Guerrilla warfare and urban terrorism.
The period starting 1970 towards the 21st century has seen a number of attacks by organized groups against established governments in the struggle for control of resources. Terrorism is an activity that has taken publicity in the recent years. The 9/11 bombing of the world trade centre is a vivid example of terrorism activity. A closely linked version of retaliation and struggle to wield power and control is the guerrilla warfare. This model has existed for some time. It employs undercover tactics that target a rather unstable government. Looking at the operations of terrorist groups and guerrilla warfare tactics, we come to a conclusion that both have a lot to share.
David J. Whittaker (2003 p. 3) defines terrorism as a strategy put up by a non-state actor to push some political agenda by employing a system of violence. Terrorists direct their actions to non-combatant actors who may be the general population. The major aim of the terrorist activities is to intimidate a bigger audience and instill fear in the population. An example of a terrorist attack may be taking charge of a plane full of passengers and then directing it to crash into a building. Guerrilla war and tactics employ an irregular warfare. In it, a small group of armed individuals makes use of army tactics to do sabotage, ambush and raids to surprise and harass a powerful and stationary army and then withdraw. Perpetrators of the guerrilla warfare may also target other key resources in the nation and after an attack, they withdraw immediately. The scope of similarities and discrepancies between modern day terrorism and the traditional, guerrilla tactics is given under the following sub items.
Objective
Richard English (2010, p.76) thinks that the main objective held by both insurgents engaging in a guerrilla war, and a terrorist group, is to change the status quo in the political realm. The insurgents in a guerrilla war, target usurping the ruling government or taking control of a region. In seeking this, the guerrilla war wagers attack organizes propaganda to gain as many sympathizers as possible on their side. The terrorists attempt to effect a change in the perceptions of the effective of a given government and how legitimate it is. The result of any terrorism is to evoke a widespread knowledge of the violent event hence cause the populate to be fear stricken.
Nature of attacks
Both the terrorists and the guerrilla war participants engage in attack-and-run escapades. The Guerrilla war participants seek to weaken the nation’s military force as much as they can. In order to achieve this, the guerrilla war wagers seek to win over discontent members of the military and any other key persons who may instill doubt in the population. The Basques of Spain are a superb example of a guerrilla war. Starting in the 1930s, they engaged Madrid for 40 years in a liberation struggle. The terrorists look at the acts of violence that will bring as much fear as possible to enable ideological, religious, and social change. Terrorists engage in activities they think will be able to neutralize strengths of a fair conventional war. Terrorists involve themselves in bombing sites where the military takes time off to rest. Convoys and key government interests are also major terrorist targets (Whittaker 2004, p.123).
Resources
Technology, tact, and the human resources cannot be dispensed with in both terrorism and guerrilla war attacks. Terrorism requires mobilization of technological viable modes of attack because the target is usually an advanced and superior nation. This pushes most groups that execute international terrorism to engage in high sea vessel attacks and kidnapping activities. The result of these activities is to raise the financial capacity of the group to fund technological attacks. Guerrilla war makes use of military resources because the desired result is to bring about a change of government (Wardlaw 1989, p.89). Most guerrilla groups seek support of the wealthy individuals who are also discontent with the way the nation is run. Tribal and religious chiefs, as a result, emerge. It is a common practice in guerrilla warfare to mingle with civilians. This tactic enables mobilization of the human resource who may not want desire to be branded pro-government. This makes it difficult for the army of the nation to identify the enemy from the friend.
The law in relation to Terrorism and Guerrilla warfare
Many guerrilla ventures, have sought to stick to the international law. This has not persisted to the end because acts of violence increase and participants force the innocent citizens into active participation. Terrorism, on the other hand, is against the law. David J. Whittaker (2003) brands terrorists as criminals in consideration of both the civil and the legal code guiding military actions. He pegs this on the outcome, which may be injury, death, or property destruction within the confines of a sovereign nation. A terrorist thinks that abiding to the statutes of the law will block his actions. In this respect, abuse of the law is necessary to any person executing a terrorist activity.
Leadership
There is a key similarity that exists in the leadership styles practiced by terrorist groups and guerrilla initiatives. Both approaches seek to change the order of status quo. These modes have well defined leadership. Leaders are usually those who have more resources than their subjects. Paul Wilkinson (2011) highlights subjects protect terrorist leaders and the loyal individuals do their best in effecting the agenda laid down by the leader. The guerrilla strategy draws its membership from sympathetic individuals of the affected state. These may be family members of the leader or kinsmen. Other people who share in the overall discontent of the leader may also join in the activities of the guerrilla initiative. Guerrilla groups use propaganda to cause many people to identify and belong to the guerrilla group and, therefore, strengthen the support to the group. Terrorist groups initiate recruitments from religious groups who share in the ideology that they are a minority group under oppression. In order to get many individuals on board, terrorist leader also use propaganda and promise the recruits financial gains and protection in case the escapades succeed. Many young and upcoming terrorist groups utilize a network type of organization (Horgan, & Braddock 2012, p. 48).
State Capacity
This is the political and military strength that the target nation possesses. Regarding guerrilla groups, Paul Wilkinson (2011, p. 27) suggests that most of their targets are usually military weak countries under the oppression of the leader. The guerrilla groups focus on proving that the country is not capable of offering the protection the citizens deserve and, therefore, the president of the country confirms incompetence. On the other hand, the countries attacked by terrorists are countries that have massive military power. The terrorists focus on attacking the interests of this vast nation so as to pass a solid message of a needed change.
Conclusion
The threat that terrorism poses to the world is considerably large. This is the direct effect of adopting advanced weapons and technology in military operations. This has consequently led to the advancement of the military power of most nations.
References
Booth, K & Dunne, T. (2002), Worlds in Collision: Terror and the Future of Global Order,
Palgrave Macmillan
English, R. (2009) Terrorism: How to Respond, Oxford University Press
Hoffman, B. (2006), Inside Terrorism, Columbia University Press
John Horgan, Kurt Braddock (Eds) (2012), Terrorism Studies: A Reader, Routledge
Reich, W. (ed.) (1998), Origins of Terrorism: Psychologies, Ideologies, Theologies, States of
Mind, The Woodrow Wilson Center Press
Richard Jackson, Lee Jarvis, Jeroen Gunning, Marie Breen Smyth (2011) Terrorism: A Critical
Introduction, (Palgrave MacMillan).
Richard Jackson, Samuel Justin Sinclair (eds) (2012), Contemporary Debates on Terrorism,
Palgrave MacMillan
Whittaker, D.J. (2007) The Terrorism Reader, 3rd Ed. New York, Routledge.
Whittaker, D. (2004), Terrorists and Terrorism: In the contemporary world; New York,
Routledge
Wilkinson, P. (2006), Terrorism versus Democracy, Routledge.
Wardlaw, G. (1989), Political Terrorism, CUP.
White, J.R. (2006), Terrorism and Homeland Security, Thomson Wadsworth.
