Historical Dictionary of Terrorism Third Edition

INTRODUCTION • lxixCLASSIFICATION SYSTEM EMPLOYED IN THE DICTIONARYBecause of the great diversity of terrorist groups presented in the followingpages, a classification system has been provided to enable thereader to identify the unique features of each group and to have themeans to acquire a comparative perspective on terrorism. As is true ofall classification systems, this one is arbitrary, and a given group may fitinto more than one category. Nevertheless, this classification scheme issufficiently broad in scope to discern patterns that may be obscured bythe outward diversity that characterizes the landscape of terrorism.A thorough encyclopedia of terrorism will need to identify and describeother terrorist phenomena besides the various terrorist groups,such as the principal doctrines motivating such groups; biographicsketches of important theorists, tacticians, and operators; and chronologiesof events associated with particular groups or movements. Properlyconceived, a regular scheme of description and comparative analysisshould not preclude some discussion of the distinctive political beliefs,unique organizational features, motivations, and tactics of a group.The scheme for classifying terrorist groups presented here is derivedin part from Richard Schultz’s proposed typology of terrorism. 21 Eachentry on a given group addresses two essential questions: First, Who arethey? that is, what sort of group or actor is behind the given terroristaction(s)? Second, What do they want? that is, what are the long-rangepolitical goals that the group is seeking? Together these two characteristicsdefine the overall type of each group. Once one grasps the overalltype of group, one may proceed to note the peculiarities of doctrine,strategy, tactics, targets, group origins, history, and leadership that distinguisheach group within a single type from others belonging to thatsame basic group type.Identification of Actor TypeTYPES OF TERRORIST GROUPSFollowing both Paul Wilkinson 22 and Richard Schultz, 23 this classificationrecognizes three main types of terrorist actors:State Actors: Governments and their agencies can use terrorism againsttheir own people to preserve their rule. Sovereign states can also use terrorismto topple other governments or force them to change their politics.