ABSTRACT
‘Terrorism’ is, perhaps, the most contentious term in political science. Literally hundreds of definitions have been coined by scholars and practitioners of politics without any clear consensus on how best to articulate what is undoubtedly a significant phenomenon. This chapter focuses on the form and severity of challenge to states and citizens posed by politically motivated and violent non-state actors. Historically, the most prevalent and successful form of political non-state violence has come from movements claiming to represent a nation. Nations are socially constructed communities defined subjectively according to common characteristics that a given group feel distinguish them from other nations. Nationalism can inspire some people to take up arms to secede but also inspire others to fight to prevent that secession. National self-determination is a messy business in the contemporary world where migration, inter-marriage and integration have made any neat political division of the world on national grounds far more complicated than in Mazzini’s era.
