Terrorism

Terrorism refers to a strategy of using violence, or threat of violence to generate fear, cause disruption, and ultimately, bring about compliance specific political demands. The targets of terrorist attacks typically are not the individuals who are killed, injured, or taken hostage, but rather the societies to which these individuals belong. Terrorism is designed to subvert existing political landscapes, often with the dramatic spectacles amplified by the mass media's influence. These objectives are parallel to the objectives of unconventional warfare.

State terrorism more specifically refers to violence and threats of violence, embargoes and other forms of terrorism against civilians by the government of a state. The civilians, in such case, may be nationals or foreigners. .However a state and its government has been established to defend the nation and enforce the law of the land by using violence, if needed. Therefore, every single state and government could be labeled with State terrorist label. So this definition is meaningless.

If the key dimensions mentioned above represent a working definition of terrorism, then terrorism can be summarized as politically motivated acts featuring or threatening violence upon noncombatants in order to psychologically affect a target audience for what the given terrorist would deem a just cause. While this account of the dimensions of terrorism may help to ascertain the degree to which certain violence-oriented acts can be judged terrorism, one problem repeatedly surfaces that complicates any such definition; namely, perspective. Since World War II, there have been many groups who, when involved in a "liberation" struggle, have been called terrorist by the Western media.