ISD

Driving Question:
In what ways do multiple perspectives on terrorism create ethical conflicts between countries?


Language of the Discipline

Terrorism :

• the use of violence or threat of violence in order to purport a political1, religious, or ideological change
• it can only be committed by non-state actors or undercover personnel serving on the behalf of their respective governments
• it reaches more than the immediate target victims and is also directed at targets consisting of a larger spectrum of society
• it’s both mala prohibita (i.e., crime that is made illegal by legislation) and mala in se (i.e., crime that’s inherently immoral or wrong)

Multiple Perspectives

There are multiple types of terrorism. There are five in particular which express the following:

• State-Sponsored Terrorism, which consists of terrorist acts on a state or government by a state or government.
• Dissent Terrorism, which are terrorists groups which have rebelled against their government.
• Terrorist and the Left and Right, which are groups rooted in political ideology.
• Religious Terrorism, which are terrorists groups which are extremely religiously motivated.
• Criminal Terrorism, which are terrorists acts used to aid in crime and criminal profit.

Not only are there multiple types of terrorism but also perspectives from people, a society, etc.
The examples are the following:

• S. Sanyal showed(2001)“The success of a terrorist act depends on the reaction of the society towards it. As one commentator has remarked, terrorist violence is always 'propaganda of the deed.' Paul Wilkinson notes that "Political terrorism is thus, par excellence, a weapon of psychological warfare... and the terrorists judge their own' success' or 'failure' primarily in terms of political, psychological and propaganda impact rather than purely by traditional military criteria of death and damage caused."(p. 1)
• She stated “Except for specific weapons like certain expanding bullets and poison gas, any kind of attack against an enemy combatant in a declared war will avoid the attachment of the label “terrorist.” (Jones, 2008, p. 15)
• According to Tori DeAngelis (2009)“For one thing, terrorists aren't likely to volunteer as experimental subjects, and examining their activities from afar can lead to erroneous conclusions. What's more, one group's terrorist is another group's freedom fighter, as the millions of Arabs who support Palestinian suicide bombers will attest.”(p. 1)

Conflicts are composed of opposing forces

Apart from multiple perspectives, a contribution to it is ethics. Ethics and multiple perspectives seem similar in these instances but they’re not. Terrorism has been portrayed inaccurately over the time by media, societies, and people around the world. Therefore, this causes opposing forces between the two particular peoples. There is no willing answer for who to really blame on terrorism because of all the coverage. Here are some examples:

• She stated “Except for specific weapons like certain expanding bullets and poison gas, any kind of attack against an enemy combatant in a declared war will avoid the attachment of the label “terrorist.” (Jones, 2008, p. 15)
• Richard A. Couto said (2010)“One who is active in politics seeks legitimate authority through one of these avenues rather than justifying violence by invoking one or more of these forms of authority. The state’s use of violence is not terror when it appears as justified by legitimate authority; a contestable terrain. It appears more clearly as unjustified violence and terror as groups understand legitimate authority as cultural and social subordination or when it attempts to eliminate legitimate opposition.”(p.11)
• Omar Alnatour stated (2017)“Every time an act of terror or shooting occurs, Muslims closely watch the news with extreme trepidation praying that the suspect is not Muslim. This is not because these terrorists are likely to be Muslim but rather because in the instances where they happen to be, we see amplified mass media coverage and extreme unjustified hatred towards Muslims.” (p. 1)
• According to Richard A.Couto (2010) “The decisive distinction between them is consideration of consequences of action. The ethic of ultimate ends focuses on intention while the ethic of responsibility focuses on the foreseeable consequences of one’s actions. “The believer in an ethic of ultimate ends feels “responsible” only for seeing to it that the flame of pure intentions is not squelched; for example, the flame of protesting against the injustice of the social order” (p. 13)

Terrorism may allow for synthesis and change

The multiple perspectives which contribute to ethical conflicts later create multiple impacts on terrorist issues. The reasons for this are:

• According to Tim Krieger (2010) “Since the attacks of New York and Washington on September 11, 2001, political and the general public have tried to bring to light the factors that incite terror.” (p. 1)
• In 2010 Richard A.Couto said  “Arendt brings us to the central point of a theory of politics and political terrorism. Power may have legitimacy if rooted in authority but violence may have only justification. When a state resorts to violence against its own citizens, it admits that it no longer has the strength and power of legitimate authority to command the compliance without coercion.”(p. 19)
• Richard A. Couto said (2010)“When a group resorts to terror against its own citizens or another state, it admits it does not have power or strength to use other forms of violence, such as guerrilla or conventional warfare, to challenge the legitimacy of the state. Its violence challenges the state’s authority over a monopoly of justified or, in Weber’s terms legitimate, violence. It justifies its own violence,terrorism, in the illegitimate authority or actions of the state which may include a disproportionate use of violence, which is an unjustifiable scale of it.” (p. 19)
• Bruce A. Clark once stated(2008)“To me, it makes a difference whether someone is attacking a perpetrator of the grievance or some non-involved third party. In the above hypothetical Vietnamese attack on the twin towers and the Pentagon, they would have been been doing nothing different from what their adversary was doing, using the means they had.”

