ABSTRACT
Liberal democratic states from the North have used and sponsored various forms of repression in pursuit of elite interests in the South. This has included terrorism. Yet, as discussed in Chapter 1, there has been relatively little research on state terrorism by states from the North within the discipline of International Relations. Some scholars even argue that political violence by states should not be classified as terrorism. I begin by exploring the core characteristics common to existing definitions of terrorism. I show that states should not be precluded as potential perpetrators of terrorism, since those core characteristics are concerned with the actions involved in terrorism, rather than the nature of the actors themselves. I then set out the key elements that must be present for an act to constitute state terrorism. I show that a defining feature of state terrorism, and that which distinguishes it from other forms of state repression, is its instrumentality, since it involves the illegal targeting of persons that the state has a duty to protect, in order to instil fear in a target audience beyond the direct victim(s). In exploring state terrorism in relation to other forms of repression, I show that state terrorism always violates international law because of the methods used to instil terror.
