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apocalyptic) hope for the future and the desire to revenge for their past- not
only implying but directly demanding violence to be used for the sacred goal
of  “restoring justice”. 
Table 1: Location of Islamic Terrorism 
Retrieved form photo-bucket website 12 March, 2008
http://i217.photobucket.com/albums/cc272/full_images/Map-global-jihad.jpg
Audrey Kurth Cronin (2002) in his article “Behind the curve: Globaliza-
tion and International Terrorism” pays a special interest to the religious ter-
rorism, signing out five factors making this form of terrorism number one
threat to the existence of the international system: 
1. “Religious terrorists often feel engaged in a Manichaean struggle of
good against evil, implying an open-ended set of human targets: Anyone who
is not a member of their religion or religious sect may be “evil” and thus fair
game.” (Cronin 2002) Although indiscriminate attacks are also widely used by
other forms of terrorism, here it finds a special application, as all individuals
outside the group can be viewed as infidels or apostates, going against the
will of God and therefore deserving the physical punishment. 
2. Religious terrorism views itself as a manifestation of the Divine will,
this in itself leads to a number of such problems as: “The whims of the deity
may be less than obvious to those who are not members of the religion, so
the actions of violent religious organizations can be especially unpredictable”
(Cronin 2002). Moreover, such religious implications guarantees the “highest
approval” for the terrorists, enabling them to disregard the opinions and neg-
ative sentiments generated even in the society to which they themselves be-
long. 
3. “religious terrorists consider themselves to be unconstrained by sec-
ular values or laws. Indeed the very target of the attacks may be the law-based
secular society that is embodied in most modern states” (Cronin 2002). In
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more general terms, the goal of religious terrorism is to topple the Post-West-
phalian state system, this ambition makes it far more dangerous that to say,
the ethnonationalist terrorism which aims at creating a new unit inside the
existing international system.
4. Religious terrorists are completely alienated from the secular society.
“They are not trying to correct the system, making it more just, more perfect,
and more egalitarian. Rather they are trying to replace it... images of destruc-
tion are seen as a necessity-even a purifying regimen.” (Cronin 2002)
5. Finally, religious terrorism has a vast network of supporters in the face
of Muslim nongovernmental organizations which rise funds to finance expen-
sive training campaigns. However, there is a difficulty in distinguishing these
organizations from truly philanthropic groups. “there is the real risk of ignit-
ing the very holy war that the terrorists may be seeking in the first instance”
(Cronin 2002).
Matthew Morgan (2004) in his article “The Origins of the New Terror-
ism” also discusses the issue of the “fourth wave”, of the religious terrorism.
The author rests upon the decisions of the National Commission on Terrorism
and says: “fanaticism rather than political interests is more often the motiva-
tion now, and that terrorists are more unrestrained than ever before in their
methods... Rather than focusing on conventional goals of political or religious
movements, today’s terrorists seek destruction and chaos as ends in them-
selves” The author continues the argument by quoting S. K. Malik’s The
Quranic Concept of War : “Terror struck into the hearts of the enemies is not
only a means, it is in the end in itself. Once a condition of terror into the op-
ponent’s heart is obtained, hardly anything is left to be achieved. It is the point
where the means and the ends meet and merge.”
Thus we can conclude, that terrorism is  a manifold and quite compli-
cated phenomenon, dating back to ancient times. After considering history
of terrorism it can be concluded that terrorism is not an external force threat-
ening the existence of the international system, but an internal part of the in-
ternational system itself which finds its roots in the malfunctions of the
system. The rise and development of terrorism was parallel to the process of
development of the international system, and all its changes were fully con-
ditioned by the changing environment in the international arena. This fact in
itself makes fighting terrorism in the contemporary world quite worrisome
and urges us to find new ways and new perspectives for studying the issue.
The fact that even defining the concept of terrorism is controversial, in itself
demonstrates the complexity of the given issue. The same can be concluded
after considering all the various theories trying to explain origins of terrorism.
Although each theory can be true in one case, their universal application can
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be disputed. The existence of “the four waves” of terrorism makes the issue
hard to deal with even more. Here should be noted, that although the four
waves can exist simultaneously they still represent different steps of develop-
ment of the given phenomenon. All of these makes it hard for the scholar to
generalize the concept of terrorism and try to study its universal features,
leading to difficulties in fighting terrorism in practice.  The various forms of
terrorism  and the reasons leading to its occurrence makes it hard for the gov-
ernments and the international society to take preventive measures to guar-
antee international peace and development.
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