Reference no: EM132338538

Assignment: 150 words agree or disagree

When defining terrorism I feel that is important to look at the international meaning of the word and how countries look to define the acts. The concept of terrorism comes from the Latin word terroris which means to frighten or tremble. At the beginning of the 20th century, "ism" was added to terror to refer to "the practice of trembling" or "causing the frightening" (Iulian, 2017, p. 910). While there is a general term to the acts there has not been an approved definition of terrorism at the international level as each country considers acts differently and some of those countries take into consider the violence that occurs instead of the motives behind it (Saul, 2005). The United Nations has repeatedly attempted to draft a generic definition with no real success. There is a need to have a consensus of the definition in order for countries to appropriately label and fight terrorist acts.

Some components that I feel are necessary for a strong terrorism definition includes the use of fear, the type of targets used, political or religious motivations, and intentions to persuade or intimidate personnel or governments by using force capable of serious bodily harm. With these components in mind I would define terrorism as: An act committed by one or more persons where crimes against life or the liberty of private persons or state property were committed with the purpose of using political or social motivation to persuade or intimidate those persons to change policy or to incite fear.

There are groups within the United States that commit acts which would meet the prerequisites of committing terrorist acts, such as the Klu Klux Klux or Anti-Facists (known as ANTIFA) but for the purposes of this discussion I will keep the comparisons to politicians or government representatives of the United States. I believe that the Sons of Liberty would fit today's definition of terrorism but in colonial times they would have referred to themselves as Patriots. As opposition to the Stamp Act of 1765 grew stronger, Samuel Adams led an organization to incite mob-violence mentality to persuade resistance (later known as the Sons of Liberty). While the group did not cause mass casualties, they did use less lethal weapons to inflict harm on opposition personnel and committed arson in order to incite fear and distrust in the English government. During the nine months that the Stamp Act was in effect there were 60 riots that were attributed to the Sons of Liberty and they pressured parliament to repeal the Stamp Act, which led to the start of the Revolutionary War (Rapoport, 2008).

Iulian, R. (2017). INTERNATIONAL TERRORISM IN THE 21ST CENTURY - 16 YEARS AFTER 9/11 2001. CBU International Conference Proceedings .., 5, 910-914.

Rapoport, D. (2008). Before the Bombs There Were the Mobs: American Experiences with Terror. Terrorism & Political Violence, 20(2), 167-194.

Saul, B. (2005). Attempts to Define "Terrorism" in International Law. Netherlands International Law Review, 52(1), 57-84.