ABSTRACT
Terrorism is an enormously contested concept. While it is often suggested that ‘one person’s terrorist is another’s freedom fighter’ it is also a fact that Nelson Mandela, Gerry Adams and Xanana Gusmão were all branded as terrorists by the states that imprisoned them and where they later became internationally respected statesmen. Conversely, while the Mujahideen of Afghanistan were celebrated (and aided) by the West as freedom fighters when they were fighting a guerrilla war against the Soviet Union in the 1970s and 80s, their progeny the Taliban have, since the US-led invasion of Afghanistan, been defined as terrorists by Western states, in many of which it is a terrorist offence to recruit for them or otherwise provide material support.
