Terrorism aims to provoke state repression that radicalizes the population.

Evidence

It is necessary to turn political crisis into armed conflict by performing violent actions that will force those in power to transform the political situation of the country into a military situation. That will alienate the masses, who, from then on, will revolt against the army and the police and blame them for this state of things. … Marighela’s essential philosophy was that a resort to blind terrorism would inevitably provoke the forces of law and order into an equally blind repression, which in turn would lead to a backlash by the hitherto uncommitted, polarise the situation into two extreme camps and make impossible any dialogue of compromise by eradicating the “soft centre”. — Horne, Alistair, A Savage War of Peace- Algeria 1954-1962, 368 (#corroborates, via linked claim)

Sergent reckoned that “our only chance to swing in our favour a significant section of metropolitan opinion is to create a situation obliging the regime to react violently and discredit itself”. It was the traditional formula of the modern revolutionary terrorist, whether Tupamaros or Baader-Meinhof, and — as so often happens — it was to produce quite the opposite results from those desired by Sergent. Over the six months, culminating in February, that the main O.A.S. offensive in France lasted, it was to do as much as anything else to tilt French sympathies towards de Gaulle’s acceptance of a precipitate withdrawal from Algeria. — Horne, Alistair, A Savage War of Peace- Algeria 1954-1962, 1523 (#complicates, via linked claim)

Categorization

• XREF: connects to: Provoking state repression is the core mechanism of modern revolutionary terrorism — Horne, Alistair, A Savage War of Peace- Algeria 1954-1962, 368; Revolutionary terror designed to discredit the state often backfires into sympathy for the state. — Horne, Alistair, A Savage War of Peace- Algeria 1954-1962, 1523; Blind terrorism provokes blind repression, polarizing and hardening a conflict (+8 more)

Related

• Provoking state repression is the core mechanism of modern revolutionary terrorism (similarity 0.92)
• Revolutionary terror designed to discredit the state often backfires into sympathy for the state. (similarity 0.90)
• Terror is defined by independence from opposition, not suppression (similarity 0.88)
• Blind terrorism provokes blind repression, polarizing and hardening a conflict (similarity 0.87)
• Provocation terrorism backfires by accelerating the settlement it aims to prevent (similarity 0.86)
• Secret police provoked revolutionary violence to justify their own existence (similarity 0.82)
• Italian Communists read mounting repression as proof of revolution’s approach (similarity 0.80)
• Repression and war are twin hypotheses about power’s mechanisms (similarity 0.79)

Broader Connections

• Provoking state repression is the core mechanism of modern revolutionary terrorism #corroborates (0.90) — Horne, Alistair, A Savage War of Peace- Algeria 1954-1962, 368
• Blind terrorism provokes blind repression, polarizing and hardening a conflict #corroborates (0.75)
• Revolutionary terror designed to discredit the state often backfires into sympathy for the state. #complicates (0.70) — Horne, Alistair, A Savage War of Peace- Algeria 1954-1962, 1523
• Provocation terrorism backfires by accelerating the settlement it aims to prevent #complicates (0.65) — Horne, Alistair, A Savage War of Peace- Algeria 1954-1962, 1548