The Master replied, “What is necessary is to rectify names.” . . . “If names be not correct, language is not in accordance with the truth of things. If language be not in accordance with the truth of things, affairs cannot be carried on to success.”
–The Analects of Confucius, Book 13 Chapter 3
Although the above quote applied to the ordering of political and social status, as well as the rights and responsibilities occasioned therefrom, the underlying principle, i.e., words should have commonly understood meanings, applies well beyond that narrow context.
Other than it concerns the basest of mans’ instincts, i.e., controlling the thoughts, actions, beliefs, behaviors or movements of his fellow man, the term “terrorism” does not have a universally agreed upon definition. Without such a definition, it is oftentimes difficult to categorize incidents that have elements commonly thought of as terrorism from other types of crimes. For example, it can be hard to determine where a hate crime ends and terrorism begins as both have common elements.
Under the auspices of the United Nations there are currently fifteen international terrorism conventions in force. These conventions are “sectorial,” i.e., each concerns particular “types” of activities that are defined with specificity in the convention.[1] An international terrorism convention that is nonsectorial has yet to be developed. As such, there is no agreed upon “international” definition of terrorism.
In 1996, the United Nations General Assembly established an ad hoc committee to develop a comprehensive convention under the working title Comprehensive Convention on International Terrorism.[2] The text of the draft convention can be found in the letter dated 3 August 2005 from the Chairman of the Sixth Committee addressed to the President of the General Assembly (A/59/894) at Appendix II. The letter is available here. The draft convention contains a definition of terrorism.
There are a number of regional terrorism conventions. Some examples, the Council of Europe Convention on the Prevention of Terrorism 2005; the Inter-American Convention Against Terrorism; and The Arab Convention for the Suppression of Terrorism. That any given country may be a party to both international and regional conventions only multiples the complexity of developing a common definition for terrorism. For example, a recent analysis of the conventions applicable to the members of the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) can be found here.
Finally, each state has its own, and perhaps multiple, definitions of terrorism. For example, under Title 22 of the U.S. Code the United State Department of State is required to submit an annual report to Congress that details acts of international terrorism: “which were, in the opinion of the Secretary [of State], of major significance.”[3] For the purposes of the reporting requirement the term “international terrorism” has two components. First, it must be an act of terrorism, which is defined as: “premeditated, politically motivated violence perpetrated against noncombatant targets by subnational groups or clandestine agents.”[4] Second, it must be “international,” i.e., “involving citizens or the territory of more than 1 country.”[5]
Title 18 of the U.S. Code – Crimes and Criminal procedure, the primary U.S. criminal code, adopts sets forth a different definition of international terrorism:
As used in this chapter—
(1) the term “international terrorism” means activities that—
(A) involve violent acts or acts dangerous to human life that are a violation of the criminal laws of the United States or of any State, or that would be a criminal violation if committed within the jurisdiction of the United States or of any State;
(B) appear to be intended—
(i) to intimidate or coerce a civilian population;
(ii) to influence the policy of a government by intimidation or coercion; or
(iii) to affect the conduct of a government by mass destruction, assassination, or kidnapping; and
(C) occur primarily outside the territorial jurisdiction of the United States, or transcend national boundaries in terms of the means by which they are accomplished, the persons they appear intended to intimidate or coerce, or the locale in which their perpetrators operate or seek asylum.[6]
Although there is significant overlap between the two definitions, depending on the circumstances, the exact same act might meet the definition of international terrorism under one definition but not the other. For example, an act that is reportable by the Secretary of State under Title 22 might not be a crime under Title 18.
The absence of an agreed upon definition of terrorism, whether domestic or international, presents challenges when researching terrorist incidents. Without a definitional framework it is difficult to determine the types of incidents that should be included or excluded in any such research, i.e., a classification issue. A second issue is public access to comprehensive databases that catalogue terrorist incidents.
Below are four publically accessible database resources that researches of terrorist incidents might want to access:
- The National Consortium for the Study of Terrorism and Response to Terrorism (START) maintains the Global Terrorism Database (GTD). START is based at the University of Maryland. The GTD began as a database compiled by Pinkerton Global Intelligence Services and contains over 170,000 entries of incidents occurring from 1970 through 2016. Future updates are planned. The GTD includes information on domestic, transnational and international incidents. GTD can be accessed here.
- The RAND Corporation maintains the RAND Database of Worldwide Terrorism Incidents (RDWTI). It contains over 40,000 entries of incidents occurring from 1968 to 2009. The DWTI database can be accessed here.
- Country Reports on Terrorism is published annually by the U.S. Department of State pursuant to the requirements of Title 22. (From 1995 to 2000 the publication was called Patterns of Global Terrorism.) Copies of Country Reports on Terrorism can be found here. Copies of Patterns of Global Terrorism can be found here.
- Based at the University of Chicago the Chicago Project on Security and Terrorism (CPOST) maintains the Suicide Attack Database (CPOST-SAD). The database contains details of 5,430 suicide attacks occurring from 1974 through June 2016. CPOST-SAD can be accessed here.
All four databases contain valuable information on terrorist incidents. However, all have their limitations. When accessing the databases, researchers must understand those limitations and use the data accordingly.
[1] A number of the conventions concern acts targeting aircraft or civil aviation. Other conventions address taking hostages, financing terrorism, making plastics explosives for the purpose of avoiding detection, suppression of nuclear terrorism, etc. . . . [2] General Assembly Resolution 51/210 dated 17 December 1996. [3] See, 22 U.S. Code § 2656f (a)(1)(A)(i). [4] See, 22 U.S. Code § 2656f (d)(2). [5] See, 22 U.S. Code § 2656f (d)(1). [6] See, 18 U.S. Code § 2331 (1).