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Waves of Terrorism

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Terrorism has not just emerged, instead it has evolved over many years and has undergone many and varied cycles in its evolution. The term terrorism is most commonly used to describe actions which are violence based and are used to promote fear in people. (Mannik 2009: 152 – 153) Rapoport (2004) came up with a way of describing the fluctuations over time of terrorism. He was able to separate and describe four distinct periods of time which he referred to as 'waves of terrorism'. (Rapoport 2004 :46 -47) These waves are used as markers through which an understanding can be gleaned of how terrorism goes through changes or cycles. This paper will identify the four waves of terrorism as set out by Rapoport and define the characteristics of each wave.

Terrorism has many and varied definitions and yet all are consistent in identifying it as an act of violence used to gain influence for a cause or an ideological belief. (Mannik 2009: 152 - 153) Most acts of violence are deliberate, targeted and serve a purpose for the groups goals.(Kydd & Walters 2006: 49-50) In this sense waves of terrorism, then, can be seen as a type of revolution where there is an uprising against the political state of the time. (Rapoport 2004: 49 -50) Whilst terrorism has existed throughout history and has employed violent methods to achieve their aims and objectives it can also be seen that terrorism follows distinct patterns. These patterns occur in cycles which were identified by Rapoport (2004) and are referred to as waves.(Rapoport 2004:46, 66)

As terrorism appears to move in waves over time so too do the activities of the terrorists. A wave then can be seen as specific to a particular time frame and consisting of a number of identifying factors. (Harrow 2008: 3) Rapoport identified four waves of terrorism which ultimately embody social uprisings, better

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