ABSTRACT
This chapter explores the different forms of state-sponsored terrorism. It explores the unique prominence that the concept has gained in the post-9/11 period and the consequences of an event being designated a state-sponsored terrorist activity. The chapter concludes with the current perceptions of this concept. The current literature on state-sponsored terrorism discusses four distinct forms of state support; these ranging “from greatest to least are: sponsorship, support, toleration, and inaction through inability to act”. The complex nature of state-sponsored terrorism is often viewed as a form of international terrorism while non-state-sponsored terrorism is seen as transnational terrorism. State support continues to be one of the deadliest and most relevant aspects of terrorism. As terrorism contains to be outsourced to nonstate actors, different agendas converge and create cataclysmic forces that are beyond the counters of the nation-state.
