Does this simple characterisation help us get closer to a definition of terrorism?
The simple fact that there are over one-hundred definitions of terrorism in the world points to the problem as to how terrorism is to be defined. As a result, terrorism is subject to a lot of debate and study not only concerning its definition but also regarding its causes and ways of combating it. Zagros Madjd-Sadjadi and Daniel Vencill have come to terms with this difficulty by asking whether there actually can “be a true and correct definition of terrorism – an abstract concept with no real presence?”[1] If one then, however, tries to define terrorism, the commonly used phrase ‘one person’s terrorist is another person’s freedom fighter’ will probably spring to mind. But there are several questions that have to be asked in relation to this truism and they will form the basis of this essay. First of all, it has been argued by scholars like Leonard Weinberg that this claim would be a confusion of “the goal with the activity”[2], rather than a guideline towards finding a universal defin
