global terrorism essay

Essay on Global Terrorism for Students and Children

500+ words essay on global terrorism.

Global Terrorism

The world has changed significantly since the September 11 attacks. Security has become an all-encompassing concern. People nowadays plan their vacations according to the factor such as whether the destination is safe or not, which route possess the least danger. Thus, after terrorist strikes took place people no longer feel safe in their own countries.

As we know about the attack on Twin Tower on September 11 in the USA in which militants associated with the Islamic extremist group al-Qaida hijacked four airplanes and carried out suicide attacks against targets in the United States.

Among four planes hijacked, two of the planes were flown into the twin towers of the World Trade Centre in New York City, a third plane hit the Pentagon Washington D.C., while the fourth plane crashed in a field in Shanksville, Pennsylvania. These attacks eventually led to attack in Afghanistan by the USA to demolish Mullah Omar’s regime which is called War On Terror.

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War on Terror

After the September 11, 2001 attacks, an international military initiative was launched by the United States. This initiative was called the War on Terror. According to President Bush, this war was targeted at the radical network of terrorists as well as to the governments who supported them.

US and allied troops were deployed in Iraq and Afghanistan, both believed to be home to terrorist cells and leaders. Lastly, President Barak Obama’s administration formally called an end to the War and announced the withdrawal of American troops from Afghanistan. Osama bin Laden had allegedly been killed by US Navy Seals and Al-Qaeda wasn’t considered the threat it once used to be.

However, 2014 saw the emergence of ISIS or ISIL. The jihadist organization was dubbed a terrorist group by the UN. This led to the formation of a new operation called Operation Inherent Resolve that would target terror in South Asia and the Middle East.

Threat to Humanity

The word terrorism indicates that extremists who use terror tactics use to develop fear in the hearts of people everywhere. They succeed in it because they target civilians in places where they would ideally be safe such as schools, malls, shopping thoroughfares, pubs, nightclubs, churches, and mosques.

Also, the shock value of these tactics is much higher. Terrorism is a strategy that various organizations use to achieve their aims by targeting innocent people. Terrorist attacks affect public morale and generate an atmosphere of fear. These attacks create divides between people from different regions, ethnicities, and religions. Instead of coming together to fight this threat, people are suspicious of each other and close themselves up.

Terrorism is very much a reality of modern times. The mere threat of a terrorist attack is enough to generate panic and fear among the general populace. We cannot deny the fact that global terrorism has affected policy decisions to a great extent. The internet has given terrorist organizations a global platform to spread their agenda and recruit more people. However, it may be time for a more militaristic solution to the problem of global terrorism.

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International Terrorism: The Challenge to Global Security Essay

Introduction, international terrorism as a global challenge, discussion and conclusion.

The damaging effect of terrorism on modern society was brought to the world’s attention following the terrorist attacks in New York and Washington in September 2001. This acts by the Al-Qaeda terror network demonstrated that international terrorism has the power to disrupt social life even in the world’s super power.

Since then, a wide-ranging debate has developed about the level of threat that international terrorism poses to the global community. While some people regard international terrorism as a marginal threat, others see it as an existential threat to society.

This paper will argue that international terrorism is the main challenge facing the world in the context of international security and therefore, measures should be taken to address this issue and safeguard global security.

International terrorism has become the greatest danger to world security, overtaking the threats of military confrontations from rival great powers. Stewart (2006) observes that the international security threat posed by military confrontations between rival great powers has reduced dramatically since the Second World War.

Most Western nations have formed alliances such as NATO, which makes it almost impossible for them to engage in aggressive military confrontation against each other. The possession of nuclear weapons by the major powers such as Russia and China acts as a deterrence from any major confrontation (Lutz & Brenda 2004).

Nations are therefore more likely to resort to diplomacy instead of risk military confrontation with each other. However, international terrorists attack nations without fear of retaliation since they do not have a well established base or economic resources that they hope to protect.

The activities of international terrorist organization have made the world unsafe. Terror activities have not been limited to US targets and the rest of the world has suffered from the actions of terrorists. The international terror organization, Al Qaeda did not limit its attacks to US targets and on March 11, 2004, it carried out the Madrid train bombings.

London also experienced terrorist attacks in July 2005 when the London Underground was bombed by Islamist extremists (UK Defence and Security Report 2010). Indonesia experienced terrorist attacks in 2002 that killed 202 people while a hotel in Jakarta was bombed in 2003 killing 12 people.

Thieux (2004) asserts that these attacks prove that international terrorism is a serious and potential threat not only for the United States but also for EU member states and the rest of the world.

International terrorism presents the most significant risk to global nuclear non-proliferation efforts. Presently, all functioning Weapons of Mass Destruction (WMD) including nuclear weapons are in the hands of legitimate governments.

However, intelligence reports indicate that terrorist organizations such as Al Qaeda have made efforts to obtain WMDs especially from weak states such as Pakistan. Bowen and Cottee (2012) state that if international terrorists obtain WMDs, they will be able to inflict major damages to targets all over the world.

International terrorism has increased the vulnerability of nations to attacks from their own citizens. Thieux (2004) documents that in addition to the Islamic radicals who joined the Al Qaeda network in the past, this terror organization now attracts members who are well integrated in the society.

International terrorist organizations are able to radicalize citizens of a country leading to the development of home-grown terrorists. For example, individuals can access jihadi websites and obtain information on suicide bombing (The UK Defence & Security Report 2010). Tackling this threat has proved to be a major challenge for most nations.

Thieux (2004) notes that international terrorism has led to a blurring between foreign and domestic affairs as nations have to deal with issues such as home-grown terrorists and sleeper cells. The difficulty of identifying terrorists increases the risk that these elements pose to the global community.

International terrorists are spread all over the world and it is difficult for law enforcement agencies to correctly identify all potential suspects. Stewart (2006) notes that unlike in a conventional war where the enemy combatants are easy to identify, the diverse pool of individuals involved in international terrorism makes the threat hard to identify.

International terrorism presents a major challenge since these actors do not follow any international laws of combat. There are well-established rules that can be used by nations when dealing with traditional security threats. These laws include rules of engagement that forbid soldiers from attacking unarmed civilians.

Diplomacy can also be used to resolve the differences between nations without resorting to armed confrontation. With international terrorism, there are no rules of engagement and terror organizations target civilians in order to spread fear (Engene 2004). The traditional tools of military deterrence and diplomacy are not effective in dealing with the threat of international terrorism.

International terrorism has led to the development of poor relationships between Western countries and the Arab world. Since most international terrorist organizations are operated by radical Islamists, the policies adopted by countries such as the US to counter them focus on these radical elements. The fight against terrorism has therefore focused on tackling the issue of Islamic extremism (Victoroff 2005).

This has proved to be problematic since terrorism organizations are not disparate and therefore cannot be handled using a uniform policy response. Hammond (2008) asserts that the overemphasis on Islamic extremism has led to the strengthening of the misperception especially in the Middle East that “the anti-terror campaign is actually a war on Islam” (p.220).

This situation has threatened to divide the world on religious basis. Hammond (2008) suggests that the division based on religious differences fostered by international terrorism is proving to be the greatest threat to international unity since the cold war.

International terrorism has contributed to the unpopularity of the US in many countries all over the world and the subsequent inclination of terrorists to attack US targets. Meyer (2009) states that terrorism threatens global security by disrupting the “peace of mind” of citizens and prompting aggressive retaliation by individual states.

Hammond (2008) reveals that following the 9/11 attacks, the Bush administration engaged in controversial security policies and effectively declared that America was at war with international terrorists. Due to the Bush policies, the US carried out military activities against terrorists and their affiliates and used economic means to influence the behaviours or interests of nations that harbour terrorists.

Terrorism threatens to disrupt international relations among traditional allies. Due to globalization, the movement of people from country to country has increased. Many international companies have established themselves in foreign countries and global trade is at a high level. International terrorists target Western citizens in foreign countries leading to immense political and psychological impact.

Tan (2007) documents that in 2002, the Al Qaeda affiliated network in South East Asia, Jemmah Islamiah, planned to carry out a terror attack against American targets in Singapore. If this attack had succeeded, it would have deteriorated the good relationship between the US and Singapore and greatly contributed to the growth of insecurity in the region.

The relationship between Pakistan and the UK has suffered due to international terrorism. The UK has accused Pakistan of not doing enough to prevent terrorism. In 2009, the UK arrested 12 Pakistani students in UK on suspicion of involvement in terrorism (UK Defence and Security Report 2010).

International terrorism undermines the good relationships between nations, and without this amicable relationship, global peace and security cannot be achieved.

The global community considers terrorism to be a significant threat to international peace. Following the events of 9/11, most nations, led by the US, have made a public declaration of war against international terrorism. The potential damages that international terrorists can cause, especially if they acquire WMD has led to arguments that terrorism is an “existential threat” for modern society (Meyer 2009).

With this realization, Western nations have tried to come up with a common and coordinated way of dealing with the threat of international terrorism. However, Thieux (2004) notes that the efforts have not been adequate and terrorism is still a major international threat.

This paper set out to demonstrate that international terrorism is the greatest threat to international security that the global community faces today. It begun by nothing that the global security threat posed by conventional military confrontations between nations is very low. However, the threat presented by international terrorism to global security is on the rise.

This threat has led to the deterioration of relationships especially between the West and Arab countries. The influence of terrorists has spread into many countries all over the world and various attacks have been carried out. For this reason, many countries view international terrorism as a threat to their security. Fighting global terrorism should therefore be a key priority for all nations.

Bowen, W & Cottee, M 2012, ‘Multilateral cooperation and the prevention of nuclear terrorism: pragmatism over idealism’, International Affairs , vol. 88, no. 2, pp. 349–368.

Engene, O 2004, Terrorism in Western Europe: Explaining The Trends Since 1950, Edward Elgar Publishing, NY.

Hammond, A 2008, ‘Two countries divided by a common threat? International perceptions of US and UK counter-terrorism and homeland security responses to the post-September 2001 threat environment’, Place Branding and Public Diplomacy , vol. 4, no. 3, pp. 218–239.

Lutz, J & Brenda, J 2004, Global Terrorism , Routledge, NY. Print.

Meyer, C 2009, ‘International terrorism as a force of homogenization? A constructivist approach to understanding cross-national threat perceptions and responses’, Cambridge Review of International Affairs , vol. 22, no. 4, pp. 647-666.

Stewart, P 2006, ‘Weak States and Global Threats: Fact or Fiction?’, Washington Quarterly, vol. 29, no. 2, pp. 27-53.

Tan, A 2007, ‘Singapore’s Cooperation with the Trilateral Security Dialogue Partners in the War Against Global Terrorism’, Defence Studies , vol. 7, no. 2, pp. 193-207.

Thieux, L 2004, ‘European Security and Global Terrorism: the Strategic Aftermath of the Madrid Bombing’, Central European Review of International Affairs , vol. 22, no. 1, pp. 59-74.

UK Defence and Security Report 2010, Domestic Security Overview , Business Monitor International Ltd, London.

Victoroff, J 2005, ‘The Mind of the Terrorist: A Review and Critique of Psychological Approaches’, The Journal of Conflict Resolution vol. 49, no.1, pp. 3-42.

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IvyPanda. (2019, December 20). International Terrorism: The Challenge to Global Security. https://ivypanda.com/essays/international-terrorism-the-challenge-to-global-security/

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Terrorism as a global wave phenomenon: an overview.

• David C. Rapoport David C. Rapoport Professor Emeritus, Department of Political Science, University of California, Los Angeles
• https://doi.org/10.1093/acrefore/9780190228637.013.299
• Published online: 26 September 2017

Global terror began in the 1880s, but it took a century before a few scholars began to understand its peculiar dynamic. One reason for the difficulty was that many scholars and government officials had “historical amnesia.” When they saw it disappear, they assumed it had become part of history and no longer had contemporary relevance. But global terror disappears and then reappears. Another reason they failed to understand the pattern is that the concept of generation was rarely used to describe politics, a concept that requires one to recognize the importance of life cycles. Modern global terror comes in the form of waves precipitated by major political events that have important global significance. A wave consists of a variety of groups with similar tactics and purposes that alter the domestic and international scenes. Four very different waves have materialized: the Anarchist, the Anti-Colonial, the New Left, and the Religious. The first three have been completed and lasted around 40 years; the fourth is now in its third decade, and if it follows the rhythm of its predecessors, it should be over in the mid-2020s, but a fifth wave may emerge thereafter.

• historical amnesia
• empirical international relations theory
• Paris commune
• global organizations
• over-reactions
• First Wave Anarchist
• Second Wave Anticolonial
• Third Wave New Left
• Fourth Wave Religious

Introduction

Terrorism is violence for political purposes that goes beyond the legal rules established to regulate violence. Consequently, governments have difficulty treating captured terrorists as prisoners of war or criminals, a problem that affects different governments in various ways. 1 Terrorism confined to particular states has been an intermittent feature of history for a very long time. At times, terror took an international dimension that included only two states. Irish immigrants in the United States, for example, created the Fenians who, after the American Civil War, struck Canadian targets hoping to create a war between the United States and the United Kingdom, which would enable efforts in Ireland to create an independent state. When that failed, the American Fenians bombed targets in England with the same purpose and futile end (Steward & McGowan, 2013 ). Only Irish groups participated. The global international form of terrorism developed later. It involves efforts to change the entire world or transform regions involving more than two states. These activities generate cooperation between foreign terrorists and populations in a variety of states.

Although global terror began in the 1880s, a century elapsed before a few scholars began to understand its peculiar dynamic. One reason for the difficulty was that many scholars and government officials had “historical amnesia.” When they saw terrorism begin to disappear, they assumed it had become part of history and no longer had contemporary relevance. But global terror disappears and then reappears. Another reason they failed to understand the pattern is that the concept of generation was rarely used to describe politics, a concept that requires one to recognize the importance of life cycles. Global terror comes in the form of waves that are precipitated by major political events that have important global significance. A wave consists of a variety of groups with similar tactics and purposes that alter the domestic and international scenes. Four very different waves have materialized: the Anarchist, Anti colonial, New Left, and Religious. The first three have been completed and lasted around 40 years; the fourth is now in its third decade. If it follows the rhythm of its predecessors it should be over in the mid-2020s, and a fifth wave may emerge thereafter.

Historical Amnesia

It took considerable time to understand that global terrorism appeared first in the 1880s and has remained since (Rapoport & Alexander, 1989 ). One reason for the problem was that global terrorism has a special rhythm that makes it seem to disappear often. Note how the Encyclopedia of the Social Sciences treated the subject. In the first edition ( 1930 ), J.B.S. Hardman’s interesting terrorism article argued that “revolutionary terrorism” began in the 1880s and reached its high point two decades later. No group ever attained success, and terrorism would soon disappear completely because modern technology made the world so complex that only classes and masses mattered! The second edition ( 1966 ) had no terrorism article. Did the Hardman article persuade the new editors one was not needed even though some successful campaigns materialized after World War II in overseas European empires, or did the editors believe that because those empires had disappeared, terrorism did, too?

