Development of Terrorism

Running head: TERRORISM
Terrorism
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1Terrorism
The word Terrorism was included in the dictionary as late as 1795, during the French
revolution. Hence, there is no proper, formalised definition of terrorism (Stampnitzky, 2013).
However, in a general sense Terrorism can be defined as an act of violence that invoke a
sense of terror with the motivation of acquiring religious or political or ideological goal .It is
essentially an issue related to the legal conduct. The acts of terrorism is conducted mostly by
the non-state actors, however, sometimes particular states also take an active part in the
spread of terrorism in other countries for its personal political agenda. According to the
intellects, the term Terrorism is mainly attributed to violence and threat and are essentially
identified with political and religious agendas. There are other views as well which define
this act of exercising threat as a violent behaviour. But there is a subtle difference between a
violence act and an act of terrorism. The violent acts are not as well strategically planned and
tactfully implemented as the terrorist attacks. A simple example is that America had been a
victim of consecutive violent attacks, but the attack on the World Trade Centre, on September
11, 2001, was a terror attack (Richards, 2014). Therefore, the terrorist attacks are more
politically minded and well strategized and well implemented, and the violent attacks are
inspired by such acts of terrorism. In the following essay, therefore, a brief explanation
regarding the development of Terrorism is been illustrated.
As mentioned, the concept of Terrorism came into being in as late as 18th Century
during the French Revolution. At an initial level, the concept was restricted to a specific time
period and particular social set up. Therefore, the Oxford Dictionary has been seen to define
it as an historical and literal phenomenon. Historically speaking, terrorism has been found to
be a violent phenomenon that is sponsored by the state to practice and exercise threat,
compulsion and control and dominance over its people (Sawalha, 2017). However, in the
modern tomes the definition has been changed and it is now viewed to be a violent behaviour
directed against the state with a political and religious orientation by certain non-state or