"The Causal Mechanisms of Terrorism": Coming Soon

Understanding Terrorism. Copyright 2013 New Logic Think tank

Terrorism is all about power. As Lenin said, "The task of the terrorist is to terrorize." It can manifest as an unthinkable act of violence. It can also manifest as the mere coercive influence that strikes fear into the afflicted's hearts and minds. Terrorism is the weapon of the weak, a last resort for those who cannot resolve to use the established societal methods of conflict resolution and arbitration. Terrorism is the weapon of those who perceive themselves as weak. Acts of terrorism are distinguished from other forms of violence in that they have both an intellectual author, a person who plans the whole thing, and an instrumental actor, a person who pulls the trigger.

Terrorism is a form of surrogate warfare, a statement, often political, that begs the question, who shall profit? What ideology or group stands to gain from inflicting fear upon others? Countries, not just localized groups, often resort to terrorism as a viable option in conducting warfare that provides the significant advantages of surprise and initiative. In an environment shrouded by secrecy, where accurate intelligence is hard to come by and enormous resources are spent infiltrating and detecting terrorist plots, the modern terrorist employs the newest technologies to their advantage in organizing, communicating and executing acts of terrorism.

Modern communication allows great distances to be spanned. This enables terrorist networks to become tremendously decentralized. For this reason, terrorist networks are best described as hydras. If you eliminate the head of the organization today, just like a hydra, two new heads will appear tomorrow. Eradicating terrorism is as futile as stopping death itself. While preventive efforts continue to increase in efficiency and scope, terrorist attacks continue to become more violent and deadly.

We must ask ourselves, those who fundamentally recognize terrorism as a societal plague, who exactly is a terrorist? Is the gunman who enters a school and murders little children a terrorist? What is terrorism? While many definitions exist, a simple reduction leaves us with this definition: terrorism is the intentional generation of massive fear by human beings for the purpose of securing or maintaining control over human beings. Did the gunman in a movie theater or elementary school cause massive fear? Yes. Did they commit their heinous acts with the intention of securing or maintaining control over human beings? We may never know. Are they domestic terrorists? Possibly. What about the groups in war-torn regions of the world like Africa, Central and South America and Southeast Asia? A classic aphorism which blurs the line of deciding who is or isn't a terrorist states that "One man's terrorist is another man's freedom fighter."

Since it is not only difficult to define terrorism, but identify who its perpetrators are, our best attempt in minimizing the impact of terrorism, outside of current interdiction efforts, is to reduce ideological conflicts. By encouraging cross-cultural understanding and minimizing the impact of one country's foreign policy on a completely different culture, many of the radical beliefs held by groups hating cultures different than their own can be eliminated. This also highlights the importance, on the international stage, of how every event, conflict and turmoil is handled. If they are handled properly, with equitable result, then deep resentments can be minimized. If these events are not handled properly, deep resentments will breed long-lasting anger and hatred, the kind of emotions that simmer until they reach a palpable point among the victimized population which then resorts to terrorism as their only viable act of recourse.

The New Logic Committee on Security/Defense/Immigration, a working group of the New Logic Think tank, will soon be releasing a paper titled, "The Causal Mechanisms of Terrorism." While terrorism is such a fluid and difficult phenomenon to predict or even understand, the paper examines some of the common factors that underpin terror groups and the atrocities they commit. Ahead of this paper, the New Logic Think tank is releasing this infographic. Enjoy!