Third-party targeting, not severity, defines terrorism
Evidence
Terrorism is a strategy of violence designed to force desired sociopolitical changes by instilling fear in the public at large. Public intimidation is a key element that distinguishes terrorism from other forms of violence. In conventional violence, victims are personally targeted. Terrorism relies on third-party violence in which the identity of the victims is incidental to the terrorists’ purposes. Terroristic violence is directed at civilians and essential infrastructure to pressure the government to change its policies and practices. It is neither the ends nor the severity of the operational means but the third party that characterizes terrorism. — Albert Bandura, Moral Disengagement, 2103
Categorization
Category: Definitional Content
- DEFINE: Sharp definitional crux: terrorism’s essential feature is that the direct victim is not the intended audience — the violence is instrumentalized communication aimed at a third party.
Related
- Terrorism is defined by third-party violence against incidental victims, not targets or means (similarity 0.97)
- Terror is a strategy of asymmetric violence deployable by weak or strong actors (similarity 0.82)
- Terrorism is defined by its extranormality and symbolic targeting rather than casualties (similarity 0.82)
- No single terrorist personality exists; violence is instrumentally goal-oriented (similarity 0.79)
- Terrorism aims at political influence through emotional arousal rather than destruction (similarity 0.79)
- Terrorism resists a single psychological explanation because it takes many forms (similarity 0.78)