Bruce Allen Scharlau PhD thesis - Research@StAndrews:FullText

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The terrorist perpetrators seem to be in a no-lose situation:
identification with victims brings psychological humiliation,
disorientation and intirnidation- -a victory for the terrorists. Direct
identification with the terrorists brings them new supporters. No
'neutral' bystanders can exist because of the polarisation of terrorist
violence. 60 This applies equally to international opinion and other
groups. The requirement is to understand why people identify with the
reference group tha:!;: they do, and what facilitates or causes a change in
reaction from positive to negative.
Identification processes work at the three levels the thesis
examines: i:ndividual, group and society. A person can join a group
because they see themselves similar to others. The group can identify
with other .groups, and society can cause some people to disassociate
themselves from it.
For these. reasons it seems appropriate to attempt to use
'identification' as a linking concept to formulate the motivation of
left-wing terrorism. While the thesis will not offer a theory of
terrorism applicable to all terrorisms, a theory for West German leftwing
terrorism can become a building block for other theories of
terrorism, and perhaps lead to a new path that negates this apparent
terrorist success with identification.
The thesis therefore examines left-wing terrorism in the Federal
Republic of Gennany and the applicability of identification as an
overarching concept to this type of political terrorism. While the
results of the case study influence the descriptive ability of the
concept as a whole, they do not limit the power of the sub-concepts
discussed with regards to individuals, groups, government, society and
the m~dia.
Each of these also has relevance to the study of terrorism in
highlighting different areas of the multifaceted phenomenon.
Be~o~e
moving on to these theoretical discussions it is first
necessary to found these discussions on the case study. This takes two
forms. Chapter two relates an overview of the conditions in which leftwing
terrorism in West Germany arose, how it developed and what groups
were involved. Chapter three examines the extent of left-wing terrorism
in the country and the particular areas of concerns to the terrorist
g:r;oups with a discussion of the issues they have sought to raise with
the public aI:!d the government.
Research on. Terrorism (Aberdeen: Aberdeen University Press, 1987), xi-
. - .. -:. '.' , '.
XX, Xl.
60 Alex P. Schmid, "Terrorism and the Media: The Ethics of
Publicity" Terrorism and Political Violence 1 (4) 1989, 539-565, 541).