What is terrorism and why is it difficult to define?
There is no applicable definition that can be used to define the term terrorism; it is more of activities that are inhuman and exposes the lives of every human being to great danger. According to Hoffman, activities like assassination of a head of state, bombing of a building, poisoning of produce on a supermarket shelf and massacre of civilians by military unit, are all described and regarded as exceptional incidences of terrorism. Terrorism can also be labeled as organized crime syndicates, abhorrent act of violence that is channeled towards innocent civilians and extortionist or individual psychotics. Schmidt defines terrorism as a combination of random symbolic victims who merge to serve as an instrumental target of violence. The characteristics of the victims form the foundation of the ideal victimization that is adduced to them.
Hoffman argues that, it has been difficult to define the term terrorism given the grounds that individuals or groups that existed earlier renamed themselves terrorist or terror group without any ill intention. Members of Narodnaya Volya, Jewish terrorist group of the 1940s commonly known as Lehi, Stern Gang of Israel, are few examples of the terror group and individuals that existed earlier. They renamed themselves terrorist with no apparent ill-meaning but for identity purposes, freedom and liberation, actual self-defense movements and righteous vengeance were some of the notable images that the terror groups evoked in the society. They fought for what was right in the society and not exposing the society to questionable situations or circumstances. Schmidt stipulates that it is hard to define the term terrorism because of the ambiguity that individual have labeled on this word.
Identify the arguments of these scholars? Moreover, what are their differences?
Lake presents his approach of rationalist terrorism as planned event that is targeted at committing a violent on a targeted community without prior warnings to the target. The author further presents his arguments about violence as a product of private information that is disseminated with incentives of misrepresentation, lack of credible commitment and allure indivisibilities. Crenshaw points out that terrorism is merely a representation of a collective rationality that is developed by different states with the motives of inflicting political strategies. He represents terrorism as a vice that has come of age to be used and applied by different democratic states for self-actualization against different states with an underlying motive.
Kydd puts his argument about terrorism as follows; it is a strategic approach that is used and applied by terror groups such as Al-Qaida, Tamil Tigers or even Hamas to pass a message to the federal states. Examples of his representation are the attack of US Marine barracks in Beirut in 1983, and recalling of military troops by Philippines from Iraq after constant instances of kidnappings by the Iraqi extremists.
There is an apparent difference in the three arguments that has been presented above. Lake agrees that terrorism is a rationalist approach that is used to iron out differences among societies. Crenshaw on his perspective presents the terrorism as a collective rationality that is aimed at achieving a political strategy. Kydd presents his argument of terrorism as a formal work that is used by terror group to payback on a given grounds.
