groups. This type of terrorism is very common but difficult to identify, mainly because the state's support is always clandestine."[http://www.wip.britannica.com/eb/article-217762/terrorism] |
According to the Britannica Concise terrorism is "systematic use of violence to create a general climate of fear in a population and thereby to bring about a particular political objective".[http://concise.britannica.com/ebc/article-9380497/terrorism] According to the Encyclopedia Britannica, State terrorism, also known as Establishment Terrorism, is "employed by governments—or more often by factions within governments—against that government's citizens, against factions within the government, or against foreign governments or groups. This type of terrorism is very common but difficult to identify, mainly because the state's support is always clandestine."[http://www.wip.britannica.com/eb/article-217762/terrorism] |
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[[Linguist]] and US critic [[Noam Chomsky]], described as a pioneer in the literature of state terrorism,<ref>''Death Squad: The Anthropology of State Terror'', Sluka, Jeffrey (ed), Philadelphia, PA: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2000, p.8</ref> has stated that, "The U.S. is officially committed to what is called '[[Low intensity conflict|low-intensity warfare]]'.... If you read the definition of low-intensity conflict in army manuals and compare it with official definitions of 'terrorism' in army manuals, or the U.S. Code, you find they're almost the same."<ref name = "David"> {{cite journal |
[[Linguist]] and US policy critic [[Noam Chomsky]], described as a pioneer in the literature of state terrorism,<ref>''Death Squad: The Anthropology of State Terror'', Sluka, Jeffrey (ed), Philadelphia, PA: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2000, p.8</ref> has stated that, "The U.S. is officially committed to what is called '[[Low intensity conflict|low-intensity warfare]]'.... If you read the definition of low-intensity conflict in army manuals and compare it with official definitions of 'terrorism' in army manuals, or the U.S. Code, you find they're almost the same."<ref name = "David"> {{cite journal |
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Revision as of 11:14, 15 April 2008
Subscript textState terrorism is a controversial term used to describe terrorism carried out by governments.
Scope and definition
Like the definition of terrorism and the definition of state-sponsored terrorism, the definition of state terrorism remains controversial. There is as of yet no international consensus on an accepted definition of state terrorism. Nations also disagree on what distinguishes a "terrorist organisation" from a "liberation movement".[1]
There are however several Conventions on Terrorism by non-state actors. They a) define a particular type of terrorist violence as an offence under the convention, such as bombing, financing, etc...; b) require State Parties to penalise that activity in their domestic law; c) identify certain bases upon which the parties responsible are required to establish jurisdiction over the defined offence; d) create an obligation on the State in which a suspect is found to establish jurisdiction over the convention offence and to prosecute if the Party does not extradite pursuant to other provisions of the convention. [2]
It is controversial whether the concept of terrorism can even be applied to to states. It is usually applied to non-state groups.[1] The Chairman of the United Nations Counter-Terrorism Committee has stated that the Committee was conscious of the 12 international Conventions on the subject, and none of them referred to State terrorism, which was not an international legal concept. If States abused their power, they should be judged against international conventions dealing with war crimes, international human rights and international humanitarian law.[2] Former United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan have stated that it is "time to set aside debates on so-called 'state terrorism'. The use of force by states is already thoroughly regulated under international law"[3]
The United Nations states that "The question of a definition of terrorism has haunted the debate among states for decades. A first attempt to arrive at an internationally acceptable definition was made under the League of Nations, but the convention drafted in 1937 never came into existence. The UN Member States still have no agreed-upon definition. Terminology consensus would, however, be necessary for a single comprehensive convention on terrorism, which some countries favour in place of the present 12 piecemeal conventions and protocols. The lack of agreement on a definition of terrorism has been a major obstacle to meaningful international countermeasures. Cynics have often commented that one state's "terrorist" is another state's "freedom fighter"." Proposed definitions include:
- 1. League of Nations Convention (1937): "All criminal acts directed against a State and intended or calculated to create a state of terror in the minds of particular persons or a group of persons or the general public".