Other differences between the two editions suggest that another matter may have shaped the decision. The first edition contained interesting pieces on violence, assassination, and praetorianism that were eliminated in the second edition. 2 The election and succession articles in the first edition emphasized that the processes often produced violence. But the second edition’s election article ignores the fact elections sometimes breed violence (Rapoport & Weinberg, 2001 ). There was no article on succession, perhaps because one could not be written without emphasizing that in some systems violence frequently determines who the successor will be. Why did the “best social scientists” in successive generations understand violence so differently?

For the long span from about 1938 to the mid-1960s . . . the internal life of the country was unusually free of violent episodes. The 1930s generation found it easy to forget how violent “their forebears had been and so it is not simply that historians have found a way of shrugging off the unhappy memories of our past; our amnesia is also a response to the experience of a whole generation.” (Hofstadter, 1970 , pp. 3–4)

The National Commission on the Causes and Prevention of Violence established after the 1968 assassinations of Reverend Martin Luther King, Jr., and Senator Robert Kennedy also emphasized the idea that the United States suffered from “historical amnesia.”

Ironically, while the first edition of the Encyclopedia of the Social Sciences stated that terrorism had disappeared, when the second edition was published, terrorist activity had become an important element in the Cold War, dominating the international scene, an upsurge that ended in the 1990s after the Soviet Union’s dramatic, unexpected collapse. Historical amnesia then reappeared; this time it was reflected in the U.S. government’s belief that global terrorism no longer existed. The government never seemed to understand that it had been very significant decades before the Soviet Union was even established. Just as Hardman ignored the fact that a new kind of terrorism emerged after World War I, the U.S. government seemed oblivious to the conspicuous fact that various religions in the 1980s produced terrorist groups without Soviet aid that were still functioning. Believing that “terrorism was over, the State Department abolished my office,” wrote Scott Stewart, a Security Service Special Agent (Stewart, 2012 , p. 2). Government subsidies for the Rand Corporation’s useful terrorism research program evaporated and the program disappeared. In 1999 , the Crowe Commission Report Confronting Terrorist Threats examined attacks on U.S. embassies and blamed the government for greatly reducing its intelligence resources. Then the disastrous attacks of September 11, 2011 , occurred. Ironically, the 9/11 Commission Report found that the same indifference made 9/11 easier to perpetrate.

Terrorism studies generally ignore history, an odd fact when we remember how much history obsessed Clausewitz, who founded the “science” of war:

Examples from history make everything clear, and furnish the best description of proof in the empirical sciences. This applies with more force to the Art of War than to any other. If we wish to learn from history we must realize that what happened once can happen again.” (Clausewitz, 1991 , p. 231) 3

Clausewitz’s view of the pertinence of military history still resonates because states retain their armies even though there may be long periods between wars. But many still regard terrorism differently.

After 9/11, President George W. Bush’s “Address to the Joint Session of Congress and the American People” declared that terrorism would be eliminated. “Our enemy is a radical network of terrorists and every government which supports them. Our war . . . will not end until every terrorist group of global reach has been found, stopped and defeated” (Bush, 2001 , p. 68).

Although 9/11 was unique, President Bush’s declaration had a largely forgotten predecessor a century before. On September 6, 1901 , after an anarchist assassinated President William McKinley, his successor, Theodore Roosevelt, called for all states to participate in a “crusade” to exterminate anarchist terrorism everywhere, and Congress passed the Anarchist Exclusion Act of 1903 to reduce immigrant numbers who came from countries where many Anarchists lived (Jensen, 2001 ). But four years later, the United States withdrew from the first and only other global counterterrorist campaign.

Generations

Our historical amnesia is partly due to the inadequacy of our analytical tools. Using the concept of generation as a key analytic concept compels one to recognize that as a generation gets older, its energy dissipates. Generation is very different from the more commonly used concepts like class, interest, ethnic identity, etc. Energies inspiring those entities may dissipate in time, too, but that process is not associated with specified short periods. Because very few analysts use the idea of generation to explain important social scenes, it is not surprising that when the activity they are describing dissipates, they believe it has disappeared. 4

The striking differences between generations in the 1960s finally stimulated some academics to use generation to explain change (Rapoport, 1970 ). 5 In 1986 , Arthur Schlesinger, Jr., published the first systematic detailed study of generations in his illuminating The Cycles of American History . He used Alexis de Tocqueville’s argument that in democracies “each generation is a new people” to analyze American politics from the 18th century to the present day as a process of successive 40-year cycles. The initial generation was consumed with “political activism and social egalitarianism,” which was then followed by a 40-year period of “quiet conservatism and personal acquisition.” 6

Each new phase flows out of the conditions and contradictions of the phase before and then itself prepares the way for the next recurrence. A true cycle . . . is self-generating. It cannot be determined short of catastrophe by external events. Wars, depressions, inflations may heighten or complicate moods, but the cycle itself rolls on, self-contained, self-sufficient and autonomous. (Schlesinger, 1986 , p. 27) 7

Wave Concept

While linking generations to cycles is useful for studying democratic politics, global terrorism must be viewed differently. Profound, dramatic, unexpected international political events stimulated global terror, inspiring new generations with hope that the world could be transformed. But one cannot assume precipitating events of the same magnitude will always recur and at the same time. While a period lasted roughly 40 years, the rhythm or development process of each period, was different. Wave, rather than cycle, clearly is the appropriate term to describe those periods.

A wave consists of organizations with similar tactics and objectives. Organizations normally do not survive as long as the wave that gave them birth does, though a few organizations are likely to be active when their wave disappears. In those special cases, the organization sometimes incorporates features of the new wave. Surprise attacks are essential because small groups must find ways to publicize their actions to get attention and generate recruits. Surprise attacks sometimes produce overreaction, which terrorists know they can profit from. Each wave has experienced some dramatic overreactions with enormous international consequences. In the First Wave, World War I was precipitated when the Austrian-Hungarian Archduke Franz Ferdinand and his wife were assassinated and their government claimed without evidence that Serbia was involved. The anxiety produced by 9/11 made the U.S. government think that Al-Qaeda would use weapons of mass destruction if they could get them, and the United States invaded Iraq in 2003 to prevent that from happening. But no evidence was available that Iraq had those weapons, and the invasion intensified Islamic hostility to the United States and also alienated many U.S. allies. Several other important overreactions in global terror history are discussed below.

The need to secure information to prevent surprise leads governments to employ unusual interrogation techniques that are not used to deal with criminals. Thus, in the First Wave, torture, which had disappeared in Europe, became common everywhere and it has remained a feature of every subsequent wave. Government agents frequently infiltrate groups, a process that induces those agents sometimes to provoke terrorist actions that may not occur otherwise. Another problem in dealing with terrorists comes from the fact that there are no accepted rules for dealing with them. On the one hand, governments generally claim they should be treated as criminals, but rules that designate appropriate responses to criminal deeds are never found to be fully appropriate. Terrorists, on the other hand, usually claim they should be treated as enemy soldiers, but they do not follow the accepted rules of war.

Each wave is driven by a distinctive purpose. The First or Anarchist Wave was committed to equality. Nationalism or the self-determination principle inspired the Second or Anticolonial Wave after World War I; then in the 1960s, more radical aspirations become conspicuous again in the Third or New Left Wave. In 1979 , religion replaced secular principles of legitimacy, and the Fourth or Religious Wave began, which should dissipate in the 21st-century ’s third decade. If history repeats itself, a Fifth Wave will appear with a new purpose, one unlikely to be known ahead of time. In each wave, groups often emerge dedicated to single issue like the Earth Liberation Front, or to support the government, like the Ulster Volunteer Force. Because those groups do not aim to transform the domestic and/or international systems, they are not examined here as part of the wave.

Important unanticipated political events were crucial in generating each wave. The Paris Commune catastrophe ( 1871 ) inspired the belief that a new method of insurrection was necessary and helped ignite the First Wave. The Anticolonial Wave was linked to the Versailles Treaty after World War I, which demonstrated how much the international world had become committed to the principle of self-determination. In Europe, the empires of the defeated powers like Austro-Hungary were divided into sovereign nation states. The overseas empires of defeated states largely became League of Nations mandates administered by one of the victorious states until the mandate’s population was deemed able to govern itself. But terrorist uprisings occurred in those territories against the mandate governments and uprisings also occurred in the victors’ overseas empires. The New Left Wave was fueled by Castro’s revolution in Cuba and the U.S. disaster in Vietnam. The Religious Wave was the outcome of four events in 1979 . The Iranian Revolution was the first and most important; it transformed a secular state into a religious one, a state that promoted religious terror. Other events demonstrated the weakness of secular elements in pushing popular international political agendas within the Middle East, such as the Soviet Union's military efforts in Afghanistan to protect a Marxist government.

While waves survive for similar periods, the rhythms of each may be very different. It took some time for the Paris Commune to have its effect. While the end of World War I produced several uprisings quickly, only one was successful. A second major political event, the Atlantic Charter in 1941 , defined the intentions of the Allies toward all imperial territories, making it much easier to generate successful terrorist campaigns after World War II. Indeed, the end of the Second Wave occurred when the energy of governments to resist, not the energy of terrorists to keep fighting, dissipated. The principal event producing Third Wave was the Vietnam War but it lasted 9 years, and not until its fourth year, in 1968 , did the wave get going. The Fourth Wave emerged immediately in 1979 .

Some tactics are used in every wave, but each wave introduces and emphasizes different ones. The First Wave was committed to assassination; the Second Wave aimed to eliminate the police; the Third Wave was consumed with hostage taking; and the Fourth Wave introduced self-martyrdom or suicide bombing. Although the geographic center of each wave is different, Western states have always been a principal target, and they were a major source for terror in the First and Third waves.

A wave contains many individual groups, but the number varies in each wave. Each wave has groups with different purposes. In the First Wave, the populists claimed to represent the masses alienated from a government controlled by an out-of-touch closed elite; the populists had socialist aspirations. Anarchists were the second group aiming to eliminate the state and all forms of inequality. The Anarchist Wave is so named because anarchists seemed to be active everywhere and to produce the most provocative acts, which led the public influenced by the media to make the terms terrorist and Anarchist interchangeable (Jaszi, 1930 ). The third type were the Nationalists, who aimed to create separate states. Nationalists remained present in every wave, though their tactics and rationale varied depending on the wave they were associated with. All Second Wave groups were nationalist, but they had either right-wing or left-wing programs for the states they intended to establish.

The Third or New Left Wave produced two major forms: revolutionaries and separatists. There were two kinds of revolutionaries, the transnational and the national. The transnationals were very small groups that emerged in the developed world of Western Europe and North America and saw themselves as Third World agents. Their internationalism was reflected in their targets and in their commitment to cooperate with foreign groups. But they were the wave’s least durable groups. The priorities of both the national revolutionaries and the separatists were to remake their own states immediately. National revolutionaries sought a state based on radical equality, while the separatists wanted to create a new state from an ethnic base that often transcended state boundaries and thus could create serious tensions with neighboring states. Separatists were present everywhere except Latin America, where all groups were national revolutionaries, a unique quality that is discussed in the analysis of the Third Wave.

Secular causes inspired the first three waves, but religious ingredients were sometimes important because they were connected with ethnic and national identities, as the Irish, Armenian, Macedonian, Cypriot, Quebec, Israeli, and Palestinian examples illustrate (Tololyan, 1992 ). But these earlier groups did not seek to eliminate secular influences by recreating religious regimes within their original boundaries, a process that would uproot the existing international system, an aim that would be a crucial feature for the Fourth Wave.

Fourth or Religious Wave groups are classified by the respective religions that inspired them. Islam initiated the wave. Iran was a secular state that became a religious one; it committed the first terrorist act and was deeply involved throughout the wave in supporting global terrorist activity, a pattern not seen before. Iran originally aimed to bring the Shia and Sunni, the two principal Islamic sects, together, but instead it produced a variety of serious deadly conflicts between those sects that had not been experienced for centuries. One of the conflicts was the Iran–Iraq War ( 1980–1988 ), the 20th century ’s longest conventional war. 8 The wave’s most important durable groups were Islamic, and they devised the wave’s distinctive tactic, self-martyrdom (i.e., “suicide bombing”), which made the wave the most indiscriminate and destructive one. The 9/11 attacks were the deadliest and most spectacular suicide bombing events in history, killing 2,996 people and injuring more than 6,000 others, thus producing more casualties than the 1941 Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, which brought the United States into World War II.

A few Islamic groups like Hamas aim to create a national religious state. But many want to transform the international world by eliminating the system of independent states where each has sovereignty over its territory and equal standing in international law, an arrangement the Treaty of Westphalia created in 1648 . Al-Qaeda and the so-called Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS) aim to establish a caliphate that all Muslims, no matter where they live in the world, are obliged to obey. The Islamic diaspora intensified the wave’s global character; immigrants occasionally made attacks in their new homes and some went back to join groups in Islamic territories. The First Wave also produced a similar pattern, though the two waves seem very different otherwise.

Other Fourth Wave religions have produced groups with more limited territorial aspirations and therefore pose no threat to the international system as a whole. Sikhs aimed to secede from India and re-establish the religious state of Khalistan (Land of the Pure), which the British made part of India in 1849 . The Tamils of Sri Lanka also aimed to secede. Although it was not a religious group, the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) used the tactic of suicide bombing to fight against Buddhist efforts to make Sri Lanka a religious state. Sikh and Tamil diasporas in the West were significant supporters and provided much of the finances needed. Religious Jews in Israel want to transform the country into a religious state that would regain all its ancient Biblical territories. Some Christian groups in the United States fought to make it a religious state. Jews and Christians produced far fewer casualties than other groups in the wave, but the apocalypse is a theme in Jewish and Christian groups and could under certain circumstances produce catastrophic experiences.

The number of groups varies in each wave, and that number dissipates when no new ones emerge to replace those destroyed. Waves overlap each other in time and space. A few Second Wave groups in Africa were still alive in the 1970s, and some Third Wave groups aided them in their struggles for independence. The Fourth Wave emerged in the middle of the Third Wave. That induced some Third and Fourth Wave groups to fight each other bitterly, especially in the Middle East, something that never happened before.

Creation of the Global Political and Technological Contexts

The wave phenomenon cannot be understood fully without seeing it as a byproduct of the French Revolution. The first three waves embraced some key aspirations of the Revolution, while the Fourth explicitly rejected the Revolution’s ideals altogether, especially its hostility to religion.

