International Terrorism - Motivations And Trends

Intelligence specialists call terrorism a "transnational" threat because the people who make up terrorist groups may not come from, represent, or be sponsored by a particular country. Instead, they can operate across international boundaries and against any number of countries to further their cause or objectives. Though sometimes state sponsored, it is rare for terrorists to be what American officials call "state actors," such as foreign governments; rather, they are generally doing their own work and pursuing their own goals.

Terrorism generally involves some political or religious message and is almost always violent. Some of the actions that the U.S. State Department defines as terrorist activities include:

• The hijacking or sabotage of any conveyance (including an aircraft, vessel, or vehicle)
• Seizing or detaining, and threatening to kill, injure, or continue to detain, another individual in order to compel a third person (or governmental organization) to do or abstain from doing any act as an explicit or implicit condition for the release of the individual seized or detained
• A violent attack upon an internationally protected person (defined as (1) a chief of state, head of government, or foreign minister in a country other than his or her own and any accompanying family member; or (2) any other representative, officer, employee, or agent of the U.S. government, a foreign government, or international organization and any member of his or her family/household) or upon the liberty of such a person
• An assassination
• Using any biological agent, chemical agent, nuclear weapon or device, explosive, firearm, or other weapon or dangerous device with intent to endanger, directly or indirectly, the safety of one or more individuals or to cause substantial damage to property (other than for mere personal monetary gain)
• A threat, attempt, or conspiracy to do any of these activities

Violence and terrorism usually occur together, as the message delivered by the terrorists is intended to reach an audience beyond simply the targets or victims of an attack. As a result, most terrorist attacks are also symbolic. In the September 11 attacks, the World Trade Center towers and the Pentagon represented the might of the U.S. economy and military. Other symbolic terrorist targets have included places of worship, government offices, military bases and barracks, and police personnel.

Terrorist tactics have varied over the years as well. They have ranged from single-person attacks to those involving mass destruction and casualties. Kidnappings, sabotage, assassinations, knifing campaigns, hijackings, murders, bombings, bank robberies, and cyber attacks are all tactics employed by terrorists.

Most terrorist attacks are motivated by political or religious conflict. Terror groups motivated by religious obligations have been on the rise since the 1980s. Throughout history, religious believers have often felt justified in perpetrating violence on behalf of their causes, reasoning that their actions are sanctioned by God. Secular (nonreligious) groups must maintain the support of their constituencies and so cannot commit heinous acts without the risk of alienating such support or facing widespread condemnation. Religious terrorists may believe that God is their main audience or that they are fighting for downtrodden people everywhere, whom they seek to defend against nonbelievers in a holy war. For these reasons, it may be easier for a religiously motivated terrorist group to perpetrate an attack that causes massive casualties.

Religion and politics are not always easy to separate. In the case of cults or millenarian groups (those believing in the thousand-year period of Christian triumph on Earth as predicted in the Bible) that shut themselves away from society, the single-minded religious agenda is not hard to identify. However, both religion and politics motivate certain Islamic groups. Hizballah, for example, which has a defining Islamic philosophy, also serves as a strong political faction in Lebanon. This is also the case with Hamas, which uses religion to recruit followers but is also a formidable political alternative to the Palestinian Authority in the West Bank and Gaza in Israel.

Another trend in the world of terrorism is the emergence of "cells," or ad hoc groups that form to conduct a particular attack without a strong organizational structure, base, or leader. The danger in such small, short-lived groups is that they are hard to track because of their lack of established patterns. Single-issue terrorist groups, such as those fighting against abortion or to protect the environment, can also fall into the "cell" pattern.

Terrorism and the United States

Understanding the motivations of terrorists who strike at the United States is very important in helping policy makers counter the problem in the long run. These motivations vary between different groups and individuals within these groups. But there are common themes. Over the years, disaffected individuals from repressed societies have grown increasingly irate with American foreign policies. This is especially true of U.S. involvement in the Middle East.

Some Muslims consider U.S. actions in the region as evidence of collaboration with regimes that compromise pure Islamic values and consequently lead to global oppression of Muslims. Governments of some of the predominantly Islamic countries in the Middle East, including

FIGURE 6.1

Kuwait, Jordan, and Saudi Arabia, have supported the United States in the past. Others, especially Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, and Egypt, were particularly helpful after the events of September 11, 2001. Still, many of these countries faced some degree of opposition from domestic groups who believe that the West exploits the region and supports oppressive regimes. Such perceptions of American support for illegitimate and tyrannical governments are one of the primary motivations for groups such as al Qaeda, in which charismatic leaders exploit individual frustrations and channel them into a hatred for the West, particularly the United States.

Besides collaboration, other U.S. policies in the Middle East also contributed to animosities that may lead to hostile acts such as terrorism. Immediately following the 1991 Persian Gulf War, the United States established military bases in Saudi Arabia to have a forward-deployed force (a military force positioned in a region to reach a tactical advantage) in case tensions resumed. For many Muslims around the world, the notion of a foreign military "occupying" the soil that hosts two of the most sacred sites in Islam (Mecca and Medina) is a sacrilege. Strong American support, both political and military, for the Jewish state of Israel in a region that is predominantly Arab and Muslim also inflames anti-American sentiment. Because the region is a major supplier of oil and natural gas and holds large deposits of these vital resources, Western dependence on oil makes American strategic involvement in the region crucial to ensure that oil continues to flow out of the region at reasonable prices.