Toward a Theory of Terrorism: Human Security as a Determinant of Terrorism

• NCJ Number: 216465
• Journal: Studies in Conflict & Terrorism Volume: 29 Issue: 8 Dated: December 2006 Pages: 773-796
• Author(s): Rhonda L. Callaway; Julie Harrelson-Stephens
• Date Published: December 2006
• Length: 24 pages
• Publication Format: Article
• Publication Type: Research (Theoretical)
• Language: English
• Country: United States of America

Annotation

This article develops a theoretical framework for the emergence and growth of terrorism that focuses on the relationship between human rights conditions and terrorist activity.

Abstract

The theoretical model hinges on the argument that poor political rights and poor human rights conditions are fundamental to the emergence and proliferation of terrorist ideologies. Indeed, the authors argue that many of the previously identified causes of terrorism can be analyzed from a human rights position. Three specific human rights categories are identified and discussed: political rights, personal security rights, and basic human needs or subsistence rights. States that deny these human rights to its citizens create an environment conducive to the emergence and growth of terrorism. The denial of security rights, which renders citizens vulnerable to physical harm in the form of torture, disappearances, and genocide, is focused on as a necessary condition for the emergence of terrorism. The authors analyze the case of terrorism in Northern Ireland from a political and human rights violations perspective. The authors trace the history of dissent and resistance in Ireland, which began hundreds of years ago, and illustrate the ways in which violations of political and human rights conditions sparked the revolutionary imagination of would-be terrorists. The analysis shows how increases in terrorist activity in Ireland have always been preceded by increases in state repression of a particular segment of its citizens, namely Catholics. Indeed, Catholics often point to the denial of political and civil rights in Ireland as the reason for their support of terrorist activities. Terrorism ideologies are only moved to action, however, when the state apparatus violates the security rights of its citizens. Future research should attempt systematic tests of this hypothesis by collecting data on the emergence and growth of terrorist activity. Figures, notes, references