ABSTRACT
Authoritarian regimes, particularly those states that are ruled by nonelected dictators, continue to use terrorism to control their populations. Violence is usually directed against separatist ethnic minorities or ideological enemies. The state’s security and military forces, often backed by a network of informers, use murder, torture, and imprisonment without trial to destroy these opposition groups. Potential rivals for power within the regime itself are also subject to sudden arrest and execution on the flimsiest of evidence.
