I wrote my research paper on modern terrorism and I learned quite a lot about it. For starters, political theorist David Rapoport describes the rise of modern terrorism to come in four waves. The first wave was anarchism, the second being fascism or ethno-nationalism, third being communism and now we are experiencing the fourth wave of religious fundamentalism. When it comes to nuclear terrorism, I’m pleasantly surprised that a major incident involving a WMD or a dirty bomb has yet to occur, but the possibility of a nuclear terrorist attack grows more possible as rouge states manage to obtain nuclear material. For example, when ISIS captured Mosul, they stole nuclear material from the local university to propel their ambitions of making a dirty bomb.
Additionally, if Iran is allowed to create a nuclear bomb, I fear that they will distribute it to the vast network of terrorist groups that it controls. For this reason, I am highly against the idea of an Iranian nuclear deal with the United States. However, there may be additional complexities involved in that specific diplomatic situation that I am ignorant of. Regarding cyber terrorism, I believe that the implications of such attacks cause a great deal of psychological harm for the victims. The fact that terrorists use cyber warfare to acquire classified information, hinder economic progress, and dox individuals is a serious national security concern despite there not being many deaths or casualties.
Finally, I believe that a new form of terrorism has emerged as a branch of cyber terrorism; I call it psychological terrorism. This typically involves the use of the internet (specifically, but not limited to social media) to post grotesque videos of slaughter or aftermath thereof of a terrorist attack. This was commonly used by ISIS as they spread videos of barbaric executions. It is also being used by Hamas because they are sharing evidence of the atrocities they have committed against Israel on October 7th. I would also consider Hamas use of propaganda as psychological terrorism. The reason I make this claim is because they have effectively brainwashed some members of western society into believing that what they have done was not a war crime and even morally justified. They have even taken it a step further by getting some legacy media brands to unequivocally regurgitate any false information that is given to them by Hamas. Psychological terrorism has extremely terrifying effects, not only does it instill fear, but it may also turn the targeted population against each other; just as Hamas has turned hundreds of thousands of Westerners into antisemites.
One reply on “Week 12”
Benjamin,
You have expressed some interesting ideas in this blog post. There can be little doubt that terrorist groups have understood the value of the Internet in promoting their cause, however violent and inhumane. And your point about conducting “psychological warfare” via the internet is undoubtedly correct. But, of course, the entire POINT of terrorism is to instill fear in the target population. One of your classmates wrote her research paper about how ISIS was able to instill such fear in the Iraqi armed forces that they were able to capture the city of Mosul, Iraq essentially without a fight. Soldiers had seen so much violent material on social media and the Internet that they had built the ISIS soldiers into 9-foot tall giants, even though the Iraqi army outnumbered ISIS by a considerable amount. –Professor Wallerstein