Rethinking the Roots of Terrorism

Abstract

‘Terrorism’ needs to be re-examined because the conventional understanding provided by orthodox terrorism theory, whilst useful as a discourse for dealing with the symptoms of terrorism, is clearly inadequate for explaining and helping to understand the deeper (conflict) root causes of terrorism. The Palestinian-Israeli conflict is an ideal example of a conflict where the conventional understanding of terrorism prevails and so conceals the multifarious root causes of the violence. It is therefore a particularly useful example for the application of the theoretical framework constructed in Chapter 3. In following chapter I intend in Part 1, to explain how Israel understands terrorism through the statecentric perception created by orthodox terrorism theory. I will then challenge this approach in Part 2, by applying the comprehensive framework and rethinking the root causes to demonstrate the existence of a vast range of other potential causes. Once again, this will comprise of a multilevel examination of the conflict at the level of the state, non-state, structural and individual. The chapter will be concluded with an investigation of how and why this alternative approach might be employed and an examination of the implications it has for the understanding of terrorism.