UNDERSTANDING CULTURE, SOCIETY AND POLITICS 11

ARTICLE REVIEW 1

STRATEGIC LOGIC OF
SUICIDE TERRORISM
ROBERT PAPE
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Vol. 1 No. 1 November 21, 2017
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Over time, the accounts for terrorism have brought forth studies that enclose the
intensifying undertakings of suicidal terrorism. Papes article of suicidal terrorism provides
details of multiple matters and broadcast, but what is the distinction between terrorism from
suicidal terrorism. Rendering from The Department of State, Terrorism is the use or the exploit
of violence by an organization to bring forth intimidation or fear among a positive target. It is a
behavior which torments opposing inhabitants in terror. Terrorism has two purposes to expand
supporters and to coerce, force, or even threat opponents. Several seek out for both objectives
to creep up the opponent and then concurrently activating support or to gain control over rival
groups. Terrorism is done in altered systems according to their choices which are as follows:
demonstrative, destructive, and suicide terrorism. Amongst the three systems, Suicide
Terrorism is the most aggressive form of terrorism for it persuades the enemy by force to the
extent of losing support from the terrorists own society. Suicide Terrorism differs from terrorism
because its form of success is to achieve the death of the attacker without the means of
survival. Suicide terrorists kill the others at the same time he kills himself. They simply hunt for
the lives of massive numbers of people. Hence, as coercion is an element in all terrorism,
coercion is the vital objective of suicide terrorism.

We may have thought that we clearly understood Terrorism; there are still leftover
glitches and misconceptions that we still have yet to confer. Initially, individuals feel even more
threatened by suicide terrorism attacks and terrorism attacks because our awareness and
exposure with the attacks has ominously risen. Many people today rely on the news and
updates from media and other websites as their only source of information. In correlation, once
individuals become vigilant of a plausible danger, it will be then embedded into their minds that
will reflect their actions. But we need to fathom that with the vast media, all information provided
and the delineation of events showcased may not be the entirety of truth. As per the point of
view of others, suicide terrorism is an act of being irrational. Thomas Schelling calls suicide
terrorism as the rationality of irrationality for which an act that is irrational for individuals is meant
for the credibility of democratic audiences for more attacks to occur. Terrorist violence is just a
brutal tactic that is used by insurgent groups, and what we should focus on is the overall
insurgency matter. Politics define insurgency as a resistance movement that uses subversion,
sabotage and armed conflict to achieve its aims. With the matter at hand, the government, strive
for an established society without a follow-on social revolution, establish an autonomous
national territory within the borders of a state, the withdrawal of an occupying power, and extract
political concessions that are unattainable through less violent means. Therefore, terrorism is a
rather violent tactic to achieve tactical goals.

Suicide terrorism is likened to a cookbook. It is procedural. It has recipes and

ingredients. This is because suicidal terrorism is a logical strategy. Suicide terrorism is mainly a
strategy to compel democracies to make concessions that will enable a community to achieve
self-determination. Suicide terrorism shows three properties that are consistent, first is that
nearly all suicide attacks occur in organized, coherent campaigns not randomly timed incidents.
Second is that suicide terrorist campaigns are directed at gaining control of what they see as
their homeland territory, specifically ejecting forces from that territory. Lastly, all suicide terrorist
campaigns have been aimed at democracies, which make more suitable targets from a
terrorists point of view. Suicide terrorism is strategic because major suicide attacks are not
remoted by individuals but occur in groups to achieve a specific goal. Suicide terrorism does not
change a nations willingness to trade high interests for high costs, but suicide violence
overcomes a nations effort to mitigate civilian costs. The main purpose of suicide terrorism is to
use the threat of punishment to coerce a target government to change policy, especially to
cause democratic states to withdraw forces from territory terrorists view as their homeland.

Gericka Arro
Thrina Condez
11 - Lagrange