Cjss second Issue: cjss second Issue qxd

First Steps of Young Scientists 
Concept of Terrorism in International Relations
Sophio Barbakadze
The University of Georgia
errorism is already recognized as a main threat to the international
system in the XXI century, rightly compared with the Cold War problem in
the 20
th
century. After the notorious 9/11 events, the issue of terrorism
has prevailed over such serious problems as proliferation, organized
crime, etc. Thus study of terrorism is increasingly becoming one of the
most challenging activities. Terrorism is an extremely complicated phe-
nomenon, making its study quite difficult. The scholars need to count with
a variety of details, often leading them to confusion. Thus a number of di-
rections for study of terrorism had been singled out, including definition
of the concept itself; history of terrorism; theoretical explanation of ter-
rorism; and finally-the various forms of terrorism. 
terorizmis cneba saerTaSoriso urTierTobebSi
sofio barbaqaZe 
saqarTvelos universiteti
erorizmis Tema 21-e saukunis msoflioSi Tavisi mniSvnelobiT
pirvel adgilze dgas. es is sakiTxia, romelic Tavisi aqtualo-
biT civi omis dros arsebul safrTxes utoldeba. 2001 wlis 11
seqtembris cnobili movlenebis Semdeg, terorizmis Temam ukan
Camoitova iseTi sakiTxebi, rogorebicaa masobrivi ganadgurebis
iaraRis gavrceleba, organizebuli danaSauli, da sxva proble-
mebi. terorizmi rTuli da mravalmxrivi movlenaa, rac sakmaod
aZnelebs mis mecnierul Seswavlas. terorizmis Seswavlis pro-
cesSi gansakuTrebuli mniSvneloba eniWeba iseT sakiTxebs, ro-
gorebicaa mocemuli cnebis gansazRvreba; terorizmis istoria;
terorizmis warmoSobis Sesaxeb arsebuli Teoriebi; da bolos-
terorizmis sxvadasxva forma.
t
t
T
T
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The problem of terrorism has already been identified as the main threat
of the beginning 21
st
century. The problem has become so sheer, that many ex-
perts equalize it with the danger the Cold War was posing to the security and
stability of the international system in the 20
th
century. After the notorious
9/11 the problem of terrorism has overwhelmed the society leaving such se-
rious questions as the proliferation and organized crime far behind. Terror-
ism has indeed become the main threat to international system in the 21
st
century, respectively, studying this global phenomenon is receiving more and
more scholarly attention recently. 
The concept of terrorism is quite complex and manifold, making its study
quite complicated. This fact is partially explaining why most authors try to
concentrate their attention only on some specific aspect of terrorism. Some
of the most frequently studied aspects are as follows: defining the concept of
terrorism; history of terrorism; theories explaining terrorism; various forms
of terrorism. 
Defining Terrorism
The term “terrorism” has developed from the French “terreur” (terror)
and has first been used in the period after the French Revolution in 1789. 
The application of the term “terrorism” is quite controversial, as it can be
easily used to designate the violence sponsored by the state, as well as the vi-
olence applied against the state. Although the consensus over this issue has
not been yet reached, the definition of terrorism mostly agreed upon is as fol-
lows: terrorism is an act of using violence against the civilians or the threat
to do so, having some sort of political, economic or social changes in mind
(Martin, 2004). 
Defining terrorism may be much more difficult then it seems from the
first sight. “The statement, “One man’s terrorist is another man’s freedom
fighter,” has become not only a cliché, but also one of the most difficult obsta-
cles in coping with terrorism” (Ganor, 2008). Before we begin the task of
defining terrorism, we should note, that all of the authors dealing with this
issue admit the tremendous difficulty of the task. Moreover, some of the ex-
perts try to avoid difficulties by making their definitions as short as possible.
As the expert of international relations, Martha Crenshaw (2002) puts it in
her article the Concept of Revolutionary Terrorism: “Unfortunately, most of the
researches dealing with the internal conflicts, avoid the broad definition of
terror and terrorism, limiting themselves to simple definitions.” Despite the
main trend, a handful of authors are bold enough to devote most of their at-
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tention to this specific issue. They try to sum up the existing definitions and
make one of their own. One of such authors, Kurt Cronin (2002) defines ter-
rorism as an act of violence, which targets not the people, who are killed or
maimed, but the government, the society or a specific group in which the ter-
rorists hope to plant terror or radicalism. The author also admits the fact that
although the experts have written hundreds of pages to give an exact defini-
tion of terrorism the failure was inevitable- as “terrorism itself is linked to
individual perception, thus each person is interpreting it in a different way”
(Cronin, 2002).
Still, lets make an overview about the ways terrorism is defined with var-
ious authors. One of the important experts in the field, Rohan Gunaratna
(2002) gives quite a short definition in his article “International Terrorism
saerTaSoriso terorizmi: rogori pasuxi unda gaeces mas? ”Although
we dont have an universal definition of terrorism, everybody agrees that
terrorism is a form of politically motivated violence, or its threat, often
chosing non-combatants as its target”.
In his book ”Understanding International Conflicts” (1997) Joseph Nye
gives the following definition of terrorism: ”terrorism is the politically moti-
vated action carried out by inter-state groups, as a rule chosing non-combat-
ants as a target.” Nye continues by acessing the difficulties connected with
defining terrorism and than notes that ”According to the Panel set up by the
UN Secretary General in 2004- terrorism can be defined as any action directed
against civilians and non-combatants, which hopes to achieve its political
goals in this way” (Nye, 1997). 
Boaz Ganor in his ”Is One Man’s Terrorist Another Man’s Freedom
Fighter?” defines terrorism in the following way: ” terrorism is the intentional
use of, or threat to use violence against civilians or against civilian targets, in
order to attain political aims.” 
Raymond Duncan in the book “World Politics in the 21
st
Century” (2006)
proposes the definition of terrorism, which is almost identical to that of other
authors: “terrorism is the form of politically motivated violence, directed
against civilians. Terrorists and terrorist groups hope to change the political
environment they oppose by force.”
Joshua Goldstein also gives a short definition of terrorism in his book
“International Relations”. “Terrorism is the form of political violence which
chooses civilians deliberately… Main aim of terrorism is to demoralize the so-
ciety, what can be later used against the government or any other side of the
conflict.”
Martha Crenshaw (2002) gives the following definition of terrorism in
her article “the Concept of Revolutionary Terrorism”: “Terrorism is one of the
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