Can terrorism ever be morally justified?

Abstract

Research on the moral significance of terrorism, the ethical features of counterterrorist initiatives, the ethics of the war on terror, and the moral justification of separate facets of the war on terror has yielded fairly consistent findings over the past decade. My analysis complements the growing literature on the moral status of terrorist acts, the ethical confines of counterterrorist operations, moral assessments of the war on terror, and components of terrorism that restrict it morally from other kinds of political violence. The material gathered in this study provides a rich and diverse context for understanding the ethics of acceptable killing in war and political conflict, the normative ethics of counterterrorism, and the fundamental wickedness of a war on terrorism.