After Napoleon was crushed, the relationship between domestic and international politics in Europe became transformed. Many insurrections occurred, inspired by desires to achieve the French Revolution’s unfulfilled promises, particularly with respect to new state boundaries, republicanism, secularism, and egalitarianism. In 1820 , 1830 , 1848 , and 1871 , uprisings in one European state generated comparable ones elsewhere. Europeans crossed borders easily (as no passports were needed) and became deeply involved in revolts elsewhere. The French Revolution abolished the practice of extraditing individuals for political reasons, and most European states continued this practice afterwards, intensifying the uprisings’ international character (Bassiouni, 1974 ). A new type of person emerged, described by de Tocqueville as the “professional revolutionary” (Richter, 1967 ), an intellectual devoting all his time to revolutions, moving from one country to another to foster them (e.g., Filippo Buonarroti, Mikhail Bakunin, Pierre-Joseph Proudhon, and Peter Kropotkin). 9

Uprisings created Belgium, and helped produce Italy and Germany, but there were so many failures that many after 1848 sought a more radical revolutionary model. In 1864 , the First Internationale, claiming 8 million members, emerged to unite socialist, communist, and anarchist groups with trade unions for the impending class struggle. When France was defeated in the Franco-Prussian War ( 1871 ), radicals established the Paris Commune, abolishing private property. The French response was devastating. Some 20,000 communards and sympathizers were killed, more than the Franco-Prussian War casualty numbers, and more than 7,500 were either jailed or deported to distant places overseas. Thousands fled to Belgium, England, Italy, Spain, and the United States. Radicals became convinced that the support of standing armies for their governments made mass uprisings unrealistic. A new method was necessary—small groups employing terror.

Important technological changes contributed to terrorism’s global character. In the First Wave, the telegraph enabled one to transmit information immediately across the world, enabling daily mass newspapers to describe incidents and plans quickly to very large numbers of people. The railroad and the steamship made international travel easy, quick, and inexpensive. Each successive wave was associated with communication and transportation innovations that intensified its global dimension, making it possible to bring global elements even closer together. The telephone and the radio were important in the Second Wave, television and airplanes were crucial in the Third, and the Internet shapes the Fourth.

In 1867 , Alfred Nobel patented dynamite for mining purposes. But soon it was used to make a new type of bomb, much easier to construct, conceal, and move than previous bombs; it could be detonated by a timer, enabling attackers to escape before the explosion. The bomb became the major weapon for terrorists, a major reason Nobel gave his fortune to establish the annual Nobel Prizes, especially the one devoted to peace! 10 The bomb is still the terrorist’s principal weapon, and it is likely to remain so, though many analysts have argued that terrorists will soon use weapons of mass destruction.

Before the 1880s, terrorism was confined to group activities in a particular territory, activity that had no specific impact elsewhere, lasted for different time periods, and therefore had no relationship to the concept of generations. The Zealots and Siccari who led the Jewish uprising against Rome in the 1st century were active for 25 years (Rapoport, 1984 ), the Assassins of the late 11th century survived for three centuries in the Muslim world, the Sons of Liberty who helped stimulate the American Revolution were active for a decade, and the Ku Klux Klan fought a successful 5-year campaign uprooting Reconstruction policies after the American Civil War (Rapoport, 2008 ). But global terror groups interact with each other, states, foreign social entities, and international organizations, and in a generation, the wave appears in most or all inhabited continents and then dissipates.

The First Wave began in Russia and quickly spread throughout Europe. Within a decade, it appeared in North and South America, and in the 20th century , in Asia, Australia, and Africa. Foreign personalities sometimes founded domestic groups (e.g., the Russian Mikhail Bakunin in Spain). Immigrants and diaspora communities became critical elements. Some states gave terrorists aid and sanctuaries. Events in one state often had significant impact elsewhere. Prominent nationalist struggles created serious potential threats to international peace. Armenians and Macedonian militants aimed to provoke major European states to invade the Ottoman Empire. Those European states knew intervention could produce a great war, putting major European powers on different sides, and avoided the situation several times. But somehow that lesson was forgotten in 1914 when the Ottoman Empire was not involved.

A century passed before a scholar recognized that one could not understand global terrorism without putting it in the context of international waves. In 1986 , Zeev Ivianski wrote

The terrorist wave is the work of a generation . . . as a result of some profound historical shock. . . . The generation of the terror destroys itself, has no direct continuation, yet the tradition renews itself in later waves of violence, (Ivianski, 1986 ) 11

The four global waves are discussed in detail in additional articles: the Anarchist, Anti-Colonial, New Left and Religious.

• Anderson, B. (2005). Under three flags: Anarchism and the anti-colonial imagination . New York: Verso.
• Bassiouni, M. (1974). International extradition law and world public order . Amsterdam: Luitingh-Sijthoff.
• Bush, George W. (2001). Available at https://georgewbush-whitehouse.archives.gov/infocus/bushrecord
• Clausewitz, C. (1991) On war . In A. Rapoport (Ed.), Clausewitz on war . Dorchester, U.K.:Dorset Press.
• Eppright, C. (1997). Counterterrorism and conventional military force: The relationship between political effect and utility. Studies in Conflict and Terrorism , 20 (4), 333–344.
• Hofstadter, R. (1970). Reflections on violence in the United States. In R. Hofstadter & M. Wallace (Eds.), American violence: A documentary history . New York: Alfred E. Knopf.
• Ivianski, I. (1986). Lechi’s share in the struggle for Israel’s liberation. In E. Tavin & Y. Alexander (Eds.), Terrorists or freedom fighters . Fairfax, VA: Hero Books.
• Jaszi, O. (1930). Anarchism. Encyclopaedia of the social sciences . New York: Macmillan.
• Jensen, R. (1981). The International Anti-Anarchist Conference of 1898 and the origins of Interpol. Journal of Contemporary History , 6 (2), 323–347.
• Jensen, R. B. (2001). The United States, international policing, and the war against anarchist terrorism. Terrorism and Political Violence , 13 (1), 15–46.
• Passell, P. (1996, September 5). Economic scene. New York Times .
• Pennock, R. (1967). Revolution . New York: Atherton.
• Rapoport, D. C. (1970). Generations in America. In B. Crick & W. Robinson (Eds.), Protest and discontent . London: Penguin.
• Rapoport, D. C. (1982). The moral issue: Some aspects of individual terror. In D. C. Rapoport & Y. Alexander (Eds.), The morality of terrorism: Religious and secular justifications . Oxford: Pergamon.
• Rapoport, D. C. (1984). Fear and trembling: Terrorism in three religious traditions. American Political Science Review , 78 (3), 658–677.
• Rapoport, D. C. (2008). Before the bombs there were the mobs: American experiences with terror. Terrorism and Political Violence , 20 (2), 167–194.
• Rapoport, D. C. , & Alexander, Y. (1989). The orality of terrorism (2d ed., revised). New York: Columbia University Press.
• Rapoport, D. C. , & Weinberg, L. (2001). Elections and violence. In D. C. Rapoport & L. Weinberg (Eds.), The democratic experience and violence . Portland, OR: Frank Cass.
• Richter, M. (1967). Tocqueville’s contribution to the theory of revolution. In C. J. Friedrich & R. Pennock (Eds.), Revolution . New York: Atherton Press.
• Schlesinger, R., Jr. (1986). The cycles of American history . New York: Houghton Mifflin.
• Steward, P. , & McGowan, B. (2013). The Fenians: Irish rebellion in the North Atlantic World, 1858–1876 . Knoxville: University of Tennessee Press.
• Stewart, S. (2012). The myth of the end of terrorism. Stratford Security Weekly , February 23.
• Tololyan, K. (1992). Terrorism in modern Armenian culture. Terrorism and Political Violence , 4 (2).
• Strauss, W. , & Howe, N. (1991). Generations: The history of America’s future, 1584 to 2069 . New York: Morrow.
• Strauss, W. , & Howe, N. (1997). The fourth turning . New York: Three Rivers Press.

1. In the French Revolution, the government created the Reign of Terror, in which the rules governing criminal acts were ignored; individuals were punished not for their acts but because their character was deemed inappropriate for the new world being created. Our subject in this essay is rebel terror. State terror is discussed briefly in the essay on the First or Anarchist Wave.

2. The absence of assassination is odd. Three years before the 2nd edition was published, President Kennedy became the fourth American president assassinated. Six other presidents were attacked before Kennedy’s tragedy. No major state had as many heads of states and/or prime ministers killed in that 100 year period. Many more efforts were made after the 2nd edition was published; eight presidents were targeted, and Ronald Reagan was wounded.

3. For an interesting discussion of the relevance of Clausewitz for terrorist studies, see Eppright ( 1997 ).

4. The importance of generation has an unusual and often forgotten history. Plato discussed the transformation of governments from one political form to another as a generational process. But his successors thought social status, class, and ethnicity were much more useful to explain change. The concept of generation as essential for understanding political change was revived in the 19th century when democracy became a significant feature of political life. Alexis de Tocqueville’s classic study of American politics stated major changes occurred only when a new generation emerg1ed. “Among democratic nations each generation is a new people” that provokes a “struggle between public and private concerns.” Two other prominent figures in Tocqueville’s generation made similar points. Auguste Comte emphasized that generations had an important role in determining “the velocity of human evolution,” and John Stuart Mill refined Comte’s concept, arguing that in each successive age the “principal phenomena” of society are different only when a “new set” of individuals reaches maturity and takes possession of society. Important early 20th-century scholars also became committed to the notion. Karl Mannheim published his “The Problem of Generations” in 1927 and his contemporary Ortega y Gasset contended that generation is “the pivot responsible for the movements of historical evolution”.

5. In popular U.S. discourse, references to generations appeared before the 1960s and were linked to political events. “Baby Boomers” were born after World War II and became wealthy and “optimistic and produced a striking increase in birth rates. The “Lost Generation” fought in World War I and the “Greatest Generation” fought in World War II!

6. Schlesinger developed the concept of generation in Chapter 2. The Oxford English Dictionary indicates that generation usually means 30 years, but sometimes it can mean 40 years.

7. Generation as a tool for analyzing American political history was also employed in two books by Strauss and Howe ( 1991 and 1997 ). They use the term cycle , too.

8. Iran did not start the war, but Iraq was fearful that it would make great inroads in Iraq’s Shia population and decided to attack when Iran had hardly completed its own revolution.

9. Bakunin and Kropotkin were Russian anarchists, Buonarroti was an Italian utopian socialist, and Proudhon a French anarchist.

10. In 1888, Alfred’s Nobel’s brother Ludvig died while visiting France and a French newspaper erroneously thought Alfred had died and published Alfred’s obituary! “The merchant of death is dead . . . who became rich by finding ways to kill more people faster than ever before.” Furious with this description, Alfred became very concerned with how he would be remembered. He had no wife or children, and gave his fortune to establish the annual Nobel Prizes. See Lallanilla, M. , The Dark Side of the Nobel Prizes (2013). Four persons described as terrorists received the Nobel Peace Prize when they made significant efforts to create peaceful solutions: Menachem Begin (1978), Anwar Sadat (1978), Nelson Mandela (1993), and Yasser Arafat (1994). Ironically, four American presidents also got the prize: Theodore Roosevelt (1905), Woodrow Wilson (1919), Jimmy Carter (2002), and Barak Obama (2009).

11. In this article, Ivianski discussed only the First Wave, but in a later piece, he discussed the Second Wave, in which he participated.

Related Articles

• Waves of Political Terrorism
• Military Defection and the Arab Spring
• Women and Terrorism
• Civil War and Terrorism: A Call for Further Theory Building
• Terrorism as a Global Wave Phenomenon: Anarchist Wave
• Terrorism as a Global Wave Phenomenon: Anticolonial Wave
• Terrorism as a Global Wave Phenomenon: New Left Wave
• Terrorism as a Global Wave Phenomenon: Religious Wave
• Suicide Terrorism Theories

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Security Council examines rising terrorism threat globally

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A UN Security Council meeting on Thursday focused on terrorism began with a sobering reminder of the danger posed by this persistent threat to international peace. 

India’s External Affairs Minister, Dr. Subrahmanyam Jaishankar, who chaired the meeting, invited participants to stand and observe a minute of silence for victims worldwide. 

In his briefing to #UNSC, USG @un_oct Voronkov underscored the need for prevention, whole-of-society approaches, respect for #HumanRights and strengthened regional arrangements to counter terrorism. Statement➡️ https://t.co/lOx5gvNZkP https://t.co/4Kn0asBG9F United Nations Office of Counter-Terrorism UN_OCT December 15, 2022

They include an Irish peacekeeper serving at the UN’s mission in Lebanon, UNIFIL , shot and killed in an attack the previous night. Three other blue helmets were also injured; one critically. 

Widespread and prevalent 

The global threat posed by terrorism not only requires the Council’s continued attention, but also a renewed collective approach, said Vladimir Voronkov, head of the UN Office on Counter Terrorism (UNOCT). 

“Despite continuing leadership losses by Al-Qaida and Da’esh [also known as ISIL], terrorism in general has become more prevalent and more geographically widespread, affecting the lives of millions worldwide,” he reported. 

Mr. Voronkov said these groups and their affiliates have continued to exploit instability, fragility and conflict , particularly in areas such as West Africa and the Sahel, where the situation remains urgent. 

Their operations have also contributed to the deteriorating security situation in Central and Southern Africa, and elsewhere on the content. 

Terrorist groups remain in Afghanistan, where they continue to pose serious threats to the region and beyond. 

Xenophobic terror attacks rising 

“Moreover, it is concerning that the de facto authorities have failed to sever long-standing ties with terrorist groups sheltering in the country, despite this Council’s demands that they do so,” he added. 

Terrorists are “adapting opportunistically”, said Mr. Voronkov.  They are resorting to illicit financing methods and other criminal activities, making it difficult to produce an coordinated international response. 

He also expressed concern over a rise in terrorist attacks based on xenophobia, racism and other forms of intolerance , or in the name of religion or belief . 

“While not a new phenomenon, a few Member States consider this as the fastest growing or even the most prominent domestic security threat that they face,” he said. 

Pledge of support 

Mr. Voronkov welcomed a special meeting of the UN Counter-Terrorism Committee (CTC), held last month in India, to review how terrorists are taking advantage of new and emerging technologies for their own illegal ends. 

Discussions centred around three areas: the Internet, including social media platforms and related online spaces; countering terrorism financing and new payment technologies, and the misuse of unmanned aerial systems. 

“The special meeting brought to the forefront overarching considerations of a ‘One-UN’ approach, upholding human rights, the role of civil society, and honouring the victims of terrorism,” said Weixiong Chen, acting chief of the Counter-Terrorism Executive Directorate (CTED). 

“The Committee adopted the Delhi Declaration to reaffirm its commitment to work with Member States in achieving full implementation of all relevant Security Council resolutions to address the threats posed by terrorism,” he added. 

Courage amid chaos 

The CTC meeting was held over two days in Delhi and Mumbai, where terrorists carried out a series of bombing and shooting attacks 14 years ago, spanning four days.  More than 30 people were killed, and scores more wounded. 

Briefing the Council, Anjali Vijay Kulthe, a veteran staff nurse at the Cama and Albless Hospital in Mumbai, recalled that she was on night duty in the antenatal unit on 26 November 2008. 

