ABSTRACT
This chapter discusses conceptual and definitional issues, including the concept of terrorism and counterterrorism as forms of communication that interact and coevolve over time. Using a social-scientific definition of “terrorism,” the chapter shows how terrorism can be exercised by nonstate actors or state actors, against the interests of the state or in the interests of the state, and in the context of war, insurgency, criminal activity, political violence, or even non-political violence. Terrorists communicate with multiple audiences and their goals can vary according to which audience is being addressed. The chapter explores conceptual problems surrounding the study of terrorism, such as the root causes of terrorism, the legitimacy of terrorism, the issue of state terrorism, the question of whether terrorism is intrinsically an illegal or criminal phenomenon, and forms of violent communication that are at face value non-political, such as violence against women and girls, but have more in common with terrorism as traditionally conceived than has hitherto been acknowledged. The chapter ends by considering the legitimation struggles that surround the use of the label “terrorism.”
