BANGLADESH INSTITUTE OF INTERNATIONAL AND STRATEGIC STUDIES

UNDERSTANDING THE CHANGING NATURE OF GLOBAL TERRORISM: A HISTORICAL PERSPECTIVE

Author: M Ashique Rahman

DOI Link: https://www.doi.org/10.56888/BIISSj2017v38n3a5

ABSTRACT

Terrorism and violent extremism surpassing every region and almost all the countries of the contemporary world are posing the most crucial threat to international security and stability. Terrorism as a ‘tool, technique and method of achieving specific political objective’ has a history that can be traced back to millennia. An analysis of the history of modern terrorism, however, shows that over the years there have been unprecedented changes in the nature of global terrorism in terms of organising ideologies of terrorist groups, the tactics and weapons they have made use of and the targets. The main objective of the paper is to explore and understand these changes through historical analysis. The paper uses David C. Rapoport’s Four Waves Theory of the history of modern terrorism that provides a very useful framework in tracing and analysing the changes. Analysis in the paper reveals that changes in the nature of global terrorism in terms of transformations in tactics, weapons and targets have gone through an evolution buttressed by contemporary political factors, changes in sources of motivations i. e., ideologies, changes in technology and the enabling environment. The paper also reflects on the contemporary discourse as to whether we are experiencing a ‘new wave’ or ‘fifth wave’ and upholds the view that any analytical construction that suggests a ‘fifth wave’ based on differences in tactics, weapons and targets will be flawed and misconstrued.