What Makes a Terroristic Act?

Fourthly, the act and the victims usually have symbolic significance. The shock value of the act is enormously enhanced by the power of the symbol that the target represents. The whole point is to ensure that the psychological impact is greater than the actual physical act. And, this character of terrorism reveals the terrorist groups’ weakness. They are invariably outmanned and outarmed, so they employ these tactics to gain more attention than any objective assessment of their capabilities would suggest that they warrant. This is the reason why al-Qaeda targeted the Twin Towers of the US – i.e., they are icons of America’s military and economic might.

Fifthly, terrorism is an act of sub-state groups. This point is controversial, and does not mean to imply that states do not use terrorism as instruments of their foreign policy. Of course, Iran, Iran, Syria and Libya have sponsored terrorism abroad in order not to incur the risk of overtly attacking more powerful countries. Great powers, too, like the US have supported terrorist groups abroad as a way of engaging in proxy wars or covertly bringing about internal change in difficult countries without openly displaying their agenda.

Sixthly, the victims of terrorism and the audience that the terrorists try to reach out are not the same. The point of the act is to use the victim as a means of altering the behavior of the larger audience, usually a government. Victims are said to be chosen at random or as representative of some larger group. Needless to say, the identity of the people traveling on a bus in Tel Aviv or train in Madrid, dancing in Bali or bond trading in New York was of no consequence to those who killed them. They were used as means, that is, to influence others. This is clearly different from most other forms of political violence in which security forces or state representatives are targeted in an effort to reduce the strength of the opponent.

Finally, terrorism deliberately targets civilians. Terrorists have elevated practices that are normally seen as the excesses of warfare to routine practice – that is, striking at non-combatants not as an unintended side effect but as a deliberate strategy. They maintain that those who pay taxes to governments are responsible to their actions. For paying taxes is giving approval in word and in deed.