ABSTRACT
Introduction Reading or viewing the daily news, it is rare not to come across reports of armed insurgency or terrorism. Scholarly research on violent political conflicts is hardly new; yet the ending of the Cold War and recent events such as 9/11 and the AngloAmerican invasion of Iraq have impelled a surge of renewed academic interest in insurgency and terrorism. Unfortunately, the growing interest in these subjects has outpaced the development of more penetrating analysis of the conceptual and empirical relationship between insurgency and terrorism. The terms ‘insurgency’ and ‘terrorism’ suggest a categorical distinction. In common usage, however, scholars, political analysts and other observers routinely apply these terms interchangeably, as though they are synonymous, when referring to a variety of armed activities.1