Two terrorists scaled the wall of the facility, which is exclusively dedicated to mothers and children. They entered the hospital, and she could hear shooting.   

Ms. Kulthe was with two assistants at the time, and 20 women in advanced stages of pregnancy. Though riddled with fear, she guided everyone to safety.  They sheltered in the hospital pantry, in darkness. 

“I shiver even today as I recall the night of terrorist attack. While the terrorists were killing human beings like insects, I am happy that I was able to save the lives of 20 pregnant women and their unborn babies,” she said, speaking through an interpreter. 

Appeal for action 

A month later, the brave nurse was summoned to identify the lone surviving terrorist from the attacks. Although her family feared reprisals, she went ahead.  

The terrorist, Ajmal Kasab, “did not have an iota of remorse, no shame, no guilt; his sense of victory haunts me even today,” she revealed. 

“Whenever I see news reports on television about terrorist attacks anywhere in the world, my heart goes out for the victims, and survivors of such attacks who live the rest of their lives in trauma,” said Ms. Kulthe. 

She urged the international to bring the sponsors of the Mumbai attacks to justice and give closure to the families of the victims. 

Address root causes 

Ireland’s Foreign Minister, Simon Coveney expressed his deep sadness and shock at the death of the country’s young peacekeeper in Lebanon, and the injuries to his colleagues. 

“The incident and the loss of life is a stark reminder that our peacekeepers serve in dangerous circumstances, at all times , in the cause of peace,” he said. 

Mr. Coveney told the Council that prevention is the most effective way to counter terrorism, which means tackling the complex and varied factors that drive it. 

“We know that communities affected by conflict, poverty, inequality, poor governance, and human rights violations are more vulnerable to radicalisation and recruitment,” he said. 

“Unless we address the root causes, we resign ourselves to addressing the same security challenges over and over again.” 

At the end of the meeting, the Security Council issued a statement condemning terrorism in all its forms and manifestations.

The Council expressed condolences to the families of persons killed in terrorist acts, and underlined support for survivors and victims.

Members stressed the need to promote and protect the rights of victims of terrorism, including women and children, and reaffirmed their profound solidarity with them and with countries that have suffered terrorist attacks.

• security council

A Department of Homeland Security Emeritus Center of Excellence led by the University of Maryland

A consortium of researchers dedicated to improving the understanding of the human causes and consequences of terrorism

The future of terrorism research: a review essay.

This essay sets forth a research agenda to begin filling some key gaps in terrorism studies. Since the September 2001 Al Qaeda attacks against the World Trade Center towers and the Pentagon that claimed over 3000 lives, interest in terrorism research has increased. After these attacks, the United States and other governments prioritized the scientific study of the causes of and responses to terrorism. Importantly though, our review of the terrorism literature demonstrates that despite this progress, intriguing questions remain underexplored or altogether unexplored. This essay identifies four gaps in terrorism studies: (1) employing non-terrorist comparison groups, (2) broadening the dependent variable (focus of study), (3) exploring exceptions/anomalies to “established” findings, and (4) engaging measurement issues. We discuss these issues and outline a research agenda that could begin to fill these gaps.

Publication Information

Chermak, Steven, Jeff Gruenewald, Joshua Freilich. "The Future of Terrorism Research: A Review Essay." International Journal of Comparative and Applied Criminal Justice (May 2014).  http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/01924036.2014.922321#.U9-SJONdUZl

Additional Info

Essay On Global Terrorism

Introduction: Terrorism is not confined to any nation, religion, or caste in particular. Anyone who indulges in terrorist acts, whether indigenous or foreign, is a terrorist and a threat to humanity’s peaceful life. Terrorism and terror modules are present in a variety of major locations around the world, which is referred to as global terrorism. Today, the world is linked in ways that have never been seen before in history. As a consequence, events in one part of the world have an effect on other pieces. This has never been more apparent than in the case of terrorism.

Global Terrorism: The use of violence and coercion is referred to as ‘terrorism’ to achieve political goals. Suicide bombings and attacks on foreign soil are two examples of global terrorism. Terrorism has no meaning because it is not sponsored by a fair-minded society. Nonviolence, reality, and goodwill often triumph over terrorism, resulting in peace. The attacks of September 11, 2001, in which members of a militant organization called Al Qaeda flew planes into the World Trade Center in New York City, was a significant example of global terrorism. Ordinary people now have to schedule business trips or holidays around variables such as whether or not the destination is safe, what routes pose the least risk, and how much time to take security control into account. Moreover, people in their own countries no longer feel safe because terrorist strikes have taken place in countries that were deemed safe and in different locations, such as malls, pubs and even thoroughfares.

However, not all terrorism is carried out on such a wide scale, and suicide bombings killing civilians and other groups of people are more common in countries around the world. Terrorism, which began in small pockets, has reached a global level. It has spread like wildfire, especially in developing countries with low literacy and culture. Politicians seeking a fast rise to power use fiery speeches to provoke and inspire young people. Most often, any person who does not agree with their beliefs is a non-believer who uses religion as an excuse and should therefore be destroyed. It affects not only the nation in which the violence or threats take place when terrorism takes place, but it includes several countries. In order to try to deter terrorist groups from succeeding in their cause, tighter security and global cooperation is also needed.

Effects of Terrorism Globally: Terrorism directly and indirectly has economic consequences as well. Terrorists target buildings and areas that are financially or visibly significant, or both. They devastate buildings, machines, factories, transportation, and other economic tools, with rebuilding costs ranging from thousands to billions of dollars. Terrorist attacks also have a negative impact on financial markets, trade, insurance, and tourism.

After World War II, the new version of terrorism, the one we are most familiar with, was engendered. Nationalist movements began to spread all over lands that were European empires’ colonial outposts. These movements were able to draw attention to their causes and exert control over foreign policy, thanks to a well-connected world. People were fast to pick up on this strategy in other parts of the world to bring local problems to global attention and modern terrorism was born.

Terrorism has also led to the rise of nationalism and the increased distrust of immigrants and refugees and international companies and cultures. Prejudice is on the rise across the world, and countries are closing their borders to refugees, reducing the diversity and scale of economic transactions and having political implications. The path of peace and tolerance is strongly professed by all the major world religions, and they condemn any sort of violence and hate. Looking back through history, we can see that only certain cultures that practiced tolerance and peaceful coexistence have survived to the present day; all the others have been destroyed.

Conclusion: Terrorism cannot and should not continue; it is very much the fact of modern times, and the mere possibility of a terrorist attack is sufficient to create fear and panic in the population as a whole. The fact that global terrorism has influenced policy decisions to a large degree is also not to be ignored. It has devastated nations and communities; families have been wiped out and towns and villages have been destroyed to the ground. The only thing it does is spread hatred and bloodshed. In the ordinary sense of the word, fighting terrorism isn’t a battle. Terrorism is more of a tactic than an organization. This makes it much more difficult to fight against it and win because the enemy is invisible and constantly changing.

The Great Patriot Shahid Titumir

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Essay on terrorism

What is terrorism?

In the most comprehensive sense, terrorism is an intentional use of indiscriminate violence as a mechanism to create terror or fear in order to achieve a political, religious, or ideological objective. Terrorism is a form of asymmetric warfare. It is the use of violence against innocent civilians or non-combatants. The word terrorism has gained popularity following the attacks on the World Trade Centers New York in September 2001 also referred to as the 9/11 terrorist attacks.

History of terrorism

The nuisance of terrorism is as old as the Roman Empire. The roots and practice of terrorism can be traced back at least to the first century AD. The word terrorism itself was used for the first time to describe the acts of the Jacobin Club during the reign of terror in the French Revolution.

Types of terrorism

State-Sponsored terrorism

It is pursued in order to achieve such clearly stated foreign policy objectives. Massive-scale state-sponsored terrorism reemerged in international politics in the 1960s and 1970s. Now, along with religious terrorism, state-sponsored terrorism has greatly altered the design of terrorist attacks around the world. Since its independence, India has been having the same problems from Pakistan.

Ideology-oriented terrorism  

Ideology-oriented terrorism is typically categorized into two: left-wing and right-wing terrorism. 

Left-wing terrorism 

It is violence against the ruling class, mostly by the lower classes, motivated by leftist ideology. These include the Red Army faction or the Baader Meinhof Gang in former West Germany, the Red Brigades in Italy, the Maoist groups in India and Nepal. 

Right-wing Terrorism 

Right-wing groups tend to seek to protect the status quo or to return to some past situation that they feel should have been preserved. Examples of this include: fascism in Italy, nazism in Germany, white supremacist movements in the USA known as the Ku Klux Klan (KKK).

Religious terrorism

Terrorist groups are notably motivated by religion. Religious terrorism is more destructive in nature. These groups are motivated either in whole or in part by a religious imperative that considers violence as a sacred duty. The theology of ISIS is in accordance with the Wahabi theological ideology. 

Criminal Terrorism 

Terrorist activities are used to aid in crime and criminal profit. For instance, in narco-terrorism, narcotics traffickers attempt to influence the policies of the Government by systematic threat or use by violence.  

Ethnic terrorism

It is deliberate violence by a subnational ethnic group to advance its cause. Such violence usually focuses either on the creation of a separate state or on the elevation of the status of one ethnic group over others. Tamil Nationalist groups in Sri Lanka, insurgent groups in North East India, and the Khalistan movement are examples of ethnonationalism terrorist activities.

Reasons behind the terrorism

There are many reasons which make people or a group terrorist. Those reasons are political, religious, poverty, and lack of education.

The main cause of terrorism is perceived socio-political or historical injustice and a belief that violence will lead to change. People who choose this path when they have been stripped off their land or rights are denied the same. Examples- Hamas group of Palestine, Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam ( LTTE), Maoists and the United Liberation Front of Assam (ULFA) 

Terrorist groups use a specific religious ideology to inspire people to join terrorist groups. For example, ISIS and Al-Qaeda use Islamic ideology making people follow them. 

Socio-e conomic

Many people who join terrorist groups are illiterate and poor. Terrorism can spread like a virus in vulnerable and marginalized communities. These people can easily be pursued by terrorism groups. 

A lack of employment and unequal growth encourages unemployed youth to indulge in criminal acts and narcotics.

However, the above arguments are partially true. Of the 9/11 conspirators, eight were engineers by education. Osama bin Laden’s father owned the largest construction company in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. So, terrorism is not always a result of illiteracy and poverty.

Intolerance  

Because of the increasing population and decreasing resources, intolerance is growing in society. Increasing globalization of the society come to transcend national boundaries spreading terrorism. 

The ineffective anti-terrorism legislation and misplaced judicial activism are somehow also responsible for growing terrorism. 

Structural issues

There are structural inadequacies in the state apparatus namely weaknesses in the intelligence structure -human as well as technical, inadequate modernization of police paramilitary forces and the Armed Forces, unimaginative media management and coverage, reactive response, and slow government decision-making lack of clear strategy and policy on internal security.

In the Indian context, the reasons over the past few years have been numerous. Our consolidation as a secular, federal, and democratic state is still evolving and the fundamentalist forces often exploit a diversity of our multi-ethnic and multi-religious society. 

Role of technology Terrorism is spreading fast in the modern era as technology is now available to conduct acts of terror and the targets of terrorism are more widespread than ever before. Sophisticated means of communications such as electronic media, print media, social media, and the Internet help terrorists to quickly promote their ideology and hate campaign and exploit cyber terrorism. There are secure and encrypted messaging apps like Telegram. It is the very messaging platform at Isis used to claim responsibility for attacks. For instance, the PlayStation primarily is a gaming device. Experts believe that ISIS terrorists use PlayStation to communicate. One can send private messages via the PlayStation Network. The FBI and the CIA believe that potential terrorists have been communicating via these networks. In the case of 26/11 Mumbai attacks, the terrorists came armed not just with guns and grenades but also carrying cell phones, GPS devices, and other high-tech gear. This level of sophistication is worrying. In the Christchurch massacre of New Zealand, the attack was not reported by bystanders or by security cameras at mosques. This had been live-streamed by the shooter himself on Facebook.

Global Terrorism Index (GTI) 2019

This report is annually released by the Sydney-based Institute for Economics and Peace. As per this report, India as the seventh-worst terrorism affected the country. Jammu & Kashmir is India’s most affected region by terrorism in 2018. Most of these attacks were perpetrated by the Hizbul Mujahideen (HM), Jaish-e-Mohammad (JeM), and Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT). 8,437 Indians have lost their lives since 2001 at the hands of terrorists.

Why is India a victim of terror? 

India is suffering from ethno-nationalist, religious, left-wing, and narco-terrorism. Some well-known examples of terrorist activities in India are Mumbai attacks of 26/11, 1993 Mumbai serial bomb blasts, attack on Akshardham temple in 2002, Mumbai train blasts 2006, Parliament attacks of 2001 attacks on Armed Forces camps in Pathankot and Uri. 

India is geographically located between Asia’s two principal areas of illicit opium production -the Golden Crescent and the Golden Triangle. This leads to a heavy influx of drugs and arms. 

Pakistan and China

India has a hostile neighbor in the form of Pakistan with a land border of 3,400 kilometers. Pakistan sponsors state terrorism and fundamentalist forces, particularly through its inter-services intelligence, also known as ISI.

Also, India has unresolved border issues with China. And China has active military and nuclear cooperation with Pakistan. 

Porous border

India shares a contiguous and porous border with smaller SAARC nations such as Nepal, Bangladesh, Myanmar, and Sri Lanka. Accompanying problems such as illegal migration and smuggling in the border belt and resulting social tensions create a conducive environment for terrorism.  

India has a long sea border of more than seven thousand kilometers prone to pirating and smuggling. During the 26/11 Mumbai attacks, terrorists had used sea routes to enter the country.

Terrorism has no religion Another troubling trend is that the so-called war on terror is seen as a war against Islam. This is irrational and dreadful for Muslims, as they now face religious discrimination and are socially disadvantaged. The Koran clearly says, ‘let there be no compulsion in religion’. Nothing could be more explicit than this. So, the entire mythology of the spread of Islam through the sword is unjustified. There is no sanctity of the Koran to spread the faith with the sword.   If it was about religion, Christchurch would not have happened. Brenton Tarrant was a white supremacist and part of the alt-right. The dark face of terrorism neither has religion nor nationality. The religious interpretation is idiosyncratic. There are other political and social factors. These things are complex and this is where nuance is necessary.

Impact of terrorism

According to ourworldindata.org , over the past decade, terrorists killed an average of 21,000 people worldwide each year. Terrorism accounted for 0.05% of global deaths in 2017.

Schools have been bombed and burned in Gaza, Syria, Somalia, Nigeria, and elsewhere across the world in the last decade. Teachers were killed, and students were recruited as child soldiers. 

Foreign investment

Terrorism affects FDI in many ways. Terrorism leads to insecurity and uncertainty in the country. This causes a lack of trust in foreign investors, forcing them to divert their resources from the host country to other, peaceful countries. Costly security measures decrease the returns on FDI. Terrorism also harms local infrastructure, such as roads, bridges, and communications. It prohibits foreign investment by raising the costs of doing business.

