Terror

Joshua Stanton
a state’s conduct to any one of several inconsistent legal definitions, or to the precedent of
the U.S. State Department’s past annual reporting on terrorism and SSOTs. To confuse matters
further, many of these precedents do not fit within one—and in some cases, any—of the
statutory definitions. Collectively, however, these definitions and precedents allow one to form
an imprecise operational definition of “international terrorism.”
The U.S. State Department has long noted the lack of a single accepted legal definition of
terrorism, 22 but has sometimes cited the definition found at Section 140 of the Foreign
Relations Authorization Act for Fiscal Years 1988 and 1989, codified at 22 U.S.C. § 2656f (FRAA
Section 140). This provision requires the U.S. State Department to publish annual reports on
patterns of global terrorism. This section defines “international terrorism” as “terrorism involving
the citizens or the territory of more than 1 country,” and defines “terrorism” as “premeditated,
politically motivated violence perpetrated against noncombatant targets by subnational groups
or clandestine agents.” This definition does not further define “violence,” nor does it clarify that
threats of violence fall within the definition of international terrorism. 23
Section 6(j) of the Export Administration Act neither cites this definition nor provides an
alternative definition, raising the question of whether this language defines “international
terrorism” for purposes of the SSOT list. 24 The U.S. State Department’s 2005 “Country Report
on Terrorism” notes that the FRAA Section 140 definition is just “one of many US statutes and
international legal instruments that concern terrorism and acts of violence, many of which use
definitions for terrorism and related terms that are different from those used in this report.” 25
The U.S. Criminal Code contains a more precise definition of “international terrorism” at 18
U.S.C. § 2331(1). This definition includes violent or dangerous acts, committed outside the
United States or across international boundaries, that would be crimes if committed in the
United States, and which appear to be intended to intimidate or coerce a government or a
civilian population, to influence a government’s policies through intimidation or coercion, or to
22 See U.S. Department of State, Office of the Ambassador-at-Large for Counterterrorism, Patterns of Global
Terrorism: 1988 (April 1989), http://www.higginsctc.org/patternsofglobalterrorism/1988pogt.pdf, v.
23 Foreign Relations Authorization Act, Fiscal Years 1988 and 1989, Pub. L. No. 100-204, § 140(d), 101 Stat.
1349 (as amended).
24 Export Administration Act of 1979, Pub. L. No. 96-72, § 6(i), 93 Stat. 515 (as amended).
25 U.S. Department of State, Office of the Coordinator for Counterterrorism, Country Reports on Terrorism 2005
(April 2006), http://www.state.gov/documents/organization/65462.pdf, 9.
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