Non-state Based Terrorism and Security

Abstract

The act of terrorism is as ‘old as human history’ and has been a focus of policy and research for centuries (Czech National Alliance (Great Britain). 1916; Kurth-Cronin 2002/2003: 34). Earlier work on terrorism largely focused on definitions (Bergesen/Han 2005). As the literature addressing terrorism continues to expand however, so have the various methods of analysis from statistical and criminal networks analyses, to sociological analyses, among others (Enders/Sandler 2005; Xu/Chen 2005; Turk 2004). The phenomenon of terrorism has been widely examined from a security analysis standpoint as well, albeit significantly dominated by state and international security perspectives, examining in what ways states are currently threatened by terrorism, and how they can and ought to respond (Tan 2004; Carpenter/Wiencek 2005). These approaches usually address the legal and military measures to ‘combat’ the threat so as to first maintain state integrity and second to protect the primary or first level targets of terrorist acts (such as ‘innocents’).