NCJ Number
82289
Journal
Australian and New Zealand Journal of Criminology Volume: 14 Issue: 4 Dated: (December 1981) Pages: 197-224
Date Published
1981
Length
28 pages
Annotation
Factors contributing to successful anticolonial terrorism in Cyprus and Algeria are identified, and conditions contributing to the failure of terrorism in Ulster (Ireland) and Palestinian terrorism are discussed, followed by an analysis of why terrorism must inevitably fail in Western democracies.
Abstract
The primary factors that determine the victors in a violent political conflict are military strength and political capability. In both the Algerian and Cypriot wars of independence, the rebels engaged in terrorist activity due to their inferior military strength. The strength of anticolonialist sentiment, however, eventually outlasted the will of the colonial powers to maintain their rule by force. Instrumental in this loss of political will by the colonial powers was failure of the general electorate of the colonial power to support the costs involved in controlling a territory perceived as of minimal benefit to the nation. In both cases, the party of superior military might lost to the terrorist groups due to lack of political capability. The terrorism of the Irish Republican Army in Ulster has failed in its violent bid for independence from Britain, however, because of the majority population of British Protestants whose intent to retain control of Ulster sustains the political will of the British to maintain control of Ulster, if for no other reason than to avoid a civil war between Protestants and Catholics. Palestinian terrorism against Israel has failed because Israel has both superior military strength and a political capability stemming from a commitment to its very survival as a nation. Terrorism continually fails in Western democracies because of the general perception that change can and should occur through persuasion and the ballot box. Further, the violent tactics of terrorists in democracies place them in a criminal status that prevents them from building a political base among the lawabiding populace. The fault of many democracies in countering terrorism is to adjust law enforcement and intelligence policies to shift toward the political right, which constitutes a perhaps more serious threat to democratic principles. Thirty-four notes are listed.