Academic Failure to Define Terrorism: An Ontological Investigation

Abstract

Attempts to define terrorism typically isolate the term from its historical roots and have a tendency to ignore its ontological basis. With the advent of terms such as new terrorism, this practice has become even more prevalent. A near total disregard of history and ontology has subsequently generated a discourse that views terrorism as an enigma or a mystery. Meanwhile the phenomenon of terrorism continues to resist any attempts of theorizing and conceptualizing. Since most contemporary efforts to define terrorism effectively divorce it from its past and fail to account for how the term came about, they have proven to be largely inadequate and mostly unhelpful. It is necessary therefore to put terrorism in a broader historical context, understand its usage through the ages, and bring to light its ontological roots. Such an analysis will not only allow us to understand the existing academic discord over the definition of terrorism but will also greatly contribute towards the general understanding of the term as well.