WHAT IS A TERRORIST ORGANIZATION?
A CASE FOR RE-CONCEPTUALIZATION
Keywords:
terrorism, terrorist organization, lone wolf terrorism, leaderless resistanceAbstract
Purpose
The problems of defining terrorism have been widely discussed for decades within the academic community, political decision-makers, and legal scholars and practitioners alike. While some elements in the definition are more or less agreed upon, for example, political motivation and violence or the threat thereof, others are still disputed. Among these is the issue of perpetrators of terrorism, in several ways. One of them is certainly the question, “Can a state commit acts of terrorism?” More pressing, taking into account transformations of terrorism in the 21st century, may be the need to explore whether individuals can commit terrorism, or is the presence of an organization as a perpetrator a necessary feature of the very definition of the concept. The primary aim of this paper is to re-examine the concept of a terrorist organization and its implications for both the theoretical understanding of terrorism and the practical countermeasures against this threat. This will be done primarily, but not exclusively, from the perspective of political science.
Design/Methods/Approach
Drawing from an abundant body of scholarly literature on terrorism and terrorist organizations, this paper will endeavor to answer three separate research questions:
- What constitutes a terrorist organization, that is, when is it justified to qualify a group as a terrorist organization?
- Was there ever a scholarly consensus about the defining features of a terrorist organization, and has it changed in the 21st century?
- Is the presence of a terrorist organization behind the act of violence a necessary component of the definition of terrorism?
Findings
The main finding of this paper is that there is no universally accepted definition of a terrorist organization, nor is it clear that only acts of violence perpetrated by organizations can or should be designated as terrorism. The evolving nature of terrorism itself, perhaps accelerating in this century, suggests that the concept of terrorist organization and its relation to the concept of terrorism must be re-examined and re-conceptualized, for two main reasons. The first is the shift in the landscape of Islamist terrorism after 9/11 and subsequent wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, from tightly knit and hierarchical organizations such as al-Qaeda to more or less decentralized groups sharing ideology and goals but not operational data (increased accessibility and parallel evolution of the Internet has played significant role in this). While the concept of leaderless resistance was not invented by Islamists, it was widely adopted by them, as well as by violent groups with very different ideological backgrounds and political objectives. The other reason is the emergence and increase of so-called lone wolf terrorism, that is, a growing number of attacks perpetrated by individuals with no obvious link to any organization.
Originality/Value
The theoretical conceptualization of the terrorist organization as a distinct phenomenon is somewhat lacking, with empirical research and case studies accounting for the vast majority of scholarly literature on the subject. However, the answer to the question “What counts as a terrorist organization in the 21st century?” is not of strictly academic interest. Given that many national penal codes list membership in a terrorist organization as an offence per se, it has serious practical implications. Moreover, to efficiently counter contemporary terrorism, it is necessary to understand its actors and the ways in which they organize and operate.
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