What is Terrorism?
The Department of Defense Joint Publication 1-02, DOD Dictionary of Military and Associated Terms defines terrorism as: The calculated use of unlawful violence or threat of unlawful violence to inculcate fear; intended to coerce or to intimidate governments or societies in the pursuit of goals that are generally political, religious, or ideological.
The United States Code (USC), Title 18 (Crimes and Criminal Procedure), Part I (Crimes), Chapter 113B (Terrorism), Section 2331 (Definitions), as amended by the USA-PATRIOT Act of 2001 defines terrorism as follows:
“As used in this chapter -
(1) the term "international terrorism" means activities that -
(A) involve violent acts or acts dangerous to human life that are a violation of the criminal laws of the United States or of any State, or that would be a criminal violation if committed within the jurisdiction of the United States or of any State;
(B) appear to be intended -
(i) to intimidate or coerce a civilian population;
(ii) to influence the policy of a government by intimidation or coercion; or
(iii) to affect the conduct of a government by mass destruction, assassination, or kidnapping; and
(C) occur primarily outside the territorial jurisdiction of the United States, or transcend national boundaries in terms of the means by which they are accomplished, the persons they appear intended to intimidate or coerce, or the locale in which their perpetrators operate or seek asylum;
(2) the term "national of the United States" has the meaning given such term in section 101(a)(22) of the Immigration and Nationality Act;
(3) the term "person" means any individual or entity capable of holding a legal or beneficial interest in property;
(4) the term "act of war" means any act occurring in the course of -
(A) declared war;
(B) armed conflict, whether or not war has been declared, between two or more nations; or
(C) armed conflict between military forces of any origin; and
(5) the term "domestic terrorism" means activities that -
(A) involve acts dangerous to human life that are a violation of the criminal laws of the United States or of any State;
(B) appear to be intended -
(i) to intimidate or coerce a civilian population;
(ii) to influence the policy of a government by intimidation or coercion; or
(iii) to affect the conduct of a government by mass destruction, assassination, or kidnapping; and
(C) occur primarily within the territorial jurisdiction of the United States.
What these definitions attempt to circumscribe is the underlying tacit agreement that the basic goals of terrorism are invariably political in so much as extremists are motivated by intense religious or ideological beliefs, which compel them to seek political power, usually through violence, to force society, either their own or others, to conform to their values. In its essence, terrorism is intended to produce fear in some audience other than the actual victim or victims for the purpose of provoking change. Nothing and no one are immune from attack, and this relative randomness is what intensifies the psychological value of their tactics.