Problems Surrounding Terrorism

"Terror" comes from the Latin verb terrere meaning "to frighten". The terror cimricus was a panic and state of emergency in Rome in response to the approach of warriors of the cimbri tribe in 105 BC. The Jacobins cited this precedent when imposing a Reign of terror during the French Revolution. After the Jacobins lost power, the word "terrorist" became a term of abuse. Although the Reign of Terror was imposed by a government, in modern times "terrorism" usually refers to the killing of innocent people by a private group in such a way as to create a media spectacle. This meaning can be traced back to Sergey Nechayev , who described himself as a "terrorist". Nechayev founded the Russian terrorist group "People's Retribution" in 1869. In November 2004, a United Nations Secretary General report described terrorism as any act "intended to cause death or serious bodily harm to civilians or non-combatants with the purpose of intimidating a population or compelling a government or an international organization to do or abstain from doing any act". On one point, at least, everyone agrees: terrorism is a pejorative term. It is a word with intrinsically negative connotations that is generally