Terrorism (Терроризм)

The word «terrorism» is controversial. Definitions of «terrorism» generally involve some or all of the following: 1) a terrorist act is generally unlawful; 2) it is violent and may be life threatening; 3) the violence is politically motivated; 4) the direct targets are civilians; 5) the direct targets may not be the main targets; 6) the main targets may be one or more nation-states, governments, or societies; or a political, ethnic, or religious group, or an industry or commercial operation, within those societies; 7) the objective is usually to frighten the main targets; 8) there may or may not be a claim of responsibility.

Terrorism expert A. P. Schmid of the United Nations Office for Drug Control and Crime Prevention has proposed a short legal definition for use by the UN, namely that an act of terrorism is «the peacetime equivalent of a war crime». The words «terrorism» and «terror» originally referred to methods employed by regimes to control their own populations through fear, a tactic seen in totalitarian regimes such as Nazi Germany and Soviet Russia. The current use of the term relies more on the example of the 19th-century revolutionaries who used the technique of assassination, particularly the anarchists and Narodniks (populists) in Tsarist Russia, whose most notable action was the assassination of Alexander II.

In response to the September 11, 2001 attacks, political leaders from Europe, North America, Asia, and the Middle East have placed the phenomenon of terrorism within the context of a global struggle against systems of government perceived by those accused of using terrorist tactics as harmful to their interests. Acts of terrorism can be carried out by individuals or groups. The most common image of terrorism is that it is carried out by small and secretive cells, highly motivated to serve a particular cause. Terrorists often seek to demoralize and paralyze their enemy with fear, using their acts as a form of blackmail to apply pressure on governments to achieve goals the terrorists could not achieve by other means.

Recent developments have seen a divergence in social and political responses to terrorism between the United States and Western Europe. The September 11, 2001 attacks were carried out by foreigners who entered the country for that purpose, on behalf of a foreign organization, operating from bases in a remote country. Western European countries, on the other hand, are now confronted with a domestic terrorism based within a domestic religious minority, some recent immigrants, but many native-born citizens.

1. What do we consider terrorism?

2. Who can be called the first "terrorists"?

3. Who are usually the main victims of terrorist attacks?