Domestic investment

Terrorism also reduces domestic investment as it becomes difficult for domestic investors to invest in a panic-ridden environment. In addition, public investment is also severely damaged as government projects such as roads, highways, canals, dams, bridges, highways, hospitals, and school construction also brought to an end in the presence of terrorist activities.

Tourists usually avoid visiting the city that has been attacked. For tourism-dependent economies, terrorist attacks can hit even harder.

A recent example is Sri Lanka (Easter bombing). Sri Lanka has made significant progress thanks to a tourism boom post  25-year civil war ended. However, the Easter bombing changed the picture. Among those killed in bombings were 45 foreigners. Tourists fled: the number of arrivals dropped. For several days following the attack, many businesses remained closed. A huge share of jobs was lost in the tourism sector. 

Similarly, in Kashmir, tourism is the biggest source of livelihood in the state. But, terrorism ruined the tourism industry. The owners of hotels, guest houses, and houseboats, whose business is entirely dependent on the influx of tourists, suffer huge economic losses. By threatening visitors from visiting Kashmir, the terrorists are strangling a major source of jobs and making those who have become unemployed potential recruits to Pakistan-inspired separatism by violence.

Government spending

Terrorist attacks also increase defense and security spending and this reduces economic growth. If the cost of terror decreases, more money could be allocated to spending on infrastructure and that would lead to higher growth.

Steps already taken to combat and end terrorism

India has already achieved progress on various institutional and legislative mechanisms aimed at combating terrorism.

After the 26/11 Mumbai attacks, a national investigation agency also known as the NIA was formed to counter terrorist acts in the future.

The National Intelligence Grid also known as NATGRID is an integrated intelligence grid. It will link the databases of several departments and ministries of the government of India. NATGRID aims to gather detailed intelligence patterns that intelligence agencies can readily access. It collects and collates a variety of data from government databases such as tax and bank account information, credit card activity, visa and immigration records, and itineraries of train and air travel. 

India has a multi-agency center also known as MAC for counterterrorism with a mandate of sharing terrorism-related intelligence inputs on a day-to-day basis. 

Various legal frameworks are created such as the Terrorist And Disruptive Activities Act and the Prevention of Terrorism Act of 2002, along with the Unlawful Activities Prevention Act and the NIA Act of 2008. 

How to overcome terrorism?

From the understanding of the nature of international terrorism that we are facing today, it is clear that a long term strategy is required to fight against terrorism. It has to be comprehensive on all fronts.

Core strategy

The strategy needs to be evolved to protect core values. These core values are to protect the sovereignty and territorial integrity, to consolidate as a secular, federal, democratic state with freedom of speech, equality, and justice, to promote socio-economic growth and development.

Socio-economic dimension 

Socially, India must continue to promote liberal and secular polity by media, intelligentsia, and religious institutions. 

There is a need to develop all regions more evenly throughout the country with greater development effort in the remote weaker sections of the society. Economic empowerment of the poor especially in areas like J&K and the Naxal belts would automatically drive out the extremist elements and their ideologies would be abandoned.

Education reforms

Education is the antidote against terrorism. Education provides the confidence and analytical skills youngsters need to condemn hatred and violence. We must teach values of peace, non-violence, fraternity. So, no one will be able to brainwash young minds. 

Also, there is a tendency to brand students from madrasas as terrorists. This further, alienate Indian madrasas. There is an urgent need to de-stigmatize madrasas as a breeding ground for terrorism and address the outdated education system in the Madrasahs by modernization.

Upgrading communication systems

There is also a need to develop our communication networks so that television and telecommunication can spread to remote and border areas which are currently under the constant reach of Pakistani propaganda. 

Military strategy

India should clearly spell out a counterterrorism doctrine. This should address the causes and not the symptoms alone. The aim of military operations is to create a secure and suitable environment so that social, economic, and political issues can be addressed effectively. 

Effective border surveillance and management is also required to check infiltration. This should be achieved through technical means of surveillance backed by highly mobile specialized forces the other than the present system which is manpower intensive. 

Foreign-based terrorists must be targeted at the bases, training camps, and sanctuaries to end the surrogate terrorism or the proxy wars. 

India must leverage its improved ties with the first world countries. Platforms of multinational bodies like the UN, G20, BRICS, and the Shanghai Cooperation Organization should be utilized to further India’s agenda of anti-terrorism.

International cooperation

International terrorism can not be confronted alone successfully as has been our experience so far. All nations must join hands to combat it. Countries have to cooperate by intelligence exchange, joint operations, and investigations. 

Pakistan sponsored proxy war  

It must be further exposed and international pressure should be applied. We have to convey more vigorously the justness of our cause and Pakistan’s support for terrorism by both state and non-state actors, as well as trying to isolate Pakistan within the international community. A strong message must be conveyed to Pakistan. 

Lessons from other nations

We have to learn from the experiences of other nations. However, at the same time, we need to realize clearly that a situation is particular to us and there are no direct lessons to learn except a revaluation of our own experience. 

A strategy must be pragmatic and cannot be similar to the US model of global capacity or the Israeli strategy of massive and immediate retaliation, as the respective environment and capabilities are different.

Dr. Salman Farsi was said to have been involved in the Malegaon blasts. He was acquitted eight years later. By this time, he had nothing to fall back upon. He is a qualified Unani doctor. But, he even took to rearing goats to meet his needs. These outcomes can be easily avoided. The media, instead of calling each accused a terrorist, may perhaps restrict itself to calling them only an accused, and avoid displaying their photographs as if they have been convicted.

Other steps

There is a need to adopt proactive policies to confront the terrorists at the roots of the ideology of fundamentalists social evils and sources of terror funding like narcotics and drug trade. 

India also needs to strengthen its anti-terrorism laws. There is a need to modernize and enlarge intelligence networks, State Police and paramilitary forces in training equipment and ethos. 

There should be enough preventive measures against nuclear biological and chemical attacks as well as cyber terrorism.

This unconventional war can not be won by conventional methods. It can only be won by showing that our values are stronger, better, fairer, and more humane than the alternative. The values that will rule the future of humanity are those of peace, tolerance, liberty, respect for diversity, and not those of reaction, discord, and hatred.

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Essay on Global Terrorism

Terrorism has been a major problem in different parts of the world. Earlier it was evident in a few countries of the world. At present, there are no countries in the world that have been untouched by this devastating issue. I think that you all have heard about different terrorist attacks taking place in the world. It results in surplus destruction of life and property. Terrorism not only results in the destruction of life and property but also inculcates fear in the mind of the people. It really makes us think that how people who are also human beings like us can think of doing such cruel deeds.

10 Lines Essay on Global Terrorism

1) Global terrorism refers to the illegal violent act done to create fear among people.

2) Terrorism takes place to achieve some religious, financial, or political objectives.

3) Since the 1 st century AD, terrorism has existed in the world.

4) In the 21 st century, regional and national level terrorism has transformed into global terrorism.

5) Global terrorism, nationalist terrorism, single issue terrorism, and revolutionary terrorism are the types of terrorism.

6) Anarchism, preserving identity, religious issues, etc can be the causes of terrorism.

7) Terrorism is a harmful activity that involves bloodshed and destruction.

8) Apart from taking various lives it also results in the economic loss of the nation.

9) Global Terrorism Index- GTI shows the reports of terrorist activities in different countries.

10) Pulwama attack, Uri attack, Hotel Taj attack, etc are the terrorist attacks in India.

Long Essay on Global Terrorism in English

Global Terrorism is a very important topic for school students and exam aspirants. Students get this topic for writing an essay on this during the examination. In the same reference, I have provided a long elaborate essay on Global Terrorism. I think that it might be useful to all the students in getting an idea of writing an essay, assignment, or project on this topic

2000 Words Essay : Global Terrorism

Introduction

Terrorism at present is the most highlighted topic in the news headlines. I think that you would have heard and read the news of different terrorist attacks that had happened in the different countries of the world. The entire world is facing this crucial issue and is making collaborative efforts to get rid of this issue. It is not simple to eradicate this problem from the world as now it has spread in different regions of the world. We will be discussing global terrorism, its history, impacts, and ways to prevent it in the essay provided below.

What Is Meant By Global Terrorism?

It is important to know regarding terrorism in order to understand global terrorism. Terrorism is a word that has a vast meaning. It generally refers to the use of acts of violence in order to create fear among the people by the terrorists and get successful in achieving their political, financial, religious objective. It refers to the most heinous act by human beings. Terrorists make use of different methods to generate terror in the people. This act is gradually spreading in the entire world and thus it gets its name Global Terrorism. Everyone or the country in the world is suffering from the tremors of terrorism every now and then. Terrorist acts are resulting in bloodshed, destruction of life and property in different countries of the world. In this way, the particular nation suffers from a great economic loss.

History Of Terrorism

The practice of terrorism is not a new thing in the world but it has been in existence for a long time. At present, terrorism practices have been modernized because of the development of different tools and technologies. It is said that terrorism has been in existence in the world since the 1st century AD. The terrorist activities by different terrorists have been confirmed in every decade in different reigns and provinces.

The Sicarii group that was a Jewish group was a terrorist group in the 1st century. They never desired the rule of the Roman Empire in their country. Thus, they used arms and force against Romans to drive them off from their country. This created terror in the Jewish that were supporting the Romans. Another example of terrorist activity in happened in 1858 was regarding Italian patriot Felice Orsini. He threw three bombs to assassinate French Emperor Napoleon III and 142 people were killed during this incident. This incident had given rise to the formation of new terrorist groups in the world. In this way, terrorism began to rise in the different countries of the world. There are some countries in the world where terrorists take shelter and coordinate their activities.

At present the in the 21st century, terrorist activities are at a climax. It is not limited to a particular nation but is spreading its legs in different countries of the world and hence referred to as Global terrorism. Severe terrorist attacks like the September 2001 attack in the United States of America have created havoc in the entire world. Different small and large terrorist attacks are occurring in different countries of the world.

Rise Of Global Terrorism In The 20th Century- Terrorism from its initiation till the early 1990s was simply stated as regional, national, sub-national. There was the rise of global terrorism in the late 1990s. This change came after the terrorist attack that happened in September 2001 on World Trade Center in the USA. Thus in this way, global terrorism became a challenge for international peace and security.

Types Of Terrorism

The term terrorism as stated earlier is a broad term and also a grave concern globally. It is further classified into different types according to the different basis of classification. The major types of terrorism have been enlisted below:

• Revolutionary Terrorism- This type of terrorism refers to the use of acts of violence for creating a reign of terror. Such type of violent act is used by the terrorist to achieve their political objective. This type of terrorism is for a revolutionary cause but such people become terrorists for the people against whom the action is taken. Example of revolutionary terrorism includes- anarchist, Naxal, and revolutionary communists.
• Single Issue Terrorism- This type of terrorism is aimed at a single specific task. Any of the people involved in this act just become terrorists to eradicate a single issue. It is not like genuine terrorism that has widespread objectives. Examples of Single Issue Terrorism include- Bombing abortion clinics in the USA.
• Nationalist Terrorism- This type of terrorism is generally linked with the national motive and self-determination. It refers to the use of violent acts by terrorists in order to grant freedom and right to the religious, ethnic, or national group in the nation. It is a fight for freedom to overthrow colonial rule. An example of national terrorism is FLN in Algeria.
• Global Terrorism- It is the most recent form of terrorism that has evolved during the late 1990s. This type of terrorism is linked with the motive of spreading terror and causing damage on a global level. This causes the disruption of global relations in different countries of the world. Moreover, it also hinders the peace and security of people in the entire world.

Causes Of Terrorism

• To Preserve Culture and Ethnicity- It is one of the important factors that force the people or group of people to become terrorists. This happens when a particular group of people feels that the existence of their culture or ethnicity is totally towards an end. They want their personal identity and choices would never become extinct. This makes them revolt against the political structure for their existence in the future.
• Anarchism- It is also stated as left-wing terrorism. It involves the act of becoming terrorists because of following a particular political philosophy or ideology of independence. Examples of anarchism are represented by Naxal and Maoist insurgencies in India and Nepal, Angry Brigade in the UK.
• To Attain Revolutionary Motive- There are many terrorist groups formation in different countries of the world to attain the revolutionary motive. Examples of such terrorist groups are Palestine Liberation Organization( PLO )Philistine, Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam(LITTE) in Sri Lanka.
• Religious Issues- This issue for terrorism has been in existence in the 20th and 21st centuries. It is represented by different religious terrorism. We have noticed that many of the terrorist attacks in present have resulted because of Islamic terrorism. This type of terrorist group formation takes place when people of a particular religion are treated as infidel by the other religions in the world. Thus in order to make their religion victorious over other religions, the people of the particular religion form a terrorist group start fighting to attain their ideological and religious motives. These days Islamic terrorism has been more popular and prominent in the world. Examples of terrorist groups formed by such activities are Al-Queda, ISIS, JeM, etc.

Terrorism Transforming Into Global Terrorism

Terrorism initially was observed at the regional and national levels but now it has transformed into global terrorism in the 21st century. The people in the 21st century have seen and faced massive terrorist attacks. The criterion of terrorism has become global terrorism after the massive terrorist attack on the World Trade Center in the United States of America. This was really shocking news for the entire world. Thousands of people were injured and many of them lost their lives in this massive attack.

This attack not only resulted in the loss of life and property but also inculcated a great fear in the minds of people. Nowadays people are very careful in planning their holidays and visiting different places. They mostly want to spend their time with their family and friends at home in spite of going anywhere. These all have happened because of the terror of terrorist attacks that is alive in the mind of people.

Impact Of Terrorism On The World

• Inculcates Fear Among People- Terrorism itself means that it is an act of creating terror in the people by using violent means. The different terrorist attack that has taken place in the past inculcates fear in the people in the entire world.
• Destruction Life And Property- There is the massive loss of life and property in the terrorist attacks taking place globally. The people are killed very brutally in the attacks and thus this makes terrorism a very immoral act done by the human beings
• Economical Loss Of The Nations- The massive loss of lives of people and property greatly affects the economic condition of the nation. If it happens in a poor or a developing nation it takes several years for such countries to cover that loss.

Importance Of Global Terrorism Index

Global Terrorism Index is stated as a report that is published every year by the Institute of Economics and Peace. This index provides us with the trend of different terrorist attacks taking place globally from the year 2000. Several factors are being considered for the formation of the Global terrorism index. In this, all the countries of the world are ranked and arranged according to the frequency of occurrence of terrorist activities in them. Thus this depicts the countries that are worst affected by terrorism.

