Underground Violence. On the Natue of Terrorism Books uri icon

publication date

  • 2024

isbn

  • 9780198904816

abstract

  • Why is terrorism such a slippery concept? Unlike other concepts employed in studies of conflict, terrorism is particularly hard to pin down. Can terrorism be equated with civilian victimization? Is it a refined form of coercive violence, based on the spread of terror? Despite the endless terminological debate, there is an underlying logic in the way in which we speak about terrorism. This book is aimed at uncovering this logic, providing a systematic, coherent, and rigorous conceptualization of the phenomenon. Terrorism is a unique form of political violence due to the underground nature of its violence. Unlike other forms of violence, underground political violence does not require any control of the territory in which the attack takes place. The quintessential underground attack is an improvised explosive device in the enemy"s terrain. Because terrorist attacks do not presuppose territorial control, they tend to be ephemeral. Understanding terrorism as underground political violence makes sense of many traits that are commonly associated with the concept: its international dimension, the possibility of lone-actors, and state terrorism as covert operations abroad. Terrorism tends to emerge in highly asymmetric conditions and is frequently used by the weaker party (hence the motto that terrorism is the weapon of the weak). Through large-n empirical tests and case studies (ETA, Tupamaros, the Shining Path, Fatah, ISIS, and the Palestinian insurgent groups), this book shows that the conception of terrorism as underground political violence has some ‘organizing" power and can be used in empirical analysis to shed light on the determinants and dynamics of terrorism.

subjects

  • Politics

keywords

  • terrorism; underground violence; territorial control; insurgencies; weapon of the weak; civilian targeting; determinants of conflict