ABSTRACT

Factional terrorism is that which is waged by a whole range of sub-state actions for a wide variety of aims and motives. Terrorism is one of the ugliest manifestations of the intractability of human conflict. Throughout the bloody history of modem international terrorism between 1968 and 1980, United States citizens and facilities were always major targets. Terroristic states are quite ready to use international terrorism as a weapon to undermine rival states in a form of undeclared covert warfare. The true Grotian response by Western states to terrorism must combine firmness with a commitment to act within the framework of the rule of law. If powerful Western states disregard the inhibitions of international law and use means against terrorism which are totally disproportionate to the threat, they will risk increasing the very anarchy in which terrorists flourish. Regimes of state terror also tend inevitably to provoke movements of resistance and opposition at home and abroad.