Understanding Terrorism – The Lure of Terror

Abstract

The history of humans is a history of intergroup conflict, whether it be between tribes, kingdoms or nations. In the current national security environment, there is little question that terrorism is among the gravest of threats. Political scientist David Rapoport1, identified four waves of modern terrorism, each with its unique characteristics. The Anarchist Wave that started around 1879; the Anticolonial Wave that began around 1920; the New Left Wave that emerged in the 1960s; and the religious wave – the major menace these days – that commenced in 1979. Although defining terrorism is a vesting problem, a key-author2 has considered terrorism as an act of violence intentionally perpetrated on civilian non- combatants with the goal of furthering some ideological, religious or political objective.