Terrorism Case

Scholars have not yet reached an agreement about how to conceptualize terrorism. For example, Brian Jenkins describes terrorism as "the use or threatened use of force designed to bring about political change," whereas, Walter Reich defines terrorism as "a strategy of violence designed to promote desired outcomes by instilling fear in the public at large" (Whittaker, 3). According to A Beginner's Guide: Global Terrorism, Leonard Weinberg argues that the characteristic of what motivates terrorism can be distinguished by a given period of time in the history; a distinguished wave of terrorism occurs, repeatedly (23-50). In other words, he argues that all terrorist groups belong to a particular wave (the first, second, third or new wave), so that they can be generalized under a single category. For the purpose of discussing this topic, I am analyzing the Japanese Red Army (JRA), which belongs to the third wave, and Al Qaeda, which belongs to the new wave. Through analysis of the objectives and methods of groups, the JRA and Al Qaeda, I argue that we cannot generalize all terrorist groups under a single category, nor is the use of waves of terrorism as defined by Weinberg an appropriate conceptual tool (23-50).

Weinberg states the concepts of four different terrorism waves that occurred throughout the number of decades. Weinberg argues that the first wave was based on revolutionaries, anarchists and nationalists, and terrorist groups that belong to the second wave emerged with the cause of national independence (23-35). Moreover, he argues that the third wave was based on political and international issues, and the new wave was mostly inspired by religious motives (35-50). However, Weinberg's definition of different waves is not useful to argue that all terrorist groups can be generalized under a single category.