Terrorism as a Tactic of Warfare - Essay Example

The United States Institutes of Peace, in handout number three of its International Terrorism: Definitions, Causes and Responses, tells us that the rationale behind terrorism falls into the categories of “psychological perspective,” describing that perspective as one in which individuals participate in the act of terrorism for “[…] personal reasons, based on their own psychological state of mind (11).”The second perspective is ideological, the handout advises, “[…] the beliefs, values, and/or principles by which a group identifies its particular aims and goals.

  Ideology may encompass religion or political philosophies or programs (11).”A third perspective is that of strategic significance, which the handout defines as “When people seek redress of their grievances through government, but fail to win government’s attention to their plight, they may resort to violence (11).”Still, a fourth perspective on the use of terrorism is one in which the previously three stated perspectives together serve as the rationale for an act of terrorism (11).

  When the rationale constitutes all three of the previously stated rationale, the rationale becomes obscured, or undeterminable.Von Clausewitz’s ArgumentVon Clausewitz’s analysis of war is useful in analyzing terrorism, and are evident in Stewart’s Analyzing Terrorism cited earlier in this discussion.  Von Clausewitz held that it was important to analyze who was conducting the war, or, in this case, the act of terrorism (French).  Identifying who is making the war helps explain the rationale.