24 Fear and Coercion in Government Definitions of Terrorism

In this chapter I review government definitions of terrorism to show the popularity of assuming that terrorists aim to coerce governments and their citizens through fear. Then I draw out some of the costs of this assumption for analysts of terrorism, practitioners of counterterrorism, and targets of terrorist attacks. Including fear and coercion in definitions of terrorism blinds us to the importance of terrorist aims other than coercion, of emotions other than fear, and of audiences other than terrorist victims. In particular I argue that terrorists aim to elicit anger and overreaction that will advance their cause. Ignoring this strategy of jujitsu politics has been costly.