Suicide Bombing as an Aspects of Terrorism
Definition and classification of terrorism
Until the 1990s, terrorism tended to be relegated to a secondary position in the international politics due to the relative irrelevance to the world affairs. However, as the global tension escalated to a significant extent with the September 11 terrorist attacks, the significance of terrorism as a research subject has been reassessed, and the incident has facilitated multi-disciplinary studies. The central trait of terrorism is that it engenders fear and terror among the general public, in order to accomplish political ends. According to Andrew Heywood (2005), the nature of terrorism can be divided into three major parts. First, the act of terror is clandestine violence that has a seemingly indiscriminate character. However, the essence of terrorism is not only a violent act but also to threaten and terrify the masses. Terrorism is rather social than cruel and, the tendency of terrorism is complex and uncertain. Secondly, although the attacks on military targets and personnel or the assassination of political leaders can be described as terrorism, the main victims of terror are innocent civilians. Certain terrorists regard civilians as guilty since they are involved in or have a benefit from the national or international structure. Lastly, the perpetrators are non-state organizations which strive to exert influences on national or international organizations.
Current state of terrorism
It has been identified that 32,103 terror acts were committed across the globe from 1968 to 2006, with 45,849 people killed and 108,920 injured during the same period. The incidence of terrorism activity had continued to increase, starting from 200 in the 1960s. The number of casualties also indicated an upward trend with the ever-rising incidence. However, the issue is not confined to the linear proportional relation between them. It is the death toll per incident that represents the aggravation of global terrorism. The number of fatalities per incident had continuously risen each decade. Starting with 0.7 in the 1970, it increased to 1.13 in the 1980s and to 1.21 in the 1990s. It reached 1.65 in the 2000s. The most typical forms of terrorism include explosions, armed attacks, assassinations, abductions and arson attacks. It was indicated that out of 32,103 terror attacks that occurred from 1968 to 2006, 18,115 incidents involved explosions, accounting for 56%. It was followed by armed attacks, assassinations and abductions.
Number of death from terrorism (1970-2017)
According to the Our World in Data, the number of deaths from terrorism has been slightly increased since 1978. After 2011, the deaths was increased explosively and, an estimated 26,445 people died worldwide as a result of violence in 2017.
The average annual death toll was 21,000 over the previous decade. Nevertheless, major variation can occur year - to-year. The international death toll ranged from its lowest of 7,827 in 2010 to the highest of 44,490 in 2014 over the course of this decade.
As the terrorism incidence and the number of terrorist groups indicate a rapid upward trend, international politics is encountering the far-reaching implications. Terrorism is endangering world peace and national security at an alarming level. It is also threatening national order since it generates instability to the citizens' life. To combat terrorism, it is significant to understand and analyse the factors that lead to terrorism. Therefore, the aim of this report is to examine the causes of terrorism with the major focuses on psychological aspects and the crash of civilization theory approach and, study the countermeasures.
The causes of Terrorism
i. Psychological Approach
The causes of terror acts can be analysed from a psychological perspective based on the characteristics of suicide terrorists. Over 280 suicide bomb blasts occurred only in 2007 across the globe. According to the research conducted by Davis (2013), it was revealed that the number of suicide terrors committed by females amounted to 256 from 1968 to 2012, 157 incidents of which involved explosions. In the case of terror activities committed by the Iraqi groups, Palestine and Kashmir suicide bombing, more than 20% of the entire terror acts were suicide terrors perpetrated by women. The female terrorists tended to approach high-value targets that males cannot easily access, and the effects of the female suicide bomb blasts have been more damaging than those of males. In fact, according to the analysis on the statistical materials from the 1980s to 2005, the death tolls by female suicide terrorists were higher than those by male counterparts.