Tremors Of Terrorism In India

India is stated among the nations that are worst affected by the tremors of terrorism. There have been many severe terrorist attacks at different places in the nation that was really shocking. There was massive destruction of lives and property in the terrorist attacks that have taken place in the past. Some of the major terrorist attacks in the nation are

• Serial bomb blast in Mumbai in 1993 and reported more than 250 deaths.
• A major terrorist attack on the Indian Parliament in December 2001 that was supposed to be done by Jaish-e-Mohammed (JeM) and Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT).
• Bomb blast in 2006 in Mumbai suburban train by a bomb kept in a pressure cooker and reported more than 200 deaths.
• Terrorist attack in the Hotel Taj Mahal Palace with 3 days of firing and bombing on hotels, railway stations, and public places. This attack, also known as 26/11 attack, reported the death of more than 150 people (2008).
• Uri attack in the year 2016 in which 12 Indian Army’s Brigade Headquarters were attacked and reported the death of 19 soldiers.
• A major terrorist Pulwama attack in 2019 and reported the death of 40 CRPF soldiers + 1 suicide bomber.

  How Globalization Is Linked with Global Terrorism?

Globalization is the concept that states the interaction and exchange phenomenon between different nations of the world. It promotes the exchange of money, goods, technology, and ideas throughout the different countries of the world. Globalization and terrorism are very closely linked with each other. It is because the increasing concept of globalization is utilized by the terrorists to achieve their own purposes. They basically make use of the concept of free-flow exchange to coordinate their operations.

International migration has increased because of the increasing globalization. In this way, the terrorists get support from the communities in different countries. Nowadays, western culture and modernization is becoming more prevalent in societies. This also creates dissatisfaction among the people who believe in old culture and tradition. The terrorists belonging to the religious fundamentalist group take advantage of this ideology encourage people to use weapons for stopping this. Thus, in this way globalization is providing a major advantage to the terrorists for giving wings to their objectives. Moreover, in this way they can cause destruction in the entire world thus promoting global terrorism.

Terrorism that was prevalent before the 20th century was never linked with the motive of achievement of religious ideologies. At present, it has become global terrorism and major attacks by terrorists are done to achieve their religious ideologies. Such terrorist activities are destructing the peace, harmony, and security of the entire world. Terrorist activities are a challenge even for countries rich in resources and equipped with new technologies. The different countries of the world have also collaborated together by the efforts of the United Nations to fight against this serious concern. The nations need to put more effort and unity of people in order to get rid of the serious issue of global terrorism.

I have provided the details of the topic ‘global terrorism’ in this essay in a very easy format. I hope that you would have loved and enjoyed reading this essay.

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FAQs: Frequently Asked Questions on Global Terrorism

Ans. The use of violence against innocent people of the different countries in the world to create fear in them so that the terrorist motives are achieved is termed terrorism.

Ans. The word terrorism has been derived from the Latin word “Terrorem” that means great fear.

Ans. Afghanistan ranking 1 st (score-9592) in Global Terror Index, is the country that is most affected by terrorism.

Ans. Every year 21st May is celebrated as anti-Terrorism day in India.

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Comparing Violent Extremism and Terrorism to Other Forms of Targeted Violence

Targeted violence spans a wide array of offenses, from mass shootings to gang or group-violence-related activities to human trafficking. Although each of these topics has been researched extensively, until recently they have not been studied to identify similarities and differences in the context of domestic violent extremism and terrorism. Gaining a better understanding of any links or overlaps between people who perpetrate these types of violence and those engaged in violent extremism and terrorism is essential to developing or adapting targeted violence prevention efforts.

The National Institute of Justice (NIJ) has funded multiple projects that compare individuals who perpetrate violent extremism and terrorism and those who engage in other forms of targeted violence. [1] This article reviews findings from several NIJ-supported projects that explore similarities and differences between:

• Violent extremists and individuals who are involved in gangs.
• People who engage in terrorism and those involved in human trafficking.
• Lone actor terrorists (that is, single individuals whose terrorist acts are not directed or supported by any group or other individuals) and persons who commit nonideological mass murder.

Some of these projects draw on large national databases of individuals who are known to have committed violent acts, while others explore community and stakeholder perceptions of the acts. In addition, some of these projects focus on how communities that contend with heightened risk factors, such as adversity and disadvantage, experience certain types of violence. [2] The article closes with a discussion of possible implications for policy and future research.

Violent Extremists and Individuals Involved in Gangs

Pyrooz and colleagues developed a comparative model that emphasizes explicit, spurious, and indirect links between violent extremist groups and criminal street gangs. Using national data sources on domestic extremists and individuals involved in gangs — the Profiles of Individual Radicalization in the United States (PIRUS) and the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth 1997 (NLSY97), respectively — the researchers compared the two groups across group involvement and demographic, family, religious, and socioeconomic status characteristics. [3] They found that 6% of domestic extremists in PIRUS have a history of gang ties; this constitutes a minimal proportion of domestic extremists and is likely the rare exception among those involved in gangs. Domestic extremists with gang ties more closely resemble nongang extremists in PIRUS than they do individuals involved in gangs in the NLSY97. Although these groups have some similarities, one major difference is that individuals involved in gangs are younger than domestic extremists. This likely contributes to many of the other differences between the groups across the life course, including in education, unemployment, marriage, and parenthood.

A critical step in determining similarities is to examine the circumstances of those who enter these two groups. Based on 45 in-person interviews of individuals involved in U.S. gangs and 38 life history narratives of individuals who radicalized in the United States, Becker and colleagues provided a unique comparison of entrance into these groups by drawing on four broad group entry mechanisms: [4]

• Pull factors (influences that entice vulnerable individuals toward criminal group involvement).
• Push factors (influences that drive vulnerable individuals toward an interest in criminal group involvement).
• Barriers to effective socialization.
• Recruitment.

Individuals involved in gangs were more motivated than extremists by the promise of material rewards (a pull factor). In contrast, extremists were more motivated by cultural disillusionment and a perceived loss of significance (push factors). (For more detail on push and pull factors, see exhibit 1 .) Individuals in gangs were more likely to have been abused by family members (a barrier to effective socialization), while extremists were far more likely to have been recruited through electronic media (recruitment). Evidence for each mechanism was present in both groups and no single mechanism dominated entry into either group. Thus, prevention and intervention efforts that draw on multiple pathways to entry are most likely to be effective.

Exhibit 1. Examples of Push and Pull Factors

In a separate community-based participatory research study, Ellis and colleagues explored attitudes toward gangs and violent political activism within a community sample of 498 ethnic Somali young adults living in the United States and Canada. [5] Somali communities in North America have been impacted by both gang violence and targeted recruitment by extremist networks; they have also disproportionately experienced structural disadvantages, such as poverty. The analysis showed that attitudes favoring both gangs and violent activism could — but did not necessarily — co-occur; prosocial bonds reduced the likelihood of attitudes in support of both. [6]

One important distinction between gang involvement and violent extremism was the Somali community’s perceptions of these two types of violence. During a series of nine focus groups and in-depth interviews, ethnic Somali young adults described how the community saw radicalization to violent extremism as irrelevant. [7] Despite quantitative data suggesting some overlap in attitudes in support of gangs and violent radicalism, community perceptions of the two issues were highly divergent. Community members viewed political radicalization as an individual choice. On the other hand, these community members considered gang involvement a major community concern and the product of societal factors such as marginalization and a lack of opportunity. [8] This divergence has implications for policy and programming. Although certain risk and protective factors (for example, enhancing prosocial connections) may be common targets for different types of interventions, gang prevention programming may be more accepted by the community than programming focused on radicalization.

Terrorists and Those Involved in Human Trafficking

Research has identified two possible connections between terrorism and human trafficking. First, a terrorist organization may perpetrate human trafficking to advance its interests or meet the needs of its members; this occurs mostly in international contexts and conflict zones. [9] Second, terrorism and human trafficking may co-occur. [10]

Weine and colleagues studied an immigrant community in which terrorism and human trafficking allegedly co-occurred. The researchers conducted in-depth interviews with ethnic Somali young adults and parents, community leaders, service providers, and law enforcement officials in three U.S. cities with large Somali communities. [11] Their findings suggest that terrorism and human trafficking co-occur due to the convergence of risk (push and pull) factors. [12]

Perceived negative personal, social, cultural, economic, and political factors that pushed individuals toward these two forms of violence included:

• Poverty, lack of opportunities, unemployment, and financial hardships that made individuals vulnerable to promises of money and a better life.
• Generational divide due to parents’ lack of familiarity with the English language and American values and culture, and consequent limited ability to provide guidance and support for their children.
• High proportion of female-headed, single-parent households and dual-parent families with working parents who have limited visibility into their children’s whereabouts and thus are unable to combat negative influences or pressures to join violent groups or activities.
• Disconnect between young community members and religious leaders who represent older generations.
• Challenges associated with navigating identities of people who are Somali, Muslim, and African American.
• Unaddressed trauma and mental health problems related to integration into American society, which push youth to seek support, advice, and acceptance by misguided peers or predatory recruiters.
• Exposure to negative influences in the form of “bad company” or terrorism recruiters.

Factors that pulled individuals to both forms of violence, or that recruiters and their proxies used to depict desirable outcomes, included:

• A sense of belonging, companionship, and acceptance.
• Money or other material benefits.
• Access to the internet, where peers or recruiters used deceptive presentations of benefits.

However, some push and pull factors were limited to either terrorism or human trafficking. Distinct push factors for terrorism included:

• Political grievances against the United States and its allies.
• Perceived profiling or overpolicing by law enforcement of Somali and Black individuals and communities.
• Stereotyping and stigmatization by the media.
• Belief that the costs of joining terrorist groups are negligible.

Pull factors unique to terrorism included:

• A sense of heroism and empowerment through following extremist ideology directed at English speakers.
• Easy ways to join the cause.

Distinct push and pull factors for human trafficking, specifically alleged sex trafficking, included:

• Patriarchal beliefs about women’s lower status and submissive behavior.
• Lack of protection for women following gender role violations.
• Victims’ shame or fear of disclosing the victimization.

Taken together, negative societal responses to both human trafficking and terrorism (such as overpolicing, profiling, and media stigmatization) caused community members to perceive race- and ethnicity-based discrimination, feelings of social exclusion due to being labeled terrorists or morally inferior, and victim-blaming for not reporting victimization. Community members also lamented a lack of social services and consequently weak community efficacy, insufficient communal representation and a sense of disempowerment, distrust of government-funded programming, and perceptions that local and federal law enforcement overreact to incidents and work against the community. They were particularly concerned about cultural, social, or political stigma attached to community members who reported victimization or cooperated with law enforcement. Consequently, respondents preferred to resolve problems within the community rather than relying on those outside the community. [13]

Although these findings are drawn from one specific study and community, some of the risk and protective factors identified may have relevance for other populations, particularly those that experience social marginalization and disadvantage. The findings suggest that to prevent violent extremism, terrorism, and human trafficking, efforts must address underlying risks, disadvantages, and social problems. These include building effective prevention programs, strengthening law enforcement and community relations, increasing programmatic emphasis on community needs, and encouraging law enforcement and the media to avoid a continual focus on crime and violent extremism and terrorism in these communities.

Lone Actor Terrorists and Individuals Who Commit Nonideological Mass Murder

Targeted violence takes many forms. It can be carried out by a single person or a group. The violence can be aimed at a specific target, such as a spouse or coworkers, or it can be directed against a category of people, such as children at a school or bystanders in a public space. From the perspective of victims and survivors, the impacts may well be similar, but distinguishing the types of individuals who commit these crimes might illuminate actionable steps toward prevention.

Horgan and colleagues compared lone actor terrorists (single individuals whose terrorist acts are not directed or supported by any group or other individuals) with individuals who commit nonideological mass murder. [14] Although the motivational structure associated with each differs, the violence conducted by them appears very similar: both engage in largely public and highly publicized acts of violence, often with similar weaponry. The reasons behind any type of targeted violence are typically a “complex mix of personal, political and social drivers that crystallize at the same time to drive the individual down the path of violent action.” [15] Both lone actor terrorists and those who commit mass murder share this process. [16]

Furthermore, researchers have found little to distinguish between the sociodemographic profiles of lone actor terrorists and individuals who commit mass murder. In particular, a closer look at pre-attack behaviors revealed that both were likely to “leak” their grievances and intentions to others. [17] Although lone actor terrorists were more likely to communicate intentions or beliefs to friends and family members, others were aware of the grievances held by both groups. [18] Knowing that these individuals leak — or even deliberately broadcast [19] — their intent is important for the development of responses, particularly when there may be natural barriers to reporting this information, such as being the individual’s friend or family member.

Comparing the behavior of lone actor terrorists and individuals who commit mass murder also revealed some critical differences regarding:

• The degree to which they interact with coconspirators.
• Their antecedent event behaviors.
• The degree to which they leak information prior to the attack.

Importantly, researchers realized that they can learn more by focusing on behaviors (what people do) as opposed to focusing on characteristics (what or who people are).

For example, compared to lone actor terrorists, individuals who commit mass murder were significantly more likely to have familiarity with the attack location (79% vs. 30%). This may account for why lone actor terrorists were much more likely to engage in dry runs (34% vs. 4%). Those who committed mass murder were significantly more likely to consume drugs or alcohol just prior to the attack (20% vs. 4%). They followed a different “script” than lone actor terrorists as they moved closer to committing acts of violence; lacking an ideology, their behavior was influenced less by the prevailing social and political climate, and more by feelings of being wronged by a specific person or category of people. Overall, most individuals who committed mass murder did not pay much attention to post-attack planning or other strategic considerations. Indeed, most were either killed at the scene by police or took their own lives. [20]

Further research has compared lone actor terrorists to those who undergo radicalization in a group setting. Hamm and Spaaij found both similarities and differences between lone actor terrorists and group-based terrorists in terms of their sociodemographic profiles, behavioral patterns, and radicalization processes. [21] Compared to members of terrorist groups, lone actors were older, less educated, and more prone to mental health concerns. [22] The latter points to a potentially important mental health component in lone actor terrorism relative to group-based terrorism. Recent evidence has consistently shown that mental health concerns are more prevalent among lone actor terrorists (about 40%) than for group actors and for the general population. [23] However, the relationship between mental health and violent extremism is highly complex. Mental health is neither a reliable risk factor nor a consistent predictor of involvement in terrorism, and research to this point cannot rule out the possibility that negative mental health is a consequence rather than a potentially aggravating factor of involvement in terrorism.

Commonalities also exist between lone actor and group-based terrorists, and the boundary between these categories is often porous and fluid. Whereas group-based terrorists, by definition, exhibit a relatively high degree of interaction with coconspirators, a considerable proportion of lone actor terrorists also display an affinity with extremist groups to frame and give meaning to their beliefs and grievances. The nature and locus of such affinity with extremist groups has changed over time. Currently, it occurs primarily via online networks of like-minded activists or sympathizers found on the internet and social media platforms. [24] This insight reiterates earlier observations regarding leaking behavior: Compared to those who commit mass murder, lone actor terrorists exist in wider social networks, with varying degrees of contact with and influence from friends, family, and coworkers. Crucially, online communities often play an important role in providing a space for individuals to socialize and exchange beliefs and strategies with other extremists or sympathizers.