Terrorism may be natural or man-made

Terrorism is natural and man-made, however, in these cases, terrorism is only man-made because the conflicts created are by a people, society, etc. Terrorism is usually caused because of religious acts, political reasons, or ideological actions. It is not only for beliefs, also because some have suffered a tragedy and/or wants to avenge whoever they lost. According to Richard A.Couto (2010) “The decisive distinction between them is consideration of consequences of action. The ethic of ultimate ends focuses on intention while the ethic of responsibility focuses on the foreseeable consequences of one’s actions. “The believer in an ethic of ultimate ends feels “responsible” only for seeing to it that the flame of pure intentions is not squelched; for example, the flame of protesting against the injustice of the social order” (p. 13). This here proves terrorism may be man-made.


Terrorism may be intentional or unintentional
Terrorist may not want to go and kill people, but their religion might make them.

Richard A.Couto (2010) “Weber spends considerable space outlining the preeminent qualities  of  a leader  with avocation  for politics,  that  is  someone who seeks  power as a means to serve other ends and not merely self-gratification—passion, a feeling of responsibility, and a sense of proportion. These qualities, like all human qualities, are held together in  paradoxical if not contradictory fashion.” Another piece of evidence comes from Tim Krieger who quoted (2009) “Apart from economics and politics, there may also be an independent effect of demographic and cultural factors on transnational terrorist attack patterns. These factors are linked to hypotheses that link terrorism to identity conflict and strain that accompany modernization processes.” (pg.12)


Terrorism is progressive

Terrorism has never been the same. First it started with invasions. There is still invasion happening right now, like in Afghanistan. However, the terrorist acts are getting are more serious from time to time. According to Lawyer LeVine(2001) “The first recorded use of "terrorism" and "terrorist" was in 1795, relating to the Reign of Terror instituted by the French government. The use of "terrorist" to signify anti-government activities was recorded in 1866 referring to Ireland, and in 1883 referring to Russia.” Many innovations have struck into the terrorist mind. For example in Afghanistan drones are used for dropping bombs on the enemy. It does not only innovate physically, but mentally too. According to Dr.James Hess, “One thing that is common through these waves is how ideology influences organizations. Ideology determines the target, (i.e. assassinations of national leaders during the Anarchist Wave, or the twin towers during 9/11).Rapoport’s wave theory to describe how ideology has evolved is relevant in our understanding of modern terrorism, which is supported by both Crenshaw’s violent resistance and Reich’s expression of political strategy.”


REFERENCES PAGE

• Bruce A. Clark (2008, April). The Ethics of Terrorism. Retrieved from http://www.spectacle.org/0408/clark.html
• Daniel Meierrieks, Tim Krieger (2010, February 8). What Causes Terrorism?. Retrieved from https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=1148682
• Richard A. Couto (2010, February 28). The Politics of Terrorism : Power, Legitimacy, and Violence. Retrieved from https://integral-review.org/issues/vol_6_no_1_couto_the_politics_of_terrorism.pdf
• S. Sanyal (2001). One Man’s Terrorist Victims’ Perspectives on Terrorism. Retrieved from http://www.satp.org/satporgtp/publication/faultlines/volume7/Fault7-SSanyal.htm
• Max Roser, Mohamed Nagdy (2016). ‘Terrorism’. Retrieved from https://ourworldindata.org/terrorism/
• Tori DeAngelis (2010, November). Understanding Terrorism. Retrieved from http://www.apa.org/monitor/2009/11/terrorism.aspx
• Omar Alnatour (2017). Muslims Are Not Terrorists: A Factual Look at Terrorism and Islam. Retrieved from http://www.huffingtonpost.com/omar-alnatour/muslims-are-not-terrorist_b_8718000.html
• HLS-101 Terrorism. Retrieved from http://hlsonline.eku.edu/hls-101-terrorism
• Definitions of Terrorism. Retrieved from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Definitions_of_terrorism
• 10 thing to know about terrorism

          http://www.wussu.com/current/levine.htm

• http://inpublicsafety.com/2015/07/the-evolution-of-modern-terrorism/

     Dr.James Hess


BOARD TAG
Driving Question: In what ways do multiple perspectives on terrorism create ethical conflicts between countries?
Names of student researchers: Cristian Victor, Adrian Carrillo
Grade level: 8
Mentor teacher: Park, Torres, Garrett
Special notes about handling and or placement or presentation space needed:
The placements on presentation space might be quite broad rather than tight. However, we will try to use as much space as possible.
ENDING QUESTIONS

• What makes a terrorist a terrorist?
• How does a terrorist think?
• What are the pros and cons of being a terrorist?
• Does religion affect how a terrorist think?