The male suicide bombing terrorists tend to commit the acts primarily in order to uphold their religious beliefs, the honour of their family or avenge the tragedies that their loved ones were the victims of, whereas in the case of the females, the acts were inevitable methods to escape from the unstable reality, threat or sexual exploitation rather than religious purposes. As a measure to avoid being stigmatised after divorce or to overcome the absence of father, the females took advantage of terror group membership. It functioned as a form of protection. On the other hand, the male counterparts were partially motivated by the Koran. Their belief that the males who sacrificed their life for the religion would be welcomed by 72 young females affected their decision to commit the terror acts. In many cases of female suicide bombing terrorists, they were rather forced to involve in it than voluntarily joined the terror groups.
In certain religions, distinctive afterlife views exist that associate the present life with the life after death. Accordingly, suicide bombing is interpreted as martyrdom and highly regarded since it is believed to bring true happiness to the next world. It explains why many suicide bombing terrorists belong to religious group. In this sense, suicide bombing terrorism based on cultural factors can be explained by means of the self-transcendence theory in psychology. According to the theory, when individuals sacrifice themselves and conduct a transcendent act, it enables them to achieve true self-awareness and communication with others. In other words, by committing such suicide bombing terror acts as religious martyrdom, they are able to eternally exist and maintain stable relationship with others, regardless of time and space. The expression of self-transcendence means that they break down the boundaries they used to have and expand their presence and self-awareness. Simultaneously, beyond time and place, they can remind others of their presence and maintain a bond of sympathy.
Certain scholars adopted a psychological approach to the youth who involved in suicide bombing terrors. In the research, a majority of them were regarded to retain distinctive characteristics such as excessive narcissism and even psychopathy. In addition, it was suggested that by identifying the features, those likely to commit suicide bombing terrors can be distinguished from ordinary people, enabling criminal psychological profiling.
Furthermore, evolutionary psychologists such as Konrad Lorenz, an Austrian zoologist, attack is a biological nature and the outcome of a territorial as well as sexual instinct that can be mainly examined in all male species. In order to acquire wealth and resources, accomplish national glory, develop political or religious principles, and establish racial control, it is inevitable to express violent impulsion. On the other hand, from the perspective of psychoanalysis founded by Freud, terrorists unconsciously believe the authorities that form the global mainstream are equivalent to those of father.
Hostile emotions provoked by an Oedipus complex and desires to murder father expand to the public authorities. Psychologists explain that terrorists tend to have difficulty developing normal human relationships and accepting social order. In other words, it is associated with natural or developmental factors such as personal traumas during adolescence and family history. According to the argument, terrorists experience negative emotions such as frustration due to their issues and as a result, they pursue a form of compensation by involving in terror acts based on ideologies or religions. As examined, terrorism classified as part of criminology is closely related to the psychological factors of terrorists.
ii. The crash of civilization theory
Ignatieff (2004) argues that terrorism can be divided into four types: Insurrectionary terrorism, Loner or issue terrorism, Nationalist terrorism and Global terrorism. Even though terrorism has a number of characteristics, the most important and well-defined characteristic is that religious motivations for terrorism are replacing secular motivations. According to Hoffman (2006), in 1995, nearly half of the 56 terrorist groups in action were classified as religious or motivated. In addition, the characteristics of Western civilization are Christian religious culture and the characteristics of Arab civilization are Islamic religious cultures. According to Huntington (1996), nine civilizations: Sinic or Chinese, Japanese, Western, Hindu, Islamic, Buddhist, Latin America, African and Orthodox Christian compose the world of civilization. Therefore, since these civilisations are based on incompatibility with each other, the conflict and confrontation are inevitable. Therefore, global and Islamic terrorism is considered a civilizational phenomenon which is expressed as a sense of hostility.
Based on these characteristics, the cause of terrorism can be explained by a clash of civilization theory. Huntington (1993), an American scholar and critic of politics published ‘the clash of civilisation’ paper on Foreign Affairs in 1993. He argued that the conflict of the 21st century does not come from different ideologies or economies but rather culture and religious identities between nations and groups. Furthermore, a country's cultural identity defines its place in world politics and its friends and foes. Also, in a world where culture is important, platoon is a race, company is nation, and the whole army is a civilization. With global terrorism seen as a sign of escalating conflict between the West and Islam, some experts argue that the 911 terror attacks can be regarded as ‘clash of civilisation’ since these were terrorist attacks for religious reasons, which is a cultural union.