These studies reveal a striking and counterintuitive finding: Some terrorists, especially lone actors, leak or broadcast their intentions prior to their attacks. Knowing this, the field must develop and promote better strategies to detect and prevent such attacks. Although friends, family members, and coworkers may be well placed to detect violent ideation and intention, the fact that they know the individual creates a natural barrier to reporting. There needs to be greater effort to educate the public about the signs of attack leakage and broadcasting. Furthermore, there must be a concerted effort to provide clear, accessible, and convenient means of reporting such concerns.

Implications

The cumulative findings of these projects have implications for policy, practice, and future research. The current research highlights the various synergies and differences between violent extremism, group-based terrorism, gang activities, human trafficking, mass shootings, and lone actor terrorism. No single study provides a definitive or exhaustive set of explanations or shared risk factors. However, each provides critically important points to consider and address in future research. Moreover, the collective contribution of this body of research lies in providing a broader comparative view beyond single variables or narrow research questions. This review demonstrates that although there is no single, clear-cut overlap between the different criminal activities, they nonetheless exhibit important and sometimes unexpected similarities.

The implications extend beyond increasing knowledge, pointing toward multiple ways for policy and practice to intervene and to conduct evaluative research that addresses their impact. At the individual level, the studies suggest that although the motivational structures that underpin each type of violence vary, situationally specific combinations of push and pull factors shape individuals’ entry into, or radicalization toward, the different forms of violence. At the community level, the findings encourage policymakers and practitioners to consider effective ways to increase community awareness about the overlap in the factors that lead individuals to specific forms of violence, as well as about their potential cooccurrence, such as in the case of human trafficking associated with violent extremism and terrorism. Attention should also be directed to communal grievances that may lead community members to become alienated or engage in violent extremism, and measures should be designed to address them or lessen their impact.

The results further encourage policymakers and practitioners to embrace interventions that invest in strengthening protective measures against violence of any form. For such interventions to be accepted and endorsed by the communities in which they operate, it is important that interventions respond to community concerns, such as addressing social disadvantages that may lead to radicalization and terrorism, rather than focusing prevention efforts on the outcomes of such disadvantages. Finally, at the societal level — government, civil society, or media — promoting inclusion of those who feel they are outsiders, stigmatized, or otherwise undeserving or underserved may help reduce violence of all types.

About This Article

This article was published as part of NIJ Journal issue number 285 . This article discusses the following awards:

• “Gang Affiliation and Radicalization to Violent Extremism Within Somali-American Communities,” award number 2014-ZA-BX-0001
• “Lone Wolf Terrorism in America: Using Knowledge of Radicalization Pathways To Forge Prevention Strategies,” award number 2012-ZA-BX-0001
• “A Comparative Study of Violent Extremism and Gangs,” award number 2014-ZA-BX-0002
• “Across the Universe? A Comparative Analysis of Violent Radicalization Across Three Offender Types With Implications for Criminal Justice Training Education,” award number 2013-ZA-BX-0002
• “Transnational Crimes Among Somali-Americans: Convergences of Radicalization and Trafficking,” award number 2013-ZA-BX-0008

Opinions or points of view expressed in this document represent a consensus of the authors and do not necessarily represent the official position, policies, terminology, or posture of the U.S. Department of Justice on domestic violent extremism. The content is not intended to create, does not create, and may not be relied upon to create any rights, substantive or procedural, enforceable at law by any party in any matter civil or criminal.

[note 1] National Institute of Justice funding award description, “ Gang Affiliation and Radicalization to Violent Extremism Within Somali-American Communities ,” at Children’s Hospital Corporation, award number 2014-ZA-BX-0001; National Institute of Justice funding award description, “ Lone Wolf Terrorism in America: Using Knowledge of Radicalization Pathways To Forge Prevention Strategies ,” at Indiana State University, award number 2012-ZA-BX-0001; National Institute of Justice funding award description, “ A Comparative Study of Violent Extremism and Gangs ,” at the University of Maryland, award number 2014-ZA-BX-0002; National Institute of Justice funding award description, “ Across the Universe? A Comparative Analysis of Violent Radicalization Across Three Offender Types With Implications for Criminal Justice Training Education ,” at the University of Massachusetts Lowell, award number 2013-ZA-BX-0002; and National Institute of Justice funding award description, “ Transnational Crimes Among Somali-Americans: Convergences of Radicalization and Trafficking ,” at the Board of Trustees, University of Illinois Chicago, award number 2013-ZA-BX-0008.

[note 2] This review focuses on the Somali community more than other U.S. communities not because there were necessarily more cases of violent extremism there, but simply because two of the five grants that form the basis of this review were located there.

[note 3] All data in this paragraph come from David C. Pyrooz et al., “ Cut From the Same Cloth? A Comparative Study of Domestic Extremists and Gang Members in the United States ,” Justice Quarterly 35 no. 1 (2018): 1-32.

[note 4] All data in this paragraph come from Michael H. Becker et al., “ A Comparative Study of Initial Involvement in Gangs and Political Extremism ,” Terrorism and Political Violence 34 no. 8 (2022): 1647-1664.

[note 5] B. Heidi Ellis et al., “ Civic Development and Antisocial Attitudes/Behaviors Among Somali Immigrants: Change Over One Year ,” Cultural Diversity and Ethnic Minority Psychology 27 no. 2 (2021): 157-168; and B. Heidi Ellis et al., “ Relation of Psychosocial Factors to Diverse Behaviors and Attitudes Among Somali Refugees ,” American Journal of Orthopsychiatry 86 no. 4 (2016): 393-408.

[note 6] Ellis et al., “ Civic Development and Antisocial Attitudes/Behaviors Among Somali Immigrants ”; and Ellis et al., “ Relation of Psychosocial Factors to Diverse Behaviors and Attitudes Among Somali Refugees .”

[note 7] B. Heidi Ellis et al., “ A Qualitative Examination of How Somali Young Adults Think About and Understand Violence in Their Communities ,” Journal of Interpersonal Violence 37 no. 1-2 (2022): NP803-NP829.

[note 8] Ellis et al., “ A Qualitative Examination of How Somali Young Adults Think About and Understand Violence in Their Communities .”

[note 9] An example of the nexus between terrorism and human trafficking is the use of human trafficking by terrorist organizations to raise money or supply young women to their fighters — a phenomenon primarily found in international radicalization and conflict areas. In these areas, trafficking and sexual violence target girls and women of ideologically opposed groups, which spreads terror in the civilian population. Indeed, some have referred to sex trafficking and violence as a form of terrorism. The incentives for and ability of terrorist groups to engage in human trafficking are determined by their need for resources and the extent of their territorial control. See Daniel Sheinis, “ The Links Between Human Trafficking, Organized Crime, and Terrorism ,” American Intelligence Journal 30 no. 1 (2012): 68-77; Office of the Special Representative and Co-ordinator for Combating Trafficking in Human Beings, “ Trafficking in Human Beings and Terrorism: Where and How They Intersect ,” Vienna, Austria: Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe, 2021; Cóman Kenny and Nikita Malik, “ Trafficking Terror and Sexual Violence: Accountability for Human Trafficking and Sexual and Gender-Based Violence by Terrorist Groups Under the Rome Statute ,” Vanderbilt Journal of Transnational Law 52 no. 1 (2021): 43-74; U.S. Congress, House, Committee on International Relations, Subcommittee on International Terrorism, Nonproliferation, and Human Rights, “ Global Trends in Trafficking and the ‘Trafficking in Persons Report,’ ” Hearing, June 25, 2003, 108th Cong., 1st sess., Serial No. 108-53; and Nazli Avdan and Mariya Omelicheva, “ Human Trafficking-Terrorism Nexus: When Violent Non-State Actors Engage in the Modern-Day Slavery ,” Journal of Conflict Resolution 65 no. 9 (2021): 1576-1606.

[note 10] Stevan Weine, Edna Erez, and Chloe Polutnik, “ Transnational Crimes Among Somali-Americans: Convergences of Radicalization and Trafficking ,” Final report to the National Institute of Justice, award number 2013-ZA-BX-0008, May 2019, NCJ 252135.

[note 11] The cities (in order of the size of the Somali community living there) are Minneapolis-St. Paul, Minnesota; Columbus, Ohio; and Nashville, Tennessee. It should be noted that although the cases of human trafficking tried in these cities did not result in convictions for various evidentiary concerns, the responses of those who were interviewed addressed human trafficking as if it did happen in the community.

[note 12] Unless otherwise noted, all data in this section come from Weine, Erez, and Polutnik, “ Transnational Crimes Among Somali-Americans ,” 33-42.

[note 13] Weine, Erez, and Polutnik, “ Transnational Crimes Among Somali-Americans ,” 53-57.

[note 14] John G. Horgan et al., “ Across the Universe? A Comparative Analysis of Violent Behavior and Radicalization Across Three Offender Types With Implications for Criminal Justice Training and Education ,” Final report to the National Institute of Justice, award number 2013-ZA-BX-0002, June 2016, NCJ 249937.

[note 15] Horgan et al., “ Across the Universe ,” 111.

[note 16] See also Mark S. Hamm and Ramón Spaaij, “ Lone Wolf Terrorism in America: Using Knowledge of Radicalization Pathways To Forge Prevention Strategies ,” Final report to the National Institute of Justice, award number 2012-ZA-BX-0001, February 2015, NCJ 248691; and Mark S. Hamm and Ramón Spaaij, The Age of Lone Wolf Terrorism (New York: Columbia University Press, 2017).

[note 17] Horgan et al., “ Across the Universe .”

[note 18] Horgan et al., “ Across the Universe .” See also the comprehensive follow-up work by Paul Gill, Lone-Actor Terrorists: A Behavioural Analysis (London: Routledge, 2015).

[note 19] Hamm and Spaaij, The Age of Lone Wolf Terrorism .

[note 20] All data in this paragraph come from Horgan et al., “ Across the Universe ”; and Gill, Lone-Actor Terrorists.

[note 21] Hamm and Spaaij, “ Lone Wolf Terrorism in America .”

[note 22] Hamm and Spaaij, “ Lone Wolf Terrorism in America .”

[note 23] Paul Gill and Emily Corner, “ There and Back Again: The Study of Mental Disorder and Terrorist Involvement ,” American Psychologist 72 no. 3 (2017): 231-241; and Norah Schulten et al., “ Radicalization, Terrorism & Psychopathology: State of Affairs, Gaps and Priorities for Future Research ,” The Hague, The Netherlands: Ministry of Justice and Security, 2019.

About the author

B. Heidi Ellis, Ph.D., is an associate professor of psychology in the Department of Psychiatry at Boston Children’s Hospital and Harvard Medical School, and the director of the Boston Children’s Hospital Trauma and Community Resilience Center. Edna Erez, Ph.D., is a professor in the Department of Criminology, Law, and Justice at the University of Illinois Chicago. John Horgan, Ph.D., is a distinguished university professor in the Department of Psychology at Georgia State University. Gary LaFree, Ph.D., is a distinguished university professor in the Department of Criminology and Criminal Justice at the University of Maryland. Ramón Spaaij, Ph.D., is a professor in the Institute for Health and Sport at Victoria University, Australia, and visiting professor at the Utrecht University School of Governance, The Netherlands.

Cite this Article

Read more about:, related awards.

• Gang Affiliation and Radicalization to Violent Extremism within Somali-American Communities
• Lone Wolf Terrorism in America: Using Knowledge of Radicalization Pathways to Forge Prevention Strategies
• A Comparative Study of Violent Extremism and Gangs
• Across the Universe? A Comparative Analysis of Violent Radicalization Across Three Offender Types with Implications for Criminal Justice Training and Education
• Transnational Crimes among Somali-Americans: Convergences of Radicalization and Trafficking

The Interplay of Extremism and Drug Trafficking in Funding Terrorism

This essay about the intertwining of extremism and drug trafficking in financing terrorism. It explores how extremist groups exploit drug trade for financial gain and ideological advancement. The essay highlights the dual threat posed by this nexus to society, emphasizing the need for a multifaceted approach involving law enforcement, counterterrorism measures, and addressing root causes such as poverty and inequality. It underscores the importance of international cooperation and technological advancements in disrupting terrorist financing networks. Ultimately, it calls for a comprehensive response to mitigate the threat and promote global security.

How it works

Terrorism financing remains a significant global concern, with extremist groups leveraging various means to fund their activities. Among these means, the nexus between extremism and drug trafficking stands out as a complex and multifaceted issue. This intricate relationship intertwines the agendas of extremist organizations with the lucrative world of illicit drug trade, posing serious challenges to international security efforts.

At the heart of this nexus lies a symbiotic relationship, where extremist groups exploit drug trafficking networks for financial gain while also furthering their ideological agendas.

The vast profits generated from drug trafficking provide a steady stream of revenue that enables these groups to finance their operations, purchase weapons, and recruit new members. In return, terrorist organizations offer protection and logistical support to drug traffickers, allowing them to operate with relative impunity in certain regions.

Moreover, the convergence of extremism and drug trafficking presents a dual threat to society, amplifying the risks posed by both phenomena. On one hand, the spread of extremist ideologies fueled by drug profits contributes to radicalization and violence, undermining social cohesion and stability. On the other hand, the illicit drug trade perpetuated by terrorist organizations fuels addiction, crime, and corruption, further eroding the fabric of society.

Addressing the nexus between extremism and drug trafficking requires a multifaceted approach that encompasses both law enforcement and counterterrorism measures. This includes disrupting the financial flows that sustain terrorist activities, dismantling drug trafficking networks, and addressing the root causes of extremism such as poverty, inequality, and political grievances. Additionally, international cooperation and intelligence-sharing are essential for effectively combating this complex threat, as terrorist organizations and drug traffickers often operate across borders.

Furthermore, efforts to counter terrorism financing must go beyond traditional approaches and adapt to the evolving nature of the threat. This entails leveraging advanced technologies and financial intelligence to track illicit transactions, identifying and targeting key nodes within terrorist financing networks, and disrupting the flow of funds through both formal and informal channels. Moreover, empowering communities to resist extremist ideologies and providing alternative livelihoods for those vulnerable to recruitment are crucial components of long-term prevention strategies.

In conclusion, the nexus between extremism and drug trafficking represents a significant challenge to global security, requiring a comprehensive and coordinated response from the international community. By unraveling the intricate connections between these phenomena and addressing their underlying drivers, we can mitigate the threat posed by terrorism financing and work towards a safer and more resilient world.

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Global Terrorism Essay

Global Terrorism refers to the presence of terrorism and terror modules at several significant locations throughout the globe. Unlike other isolated terror activities mainly targeting the government of a nation, merely to out throw it; global terrorism seeks to establish Islamic prophecy in the entire world, by killing innocent people and destabilizing the governments. There had been a series of terror attacks all across the world, thereby proving that global terrorism is a grim reality. Global terrorism operates through extremist terror organizations, sponsored mostly by Islamic countries and clerics. There only agenda is to convert the entire world into an Islamic state.

