Welcome to the discussion: Terrorism in Europe

Welcome to the Europe Terrorism discussion blog. We’ve recently updated the page with additional information and graphics, as well as improved the format for ease of readability, with more updates planned shortly. This site serves to provide an introduction and a forum for discussion of terrorism in Europe. To make this discussion more relevant and manageable for our small group working on this site, we’ve separated Europe into geographic regions. We welcome everyone’s comments, questions, and hope to learn from any and all insights you may have regarding these topics of discussion.

In the spirit of our discussion here, please keep in mind the ideas put forth by Theodore Zeldin, “Conversation puts you face to face with individuals, and all their human complexity. Our education cannot be complete until we have had conversations with every continent, and every civilization. It is a humbling experience, which makes one conscious of the enormous difficulty of living in peace when there is so much injustice, but which also gives great hopes, every time one succeeds in having a conversation which establishes a sense of common humanity, a mutual respect. After such conversations, one can never be the same person again.”

Click on the links to the right to visit individual geographic areas of interest.

Defining Terrorism

Defining Terrorism:

“The definition of terrorism is subjectively defined by societal inputs and the perspective one has. What one holds out as terrorism, another may describe as revolutionary, or freedom fighting. These subjective inputs and perspective have a powerful effect on whether acts performed in the quest to achieve desired goals are ultimately seen as terrorism or fighting for freedom (Gaines, p. 109). States have defined terrorism broadly, such as the Russian parliament’s definition; “terrorism is the ideology and practice of violence for the influencing of decision-making by government authorities, local authorities, and international organizations, involving the frightening of the population and (or) other forms of illegal violent actions” (Hughes, p. 296). The United States defines with a similar broad definition of, “using illegal force or violence against people or assets, in order to scare or force a government, civilian population or parts of it, so that social and political goals are achieved” (Cohen, p. 19). These broad definitions seem to imply any violence against the government is an act of terrorism, including popular insurgencies or other armed conflicts” (Perspective on Terrorism: Freedom Fighter or Terrorist”, Barger, 12 Oct 2013).