The significance of terrorism
The evaluation of terrorism in the field of international politics has changed since the September 11 terrorist attacks and international controversies over the issue have been intensified. Weapons of Mass Destruction (WMD) is one of the largest concerns. It is argued that modern terrorists not only have easier access to WMD, but also have a greater willingness to use them. If rapid mobility and weapons of mass destruction become terrorists' forces, this could be a catastrophe to the nation and its people. Another consideration is that the effects of terrorism extend beyond the national boundaries due to globalisation. As global capitalism generates greater imbalance between nations, it is facilitating terrorism. Increasing migration has also contributed to maintaining terrorist campaigns. Migration communities such as Liberation Tiger of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) are important sources of funding. In fact, certain Islam-related NGO organisations help with the cash flow for terror acts. All these factors represent terrorism is a consequential matter (Lia, 2007).
Counter Terrorism
i. Political Compromise
In consideration of the far-reaching ramifications of terrorism on world peace and security, the establishment of terrorism prevention policies is urgently required. First, the government can deal with terrorism as political compromise. Most terrorism has a political purpose, and leaders tend to focus on political negotiations if they do not earn much from the act of terrorism. For example, the willingness to engage in political negotiations with the Irish Republican Army (IRA) was the foundation for ceasing terrorism in Northern Ireland and leading to the 1998 Belfast Agreement. The negotiations determined Northern Ireland's status and future. Anti-terrorism's political approach is not to negotiate what terrorism demands, but to solve the political cause of terrorism, and seek solutions from the heart. This approach also seeks to convince terrorists that working in the political process is more beneficial than working against it. On the one hand, since the political compromise method may recognize the terrorist group and its cause as legitimate, it is argued that this method can be used as a compromise on power division, political autonomy and sovereignty only in the case of nationalist terrorism. However, since military solutions are at risk of retaliatory terrorism, it can result in numerous bloodsheds, and may be at the expense of innocent people. Political compromise, based on a variety of analyses for the cause and resolution of problems, can be seen as a countermeasure.
ii. Convergence of Study
A multidisciplinary approach has recently been adopted to suicide bombing terrors, which consolidates personal factors and various perspectives including reasonable, cultural and structuralist approaches. The terror acts of females examined in the Islam culture are of particular interest to many scholars. Although the political and military science approaches are most common, the research should reflect various perspectives from other academic fields such as criminology, crime prevention, psychology, international relations and Big Data. Especially it is essential to address psychological aspects, considering self-sacrifice leads to detrimental damage. Through the multidisciplinary research, the backgrounds, causes and effects of terrorism can be analysed from various viewpoints, and more appropriate countermeasures can be discovered.
iii. The Strengthening of National Security
Since democratic society protects individuals' rights and liberty and curb the authority of the government, it is often subject to terror threats. Since the September 11 terrorist attacks, national security is being strengthened, with governmental legal authorities expanding. For instance, nations are tightening their control over global financial flows and implementing stringent immigration measures. They thoroughly monitor extremist organisations and even retain the authority to detain potential suspects. For instance, the anti-terrorism measure in England enables the government to detain a terror suspect for up to 26 days, and USA Patriot Act allows an unlimited period of detention. Despite concerns over such measures' negative effects on liberal democracy, a proper level of restrictions are indispensable to national security.
Conclusion
The September 11 terrorist attacks are described as ‘the day the world changed’ and the occurrence has brought about significant shifts in international politics. The analysis on terrorists' psychological status and cultural identity has provided insights into the underlying causes of terrorism. The international world has responded to the threats in such methods as political negotiations and national security strengthening. Considering the magnitude of ramifications that suicide bombing terrors can generate across the globe, further multidisciplinary research should be conducted that encompasses a various range of studies such as politics, international relations, criminology and psychology, in order to devise effective countermeasures.
