The Four Waves Of Modern Terrorism - Term Paper Example

The Four Waves of Modern Terrorism Modern terrorism has evolved from the anarchist wave witnessed more than a hundred years ago to the recent wave of terrorism targeted at developed countries and ideologies. A recent terrorist attack that exemplifies the development in terrorist attack was the September 11 terrorist attack on U.S soil; an attack that left thousands of people mutilated or deceased. The worldwide appeal against terrorism is not an event that started in the near past, the appeal has been around for more than a century; from the time when President McKinley was assassinated in 2001 (Rapoport, 2002).

The development of terrorism has evolved over four stages (waves) which will be discussed in this paper. The first wave of terrorism, “The Anarchist Wave”, began in the 1800”s and lasted for approximately half a century, with the main causes of the wave being doctrine and technology (Rapoport, 2002). The main element of the first wave was the ideology that actions are better than words, which led to numerous bombings and assassinations, especially in Russia and some elements in America.

The desired end-state for the first wave of terrorism was that some European governments, the American government, and the Russian government should be done away with, and instead, be replaced by voluntary cooperation. An example of a terrorist group that practiced this terrorism was the Russian group Narodnaya Volya, a group that assassinated a Russian Tsar in the late 19th century. According to Rapoport (2002), the second wave of terrorism was the “Anti-Colonial Wave” that began in the 1920s, extended for approximately forty years, and dissipated in the 1960s.

This wave of terrorism had its basis in the ideology that the police were the main arms of the government; therefore, their systematic elimination would lead to the use of the army. The terrorists believed that the use of the army would turn public sympathy to the terrorists’ cause because of the atrocities that would be committed. This wave of terrorism was mainly targeted at colonial governments, and led to the eventual liberation of countries from colonial rule. The best example of a terrorist group in this wave was the “Irgun”, a Zionist terrorist group that prided in its ideologies.

This terrorist group operated in the period of the second wave and did not like to associate themselves with the name terrorists, perhaps because of the negative implications of the name. The third terrorist wave was the “New Left Wave”, a wave that started immediately after the ebb of the anarchist wave dissipated, and lasted for approximately 30 years (Rapoport, 2002). This wave was typically exemplified by kidnappings, ransom demands, and brutal murders. This wave of terrorism was somewhat alike to the first wave, where radicalism was often combined with the underlying ideologies of the current wave.

Contrary to the first two waves, this wave of terrorism was aimed at punishing perceived upper class or higher power individuals. The most famous group in this terrorism wave was the Palestinian “Black September”, which is famously known for the assassination of the then Jordanian Prime Minister in the early 70s. The current wave of terrorism is the “Religious Wave” that tries to justify the relation between ethnic and religious differences. Rapoport (2002) states that this wave of terrorism began in the late 1980s, and is currently ongoing; with the previously cited example of the Twin Tower attacks being the most prominent example.

The main objective of the religious terrorism wave is political sustenance, for example, the removal of American dominance in the developed world. The terrorist group Al-Qaeda is the best example of this terrorism wave, since the group is trying to establish Islamic dominance in the Middle East and eliminate American influence on world ideologies. Reference Rapoport, D. (2002). The Four Waves of Rebel Terror and September 11. Anthropoetics, Vol. 8(1).