Terrorism as Underground Political Violence

Abstract

Abstract This chapter presents and elaborates the main claim of the book, namely that terrorism should be understood as underground violence rather than civilian victimization or coercive violence. What makes terrorism unique is that it does not require physical occupation or control of space. Terrorism is intrinsically linked to secret, covert action. Most insurgent violence, by contrast, is about gaining territorial control. This conceptualization is developed in several directions to make sense of some unique features of terrorism, such as its international dimension, the possibility of lone-actors, and state terrorism as covert repression. Moreover, a conceptual map on terrorism is provided, examining the various combinations of types of perpetrators and types of tactics. This makes room for the possibility of insurgencies with territorial control committing terrorist attacks when they act in the enemy’s territory.