Long and Short Essay on Global Terrorism in English

Below we have provided short and long essay on Global Terrorism in English.

The essays have been written in simple yet effective English to make them easily understandable and presentable when needed.

After going through these Global Terrorism essay you will know what is global terrorism, effects of global terrorism, efforts made by India on global terrorism etc.

These Global Terrorism essay will be helpful in your school/college events wherein you have to give speech, write an essay or take part in debate.

Essay on Global Terrorism and its Effect – Essay 1 (300 words)

Introduction

The world is connected today in a manner never seen before in history. A direct result of this is that events in one part of the world affect other parts too. Nowhere has this been seen more than it has in the case of terrorism.

Global Terrorism

The world has changed significantly since the September 11 attacks. Security has become an all-encompassing concern. Ordinary citizens now have to plan business trips or vacations around factors such as whether the destination is safe or not, what routes pose the least danger and how much time to factor in for security checks. In addition, people no longer feel safe in their own countries since terrorist strikes have taken place in countries that were considered safe and at varied locations such as malls, pubs and even thoroughfares.

Effects of Terrorism Globally

Terrorism also has economic impacts directly and indirectly. Terrorists target buildings and areas that are important financially or in terms of visibility or both. They destroy building, machines, plants transportation and other economic resources that can cost anywhere between thousands and billions of dollars in reconstruction. In addition, stock markets, trade, insurance and tourism also take serious hits due to terrorist attacks.

Terrorism has also contributed to the rise of nationalism and increased scepticism of foreign businesses and cultures and immigrants and refugees. Prejudice is on the rise across the world and countries are closing their borders to immigrants, thus reducing the diversity and size of economic transactions. This has political repercussions as well. Brexit and the election of Donald Trump as President reflect the increasingly insular and nationalist thinking of people who have become very suspicious of foreigners and are letting their prejudices hang out for everyone to see.

Terrorists have certainly succeeded in bringing attention to their political and religious agendas through modern methods of communication. However, the consequences are far more widespread and long-lasting than many have anticipated. The world is divided and countries are closing in on themselves. As long as reactionary policies continue, there will be enough mayhem that terrorists can take advantage of to further their agendas.

Essay on Global Terrorism: The Fight against Terrorism – Essay 2 (350 words)

The September 11 attacks first brought to the fore the threat that terrorist activities pose to virtually every part of the world. Before these attacks, terrorism was thought to be limited to the Middle East. However, the attacks exposed the vulnerability of the most powerful nations in the world and subsequent attacks have only cemented this weakness.

War on Terror

After the September 11, 2001 attacks, an international military initiative was launched by the United States. This initiative was called the War on Terror. As per President Bush, it was targeted at the radical network of terrorists as well as the governments that supported them. To this end, US and allied troops were deployed in Iraq and Afghanistan, both believed to be home to terrorist cells and leaders. Eventually, the Obama administration formally called an end to the War and announced the withdrawal of American troops from Afghanistan. Osama bin Laden had allegedly been killed by US Navy Seals and Al-Qaeda wasn’t considered the threat it once used to be.

However, 2014 saw the emergence of ISIS or ISIL (Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant). The jihadist organization was dubbed a terrorist group by the UN. This led to the formation of a new operation called Operation Inherent Resolve that would target terror in South Asia and the Middle East.

The UN and the European Union have announced their own measures against terrorism, including sanctions against countries believed to be sympathetic to extremist causes. The European Union also determined to identify the causes of radicalization and combat it, secure borders and increase security on transportation, identify sources of support and communication for terrorists and cut them off and work on crisis management in the aftermath of a terrorist attack so as to reduce casualties as much as possible.

Terrorism seems to be the equivalent of the mythological hydra; if one head is cut off; two more take its place. Fighting terrorism isn’t a war in the ordinary sense of the word. Terrorism isn’t an organization so much as it is a strategy. This makes fighting against it and winning that much more difficult since the enemy is intangible and constantly changing.

Essay on Global Terrorism and India – Essay 3 (400 words)

India has been emerging as a rapidly developing world power in the last few decades. This has made it a target for faith-based terrorism particularly related to disputes with Pakistan over the state of Kashmir. The Home Ministry has acknowledged that terrorism is one of the gravest threats faced by the Indian people. Other forms of terrorism are also prevalent in the country including ethno-nationalist, narco and left wing terrorism.

Chronology of Global Terrorist Attacks in India

Long before September 11, 2001 brought the world’s attention to the dangers of terrorism, India had already faced multiple terrorist attacks, the first of which were the bombings at the BSE or the Bombay Stock Exchange. 13 bombs exploded killing 257 people and injuring 1400 others. They also hold the dubious distinction of being the first instance of serial bomb blasts anywhere in the world.

Subsequently, there were many other attacks. A notable one took place on August 25, 2003 when two suitcase bombs went off – one near the Gateway of India and one near Zaveri Bazaar – killing 52 people and injuring over a hundred others.

The most infamous and deadly attack took place on November 26, 2008 and lasted for three whole days. During this time 10 terrorists from the Lashkar-e-Taiba or LeT carried out coordinated attacks that involved bombings as well as shootings. They left 164 people dead and 308 wounded behind them.

India’s Efforts against Global Terrorism

As per Indian intelligence, the terrorists involved in these attacks either had close ties with or were trained by handlers in Pakistan and groups such as Al-Qaeda. These agencies also determined that Pakistan’s ISI has been supporting these groups clandestinely.

Based on this and additional intelligence, India has been trying to have Pakistan classified as a terrorist state. However, these efforts have only had some success. Pakistan enjoys the patronage of China, which itself is a member of the UN Security Council and has a binding veto. In addition, countries like the US and UK have tried to downplay these attacks as results of tensions between India and Pakistan rather than classifying them as the terrorist attacks that they are.

India has been trying to use global outrage to have Pakistan recognized as a terrorist state. In this effort, it hasn’t enjoyed much success. India is trying to drum up moral outrage in the international community but with a patron like China, Pakistan is quite safe for the moment. So far, India’s methods of tackling this menace have been non-violent. However, it may be time for a more militaristic solution to the problem of global terrorism’s attacks on India.

Long Essay on Global Terrorism – Essay 4 (450 words)

Despite being the dominant topic in headlines globally, terrorism doesn’t have a definition that is universally agreed upon. In general terms, the use of threats or violence to achieve a particular goal is called terrorism. Legal definitions of what constitutes terrorism differ from country to country. Over the past century, acts of terrorism have increased across the world. However, terrorism itself is not a new phenomenon.

History of Terrorism

Terrorism has existed for a long time in human history. Some early examples are the Jewish Sicarii who wanted to overthrow Roman rule in the Middle East. They believed that Jews cannot be ruled over by other people and should only be ruled by God. To further their aims, they targeted Jewish sympathizers of the Roman Empire. Another example is Guy Fawkes who hatched a terrorist plot in order to install a Catholic monarch over England. In France, the establishment of the Republic was followed by The Reign of Terror, a period during which the state sponsored terrorist acts against the nobility and anyone deemed to be supporting them.

20 th and 21 st Century

The modern version of terrorism, the one we are most familiar with, was engendered after World War II. Nationalist movements started spreading all across lands that were colonial outposts of European empires. Thanks to a well-connected world, these movements were able to direct attention to their causes and exercise influence over international policy. People in other parts of the world were quick to pick up on this strategy to bring local issues to global attention and modern terrorism was born.

This version of terrorism reached its apex in the September 11 attacks on the Twin Trade Towers and the Pentagon in the United States of America. The loss of life was staggering – almost 3000 people were killed and 6000 more were injured in the course of a few minutes. It focused global attention squarely on terrorism and became the reason behind the War on Terror that led the United States and its allies into Iraq and Afghanistan.

Terrorism is very much a reality of modern times and the mere threat of a terrorist attack is enough to generate panic and fear among the general populace. There is also no denying the fact that global terrorism has affected policy decisions to a great extent. The interconnectedness of the world through the internet has given terrorist organizations a global platform to spread their agenda and recruit more people. Battling them is no longer merely a matter of military strikes; it is necessary to disprove their radical ideology – a task that will by no means be easy.

Long Essay on Global Terrorism a Menace to Humanity – Essay 5 (500 words)

While terrorism itself is nothing new, its global avatar is definitely something that has arisen over the last few decades. Thanks to how connected the world is now, news travels in a matter of seconds around the globe and reaches billions more than it used to earlier. This has created a fertile ground for terrorists to direct global attention to their causes by engaging in violent acts that are primarily directed at civilians and non-combatants. Moreover, these acts take place in places that have been considered safe for the longest time.

Threat to Humanity

The very word ‘terrorism’ indicates that extremists who use terror tactics want to inspire fear in the hearts of people everywhere. So far, this chilling tactic has worked. Because the targets are civilians and they are targeted in places where they would ideally be safe such as schools, malls, shopping thoroughfares, pubs, nightclubs, churches and mosques, the shock value of these tactics is much higher. In addition, the media jumps on such stories immediately since they generate better ratings without realizing that they are giving the terrorists the exact notoriety they want.

Terrorism is not an organization; it is a strategy that various organizations use to achieve their aims. This means that it is difficult if not impossible to attack terrorism itself. While world governments go after terrorist cells and leaders, extremists attack ‘soft’ targets. Ultimately, the civilian fatalities hugely outnumber the terrorists killed.

The immediate consequence is terror and anger. Everyone from governments to foreigners is blamed for the terror attack. However, the long term effects of terrorism are much more insidious. Terrorist attacks affect public morale and generate an atmosphere of fear. More importantly, such attacks create divides between people from different regions, ethnicities and religions. Instead of coming together to fight this threat, people are suspicious of each other and close themselves up. Nationalism starts raising its ugly head as do prejudice and racism. The actions of a few taint the peaceful many.

Terrorism isn’t an outright war no matter what the extremists may call it. It is a war of attrition; an attack here and another attack there and a third attack somewhere else. Each time fear and suspicion grow and people who were united earlier become divided. The casualties of terrorism aren’t only the people killed or injured in terrorist attacks; humanity as a whole becomes a casualty. People who don’t look like us or talk like us or pray to the same God become ‘other’. Terrorism attacks the very fabric of human relations and if it isn’t checked will eat up humanity from the inside out.

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Former Trump Fund-Raiser Drops Suits Over Hack of Emails

Elliott Broidy had filed lawsuits against a former C.I.A. officer and three lobbyists accusing them of helping Qatar engineer the theft and distribution of his communications to discredit him.

By Mark Mazzetti and Kenneth P. Vogel

Reporting from Washington

Elliott Broidy, a California businessman who was once a top fund-raiser for Donald J. Trump, dropped two lawsuits on Monday against people he accused of helping to carry out a hack-and-leak operation that revealed his covert lobbying to shape the Trump administration’s foreign policy.

Mr. Broidy pleaded guilty in 2020 to conspiring to violate foreign lobbying laws on behalf of Chinese and Malaysian interests. Mr. Trump pardoned him in January 2021, just hours before leaving office.

The hack and dissemination of Mr. Broidy’s records in 2018, and the lawsuits that followed, came amid a bitter feud between Qatar and two of its regional rivals — the United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia — from whom Mr. Broidy was seeking lucrative defense contracts. From the beginning of the Trump administration, Mr. Broidy lobbied Mr. Trump and his aides to take a harder line against Qatar.

In the lawsuits, Mr. Broidy claimed that the Qatari government engineered the hack in an effort to neutralize his criticism of the country for financing groups linked to terrorism.

The New York Times published articles about Mr. Broidy’s activities based on material provided by an anonymous group critical of his advocacy of American foreign policies in the Middle East. Who is responsible for the hacking operation remains unclear.

One of the lawsuits was against Kevin Chalker, a former C.I.A. officer who owns a New York-based technology security firm. Mr. Broidy had alleged that Mr. Chalker and his firm, Global Risk Advisors, orchestrated the email hack on behalf of the Qataris.

When Mr. Broidy filed the lawsuit in 2019, the firm had a contract with the Qatari government that Mr. Chalker’s lawyers said focused on providing security for the 2022 World Cup, but Mr. Chalker has long denied he played any role in the email hack. In a statement on Tuesday, he said that the dismissal of the case “marks the end of nearly six years spent fighting to clear my name.”

“As I have maintained from the very outset and throughout the six years,” he said, “the accusations made about me were without merit.”

The other lawsuit, also filed in 2019, was against three lobbyists who had worked for Qatar: Nick Muzin, a Republican political operative and lobbyist; Joey Allaham, a former New York restaurant entrepreneur turned international fixer; and Gregory Howard, a former Democratic congressional aide who went on to work for public relations and lobbying firms.

The lawsuit accused the three of disseminating the hacked materials “to silence Mr. Broidy, punish and suppress his political expression, alienate him in U.S. foreign policy circles and reduce his influence on United States foreign policy — all in an effort to remove him as an obstacle to Qatar’s efforts to improve its public relations standing in the United States and abroad.”

All three denied playing any role in the hack or dissemination of the materials, as did Qatar.

Mr. Broidy last year withdrew his claims against Mr. Allaham , who admitted that he knew about the hack but asserted that he did not participate in it. He began cooperating with Mr. Broidy in his litigation.

Mr. Muzin did not respond to a request for comment.

Mr. Howard referred questions to his lawyer, who did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Mr. Broidy’s lawyers did not make clear why they were dropping the lawsuits in filings on Monday , writing along with lawyers for Mr. Chalker and the lobbyists that they had agreed to have the cases dismissed. Neither Mr. Broidy nor his lawyers responded to a message seeking comment.

Mr. Broidy had also sued Qatar and a former United Nations diplomat in connection with the hack, but separate federal judges ruled that the country and the diplomat had immunity from the claims.

The hacked materials showed how Mr. Broidy used his access to Mr. Trump and his administration to curry favor with foreign clients and prospective clients, including in Angola, the Republic of Congo, Malaysia , Romania, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates.

He sought to steer White House policy toward friendlier relations with the Saudis and the Emiratis — and to take a more hawkish position on their regional nemesis Qatar.

Mr. Broidy’s defense company, Circinus, won a $200 million contract from the Emirates and pursued an even larger payday from the Saudis .

In 2018, a lawyer representing Mr. Broidy wrote a letter to the Qatari ambassador in Washington saying that the legal team possessed “irrefutable forensic evidence tying Qatar to this unlawful attack on, and espionage directed against, a prominent U.S. citizen within the territory of the United States.”

If Qatar was not responsible, he wrote, “we expect your government to hold accountable the rogue actors in Qatar who have caused Mr. Broidy substantial damages.”

Seamus Hughes contributed reporting.

Mark Mazzetti is an investigative reporter based in Washington, D.C., focusing on national security, intelligence, and foreign affairs. He has written a book about the C.I.A. More about Mark Mazzetti

Kenneth P. Vogel is based in Washington and investigates the intersection of money, politics and influence. More about Kenneth P. Vogel