International Terrorism: Attributes and Forms

Abstract

The authors analyze the features of international terrorism. It is proven that international («external») terrorism should be recognized as an independent legal phenomenon, separate from the domestic («internal») terrorism. The authors agree with those researchers who consider international terrorism to be one of the varieties of terrorism, but believe that the suggested attributes of international terrorism should be modified. While the territorial attribute and the attribute of citizenship of the culprit generally do not raise any objections, the authors argue in support of their position regarding the specific features of the victims of international terrorism, they state that such features could be anything as long as they define a group of people that is different from the group to which the members of an international terrorist organization belong: religious, racial, ethnic, national, linguistic, political features, etc. Another attribute supported in the article is the recognition of the terrorist organization as an international one by the national judicial (law enforcement) bodies. This allows the authors to suggest that the current legislation of the Russian Federation should include a procedure for recognizing a terrorist organization as an international one. This suggestion takes into consideration the fact that the FSB, which keeps a Unified Federal List of Terrorist Organizations, differentiates between Russian, foreign and international terrorist organizations in its practical work. The authors conclude that international terrorism is characterizes by such attributes as unlawfulness, territoriality, certain citizenship of the culprit and (or) the victim of terrorism, identification of the victim with certain groups of people, recognition of the subject of terrorism (terrorist organization) as an international one. It is suggested that the Federal Law «On Counteracting Terrorism» should be supplemented by the norm that describes the concept of an «international terrorist organization». It is proven that the recognition of a terrorist organization as an international one (or a foreign one) should be exclusively within the jurisdiction of the Supreme Court of the Russian Federation. As for the analysis of the forms of international terrorism, it is argued that the most dangerous ones are «Islamist» (religious) and «right» (racist, Nazi) terrorism.