- 2. UN Resolution language (1999):"1. Strongly condemns all acts, methods and practices of terrorism as criminal and unjustifiable, wherever and by whomsoever committed; 2. Reiterates that criminal acts intended or calculated to provoke a state of terror in the general public, a group of persons or particular persons for political purposes are in any circumstance unjustifiable, whatever the considerations of a political, philosophical, ideological, racial, ethnic, religious or other nature that may be invoked to justify them". (GA Res. 51/210 Measures to eliminate international terrorism)
- 3. Short legal definition proposed by A. P. Schmid to United Nations Crime Branch (1992): Act of Terrorism = Peacetime Equivalent of War Crime
- 4. Academic Consensus Definition: "Terrorism is an anxiety-inspiring method of repeated violent action, employed by (semi-) clandestine individual, group or state actors, for idiosyncratic, criminal or political reasons, whereby - in contrast to assassination - the direct targets of violence are not the main targets. The immediate human victims of violence are generally chosen randomly (targets of opportunity) or selectively (representative or symbolic targets) from a target population, and serve as message generators. Threat- and violence-based communication processes between terrorist (organization), (imperilled) victims, and main targets are used to manipulate the main target (audience(s)), turning it into a target of terror, a target of demands, or a target of attention, depending on whether intimidation, coercion, or propaganda is primarily sought" (Schmid, 1988).[3]
United Nations Security Council Resolution 1373 discusses terrorism and is a primary UN authority for terrorism because it was issued under Chapter VII UN authority. Resolution 1566 gives a definition:
criminal acts, including against civilians, committed with the intent to cause death or serious bodily injury, or taking of hostages, with the purpose to provoke a state of terror in the general public or in a group of persons or particular persons, intimidate a population or compel a government or an international organization to do or to abstain from doing any act.
Various analysts have attempted to formulate definitions which are neutral with respect to the perpetrators of the act, thus permitting a logically consistent application of the definition to both non-state and state actors:
Terrorism is an anxiety-inspiring method of repeated violent action, employed by (semi-) clandestine individual, group or state actors, for idiosyncratic, criminal or political reasons, whereby - in contrast to assassination - the direct targets of violence are not the main targets. The immediate human victims of violence are generally chosen randomly (targets of opportunity) or selectively (representative or symbolic targets) from a target population, and serve as message generators. Threat- and violence-based communication processes between terrorist (organization), (imperiled) victims, and main targets are used to manipulate the main target (audience(s)), turning it into a target of terror, a target of demands, or a target of attention, depending on whether intimidation, coercion, or propaganda is primarily sought.
[Terrorism is] the purposeful act or threat of violence to create fear and/or compliant behavior in a victim and/or audience of the act or threat. ... this definition helps to distinguish terrorism from other forms of political violence. Not all acts of state violence are terrorism. It is important to understand that in terrorism the violence threatened or perpetrated, has purposes broader than simple physical harm to a victim. The audience of the act or threat of violence is more important than the immediate victim.
— Michael Stohl, Professor of Political Science at Purdue University, [4]
The earliest use of the word "terrorism" identified by the Oxford English Dictionary is a 1795 reference to what the author described as the "reign of terrorism" in France.[5] During that part of the French revolutionary period that is now known as the Reign of Terror, or simply The Terror, the Jacobins and other factions used the apparatus of the state to execute and cow political opponents. The Oxford English Dictionary still has a definition of terrorism as "Government by intimidation carried out by the party in power in France between 1789-1794".[6]
Part of a series on |
Terrorism |
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According to the Britannica Concise terrorism is "systematic use of violence to create a general climate of fear in a population and thereby to bring about a particular political objective".[4] According to the Encyclopedia Britannica, State terrorism, also known as Establishment Terrorism, is "employed by governments—or more often by factions within governments—against that government's citizens, against factions within the government, or against foreign governments or groups. This type of terrorism is very common but difficult to identify, mainly because the state's support is always clandestine."[5]
