POLSCI 1AB3 Lecture Notes - Lecture 11: Solomon Judah Loeb Rapoport
1 Mar 2018
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Document Summary
Three overarching questions about terrorism: can we define terrorism in an objective way, can we explain terrorism as a social scientific phenomenon, what were/are the consequences of the war on terror ? o. A necessary first step before analyzing terrorism is to define it. There is a politics associated with defining terrorism. There are clear parallels between state violence and terrorist violence: both kill civilians, both are directed at obtaining political ends, both cause terror in their wake. Or what to make of the clich : one person"s terrorist is another person"s freedom fighter person"s freedom fighter . Where the same act is considered illegitimate terrorism from one point of view, but a legitimate struggle for freedom from another, any objective categorization becomes questionable. The point is, defining a group or an action as terrorist is an unavoidably political act. There is no obvious definition that would be accepted without vocal opposition from one quarter or another.
