Terrorism: Role of the Media and Tactics and Force Multipliers of Modern Terrorism (Essay Sample)

Terrorism
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Terrorism
ONE: What is Terrorism?
Numerous attempts have been made to define terrorism. However, not even experts at the highest level agree on what constitutes this concept. Part of the difficulty in defining terrorism stems from its relevance to national policy. On the one hand, narrow definitions limit the purview of anti-terrorism laws, making them ineffective (White, 2017). On the other hand, broad definitions create room for the discretionary application of these laws, permitting injustice in some instances (White, 2017). Nonetheless, the concept has to be defined to serve as a basis for related policy and academic purposes. Therefore, despite knowing that their definitions of terrorism have some limitations, several entities have described the concept as explained below.
Combs (2018, p. 7) defines terrorism as a “synthesis of war and theater, a dramatization of the most proscribed kind of violence—that which is deliberately perpetrated on civilian noncombatant victims—played before an audience in the hope of creating a mood of fear, for political purposes.” According to the author, an act of terrorism entails violence, the intent to create a mood of fear and civilian victims, and a political motive (Combs, 2018). A different author, Walter Laqueur, defines the concept as “the use or threatened use of force against innocent victims for political purposes” (White, 2017, p. 7). Another author, Boaz Ganor, agrees