Terrorism: a retrospective.(In Focus)

Many Americans view terrorism as an unfortunate by-product of contemporary life. Like oil spills and aircraft disasters, acts of terrorism are considered one of the regrettable--and often inexplicable--perils of modern society.

However, terrorism is actually one of the oldest forms of human conflict. Before societies organized to wage war against each other, individuals and small bands engaged in terror tactics to achieve limited goals--to overthrow existing leaders, to ward off potential rivals, or to frighten opposing groups from lands they wished to claim for themselves.

Although the means and ends have evolved throughout history, the central elements of terrorism--fear, panic, violence, and disruption--have changed little through time. As the world enters the 21st Century, terrorism remains a vexing problem--an anachronistic fixture of human relations as paradoxically human and inhuman in the third Millennium as it was before the dawn of recorded history.

MODERN TERRORISM

If terrorism was not unique to the 20th Century, the remarkable technological and social advances of the second Millennium's closing century created unprecedented opportunities for terrorists, both in terms of the destruction they could create and the level of public anxiety their acts could generate.

The modern era of terrorism--beginning approximately in the late 1960s and continuing through to today--has been the most destructive in history. Over 14,000 international terrorist attacks have taken place worldwide since 1968. These attacks have resulted in more than 10,000 deaths. (1)

While U.S. interests--primarily commercial and diplomatic facilities, U.S.-flagged aircraft, and U.S. nationals--have been a common target for terrorist attacks overseas, (2) U.S. soil remained largely untouched by serious acts of international terrorism until the 1990s, when the World Trade Center bombing and several thwart-ed plots to attack targets in the United States ushered in a new understanding of the international terrorist threat confronting the United States. During the past 30 years, the vast majority--but not all--of the deadly terrorist attacks occurring in the United States have been perpetrated by domestic extremists.