Linguist and US policy critic Noam Chomsky, described as a pioneer in the literature of state terrorism,[7] has stated that, "The U.S. is officially committed to what is called 'low-intensity warfare'.... If you read the definition of low-intensity conflict in army manuals and compare it with official definitions of 'terrorism' in army manuals, or the U.S. Code, you find they're almost the same."[8] Chomsky and Edward S. Herman have argued that the distinction between state and non-state terror is morally relativist, and distracts from or justifies state terrorism perpetrated by favored states, typically those of wealthy and developed nations (Chomsky and Herman, 1979). Chomsky has in turn been criticized for allegedly ignoring or justifying terrorism by states such as Communist China, Vietnam, and Cambodia.[6] Herman responded to such accusations in Z Magazine.[9]
The manual Military Operations in Low Intensity Conflict states: "Low intensity conflict is a political-military confrontation between contending states or groups below conventional war and above the routine, peaceful competition among states. It frequently involves protracted struggles of competing principles and ideologies. Low intensity conflict ranges from subversion to the use of armed force. It is waged by a combination of means, employing political, economic, informational, and military instruments. Low intensity conflicts are often localized, generally in the Third World, but contain regional and global security implications.""successful LIC operations, consistent with US interests and laws, can advance US international goals such as the growth of freedom, democratic institutions, and free market economies.""US policy recognizes that indirect, rather than direct, applications of US military power are the most appropriate and cost-effective ways to achieve national goals in a LIC environment. The principal US military instrument in LIC is security assistance in the form of training, equipment, services and combat support. When LIC threatens friends and allies, the aim of security assistance is to ensure that their military institutions can provide security for their citizens and government.""The United States will also employ combat operations in exceptional circumstances when it cannot protect its national interests by other means. When a US response is called for, it must be in accordance with the principles of international and domestic law. These principles affirm the inherent right of states to use force in individual or collective self-defense against armed attack."[7]
Historian Walter Laqueur has argued that Hitler and Stalin both practiced state terrorism.[6]
Scholars Emizet Kisangani and Wayne Nafziger argue that democide is equivalent to state terrorism[10]
See also
- Allegations of state terrorism by Iran
- Allegations of state terrorism by Russia
- Allegations of state terrorism in Sri Lanka
- Allegations of state terrorism by the United States
- Consequences of German Nazism
- Gukurahundi
- Selective assassination
Notes
- ^ POLITICS: U.N. Member States Struggle to Define Terrorism
- ^ POLITICS: U.N. Member States Struggle to Define Terrorism
- ^ a b "Definitions of Terrorism". United Nations. Archived from the original on 2007-01-29. Retrieved 2007-07-10.
- ^ Stohl, National Interests and State Terrorism, The Politics of Terrorism, Marcel Dekker 1988, p.275
- ^ Oxford English Dictionary 2nd Edition, CD Version 3, 2002, Oxford University Press
- ^ a b Jenny Teichman (1989). "How to define terrorism". Philosophy. 64 (250): 505-517.
{{cite journal}}
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ignored (help) - ^ Death Squad: The Anthropology of State Terror, Sluka, Jeffrey (ed), Philadelphia, PA: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2000, p.8
- ^ Barsamian, David (2001). "The United States is a Leading Terrorist State An Interview with Noam Chomsky". Monthly Review.
{{cite journal}}
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and|coauthors=
(help) - ^ "Pol Pot And Kissinger: On war criminality and impunity", by Edward S. Herman, Z Magazine, September 1997
- ^ Kisangani, E. (2007). "The Political Economy Of State Terror" (PDF). Defence and Peace Economics. 18 (5): 405–414. Retrieved 2008-04-02.
References
- Sluka, Jeffrey A. (Ed.) (2000). Death Squad: The Anthropology of State Terror. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press. ISBN 0-8122-1711-X.
- Chomsky, Noam and Herman, Edward S. (1979). The Washington Connection and Third World Fascism: The Political Economy of Human Rights: Vol. 1. Boston: South End Press. ISBN 0-89608-090-0
- Alexander George (1991). Western State Terrorism. Polity Press. ISBN 0-7456-0931-7.
- Mark Curtis (2004). Unpeople: Britain's Secret Human Rights Abuses. Vintage. ISBN 0-09-946972-3.
Further reading
- Lerner, Brenda Wilmoth & K. Lee Lerner, eds. Terrorism : essential primary sources. Thomson Gale, 2006. ISBN 9781414406213 Library of Congress. Jefferson or Adams Bldg General or Area Studies Reading Rms LC Control Number: 2005024002.
- Tarpley, Webster G. 9/11 Synthetic Terror, Made in USA -Progressive Press. ISBN 0-93085-231-1
- Chomsky, Noam. The Culture of Terrorism ISBN 0-89608-334-9
- Chomsky, Noam. 9/11 ISBN 1-58322-489-0
- George, Alexander. Western State Terrorism, Polity Press. ISBN 0-7456-0931-7
External links
Prevention of terrorism