Concept in Definition ABC

Terrorism is a concept that refers to the use of violence or threat of violence by individuals or groups against other individuals or sectors of a society to which effects of coercing governments or political entities to respond to demands of a political, social or religious.

It is a form of violence politics which, in one of its variants, is called State terrorism, in cases where government entities are the ones that carry out unlawful acts against members of their own population. This horrifying reality has been experienced in many nations that, paradoxically, sought to combat terrorist groups to finally threaten their own civilian population. Also included in this category are dictatorships involved in "ethnic cleansing", as has occurred in the Balkans or the former Soviet republics.

Some of the most frequent terrorist practices are kidnappings, torture and attacks on a small or small scale. large scale and in a more or less systematic way with the purpose of intimidating or threatening a State in question. In turn, terrorist groups use various weapons from homemade bombs, such as

Molotov, even biological or chemical weapons of mass destruction.

Terrorist activities are so complex and multiple that it is to this day difficult for organisms international organizations classify terrorism based on specific characteristics that exist in all cases. In a more or less definite way, it is recognized that, at present, numerous terrorist groups pursue, in addition to political or religious goals, a financial purpose. Thus, links have been identified between various illegal economic activities (drug trafficking, arms trade, money laundering, human trafficking) and various terrorist groups.

Today, there are different terrorist groups in the world that respond to different leaders and different causes. Among the best known are IRA in Ireland, ETA in Spain, FARC in Colombia or Al Qaeda in Afghanistan, Iraq, Pakistan and Saudi Arabia. Likewise, various organizations that acted during the 1960s and 1970s in different Latin American nations; some of these entities have disappeared and others have relinquished their arms to join political activity in different ways.

In recent years there have been different attacks in the world that many theorists of international relations attribute to the effects of the globalization. Among them, the attacks on World trade center in the United States on September 11, 2001, which resulted not only in thousands of victims, but also in the initiation in response by the US government to the wars in Afghanistan (2001) and later in Iraq (2003). The devastating attacks carried out in Atocha (Spain) and London are also circumscribed in this area, despite the intense measures of safety installed in most of the great cities of the First World.

In this sense, it cannot be forgotten that the new media communication they have given rise to a new form of terrorism, which was unexpected in past decades. It is about computer terrorism (cyberterrorism), which is responsible for collecting data from personal accounts or banking, as well as to "tear down" the portals of public or private organizations incompatible with their objectives. Although they have gathered a certain empathy among the general population, the perpetrators of cyberterrorism are in a position to cause true global catastrophes, for which the combat Against this new form of international terrorism has become a priority for some governments, although it is admitted that some nations seem to promote this activity for their own purposes.

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