Terrorism is defined differently in different societies. The French scholar Christophe Boutin defines it as “acts of violence targeting innocent civilians, intended to create a climate of insecurity in order to achieve political objectives.” American writer Walter Laqueur defined it as the illegitimate use of force to achieve a political objective by targeting innocent people.”
Today, terrorism poses a threat to the very fabric of human existence. It endangers both international peace and the cohesion of local communities, whether in the societies that produce and foster terrorism, harbor terror, or simply fall victim to its attacks. Methods vary: car bombs, improvised explosives, suicide attacks, stabbings, beheadings, rammings, and more. Terrorism strikes indiscriminately: its victims are diverse and its scale ever shifting. In one incident in France, a Muslim police officer lost his life defending the people of Paris from an extremist with a distorted understanding of religion; terrorism is not confined to any particular faith, sect, or place.
Terrorism knows no homeland and adheres to no creed. It is driven by circumstances, causes, and converging interests. What was once a localized threat has become a global commodity. It can be exported, reused, and deployed as a tool to pressure states and shape policy, whether through tolerance or sponsorship of terrorist groups.
Terrorism has grown increasingly brutal. Many villages and towns now awaken daily to fresh horrors: beheadings, mutilations with knives, swords, and axes, often targeting children, women, and the elderly. The tactics range from bombings and fake checkpoints to the mass slaughter of sleeping communities. As attacks multiply and casualties rise, some nations find themselves effectively at war with extremist groups that refuse difference and operate from mountainous hideouts. Their sources of funding and the actors behind them often remain obscure.
The impulses that drive terrorism vary according to the individual’s psychological makeup: sadistic urges to kill and witness bloodshed, the absence or suppression of cultural awareness, and the usurpation of religious authority in interpretation and issuing fatwas. The ensuing chaos and the free for all in issuing religious edicts has led to perverse and fanatical readings of religion. Some treat religious interpretations as absolute truth that cannot be corrected, fueling radicalism and, in some cases, violence in defense of perceived violations of sacred values.
One major factor behind the spread of terrorism has been the decline of already fragile regions. The Middle East, for example, has been ravaged by political conflicts that gave rise to "creative chaos" that was later branded the “Arab Spring.” This process created political vacuums in several countries and spread instability, leading to the rise of armed militias. Libya, Iraq, and Yemen present stark examples of ideological militias resorting to violence and terrorism to seize power because of their religious or ideological fanaticism.
The aggravating terrorism crisis is not only the result of political vacuums or the collapse of central authorities, though these problems certainly played a role in paving the way for the rise of extremist and exclusionary groups. In fact, in their quest to expand influence and assert dominance over weaker nations, even global superpowers can eliminate obstacles to their ambitions by turning a blind eye to, or even facilitating, terrorism when it serves their political agenda.
Terrorism undermines the very foundations of societies, hindering peace and justice. It continues to rise, in part, due to the sheer number of terrorist organizations operating across the globe, each with a distinct belief system. In some cases, they have no belief system at all. Some are little more than mercenaries driven solely by profit.
So-called “revolutionary” groups that employ violence as a means to achieve change fall into the same category as religious extremist groups. Revolutionary ideology is ideology, and once it resorts to violence, it becomes terrorism.
No society or place in the world is entirely safe or immune from the threat of terrorism, so long as there are forces that produce or harbor it. The solution must begin with dismantling the ideological foundations of terrorism, which is to be followed by cutting off its sources of funding and its safehavens. This cannot be accomplished through isolated or unilateral efforts. It demands coordinated international operations, otherwise responses will remain ineffective, misguided, and doomed to fail.
