Compare and contrast ‘old’ and ‘new’ (Post-September 11) terrorism
Researchers and scholars believe that from the beginning of the 1990s, the world is developing «new terrorism» - in many ways different from the «old» one. After September 11th “new” terrorism became our reality. “New” terrorism consists of the new ideology of terrorism, new actors, and new sponsors. The "new" terrorism differs incomparably by being more deadly than the traditional.
The "old" terrorism, which existed in the world since 1940s, was primarily "political" (the example of the Irish Republican Army). Terrorists have set specific policy goals. Often the driving force for them was the left ideologies like Marxism and Maoism, as well as nationalism and separatism (Crenshaw). "Old" terrorists were willing to negotiate - they exchanged promises to cease attacks with specific political concessions (Lacquer). Sometimes their work brought success (an example of Yasser Arafat from Palestine).
“Old terrorists" in most cases have little reverence to the religions - religious leaders of all faiths almost unanimously condemned them. Among the "new" terrorists, on the contrary, religion has an extreme respect. The evidence for that is the presence of the numerous Islamic, Christian, Jewish and Hindu terrorist organizations. Now terrorism begins to engage in extreme right and ultranationalist organization. In addition, it is our reality that modern terrorist groups have not the one goal, but multiple purposes (Ramsbotham, 81). It is impossible to label the terrorism in one group of typology. More and more often actions of terrorists are unprecedented.
The common feature of traditional and modern terrorism is that it is not driven by financial gains (Kanyako). They are motivated by their ideologies, whether they are more political, social or religious. The tension also rises due to the increasing inequality of distribution of wealth and power (Dunne). It is common reason, but now it is gaining more importance due to the large migration and possibility to compare those factors.
However, “new” terrorism has adopted new strategies and tactics, besides the use of threat and violent forces. Al Qaeda has changed the known working process of terrorist organization. They now have access to the Internet, satellite TV and mobile network (Dunne). The use of the Internet helps to recruit new members and radicalize more people faster.
“Old" terrorism may seem to be a model of «humanism» in comparison to the “new”. Modern terrorism is more radical and much more difficult to deter (Dunne). Well-known researcher Walter Laqueur believes that the" new "terrorism is not intended to achieve any political goals. His goal is the destruction of society and the destruction of large portion of the population, which includes the destruction of a country, a particular ethnic group, or the world (Dunne). It is now threat to the entire international security. Shoko Asahara, the inspirer and organizer of religious terrorist organization Aum Shinrikyo, believed in the need for early onset of the Apocalypse. To make his goal realizable Aum Shinrikyo was working on creating weapons of mass destruction and has used it (combat sarin gas) in the Tokyo subway. Asahara sought to acquire nuclear explosive device in order to provoke a nuclear war between Russia and the U.S. In the context, extreme right and Nazi terrorist groups aim at the destruction of all people, not belonging to the Aryan race; and the Islamists dream of destroying Israel. Nowadays, there is increasing resistance to the West adapted by numerous terrorist groups.
“New” terrorism does not exclude the old, but it complements it. By becoming more organized, well-equipped new terrorism is more than an opponent for a civilized world. Each country, at different times may have its own definition of terrorism. However, in the efforts to find commonalities, terrorism described as a form of political struggle in which the system is
