Terrorism:%20Will%20it%20End?

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Terrorism Will it End?

• Ted Goertzel

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What is Terrorism?

• A method used by groups that feel powerless and
  marginalized
• Deliberate targeting of civilians and civilian
  targets because they are vulnerable
• Goal is to extract concessions from the powerful
  or just to take revenge

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What do Terrorists have in Common

• Us versus Them view of the world
• Collective, not individual psychopathology
• Individual subordinated to the group
• Extreme commitment to cause

4
Social Movement Stages

• Begin when generalized discontent is mobilized by
  charismatic leaders - forming
• Sharpening of Objectives and Strategies - splits
  and factionalism - storming
• Formalized Organization, become more bureaucratic
  - norming and performing
• Termination - adjourning

5
Some Examples

• These illustrate different varieties of terrorism
• Many of their movements have ended or at least
  greatly declined
• The ones that are based on ethnic or religious
  discontent tend to be the most persistent

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Weathermen

• Outgrowth of student movement in the sixties
• Lasted a short time and disbanded
• Based on a theory of youth revolt that did not
  work out

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Baader-Meinhoff

• Part of anti-Vietnam War, Anti-Capitalist
  Movement in West Germany
• Declined and died out when war ended and
  capitalism triumphed
• Bommi Baumann wrote revealing memoir

8
Shining Path

• Maoist Group in Peru
• Started by Abimael Guzman, a Marxist philosophy
  professor
• Flourished when the army tried to suppress its
  social base
• Guzman found by thorough detective work

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The Unabomber

• Worked alone, very atypical for terrorist
• Anti-industrial, anti-urban ideology
• Eventually caught when turned in by his brother.

10
Liberation Tigers

• Rooted in the Tamil minority on Sri Lanka
  (Ceylon) oppressed by Sinhalese
• Leader Velupillai Prabhakaran loved violence
• Currently negotiating a settlement

11
Latin American Urban Guerillas

• Response to military regimes in Latin America
• Successfully repressed because of lack of worker
  or peasant support
• Democratization followed end of movement

12
Osama bin Laden

• Claims to be speaking for God and for Muslims
  oppressed by the West
• Discussion will this movement decline? Was the
  invasion of Iraq a help?

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How to End Terrorism

• Address root causes on their own merits.
• War on states that support terrorism.
• Effective, professional police work.
• Avoid attacks on non-combatants.
• Provide an escape for militants who drop out