What is the difference between warfare and terrorism

There is a clear similarity between the goals of an insurgent and the goals of a terrorist. Both the insurgent and the terrorist employ violent action not as a direct means to compel but as a method of ideological communication. Both the insurgent and the terrorist struggle to gain legitimacy for their ideas in the minds of a target audience, and to detract from the legitimacy of a non-compliant government. Essentially, the difference between insurgency and terrorism is that the former is a situation of political grievance that escalates to violence while the latter is a violent strategy that those with political grievances may employ.

Hence terrorism is one strategy available to those engaging in insurgency. As terrorism is best understood as a strategy of insurgency, counter-terrorism is thus best understood as a component of counter-insurgency. Terrorism, as an ideological strategy of psychological warfare by political violence, falls under the aegis of insurgency, which is a situation of violent political activism directed against a government by a rebellious minority.

Counter-terrorism falls within four models: defensive, reconciliatory, criminal-justice, and war. Those models in turn fit into the broader categories of COIN identified by David Galula in his seminal book on the subject. The difference between counter-terrorism and counter-insurgency is simple: counter-terrorism focuses more narrowly on combating the tactics and strategy of terrorism and those who employ it, while counter-insurgency is a broader category of responses to political violence carried out by minority groups, both terroristic and otherwise.

The latter subsumes the former. Galula, David. Mack, Andrew. Neumann, Peter R. Pedahzur, Ami. Schmid, Alex. Neumann, and M. Before you download your free e-book, please consider donating to support open access publishing. Contrary to terrorist groups, guerrillas usually work in open positions as armed units, try to hold and seize land, do not refrain from fighting enemy military force in battle and usually apply pressure to control or dominate territory and population.

Guerrilla forces principally fight in accordance with the law of war jus in bello. In this sense, they respect the rights of innocent civilians by refraining from targeting them. In essence, guerrilla warfare is not symbolic but rather devoted to a certain aim by contrast to terrorism where violence is a tool and symbol. In the guerrilla struggle, military personnel and facilities are targeted in line with political goals, but in case of terrorist actions; civilians are targeted intentionally to achieve the political aims.

That is, the terrorist action becomes a tool for political purposes. The PKK, on the one hand, focuses on acts of terror to create fear in society, on the contrary, it aims to gain sympathisers and reorganise people.

The PKK has continuously voiced that their so-called guerrilla struggle against the state is a kind of national liberation movement conducted on behalf of allegedly oppressed Kurdish people. However, there is a great contradiction between the method and actions they implement and its core argument.

In this regard, the number of civilians killed by the PKK between and surpassed deaths, including public officials, teachers and village guards. Principled pacifism holds that at some point along the spectrum from war to interpersonal physical violence, such violence becomes morally wrong. Pragmatic pacifism holds that the costs of war and inter-personal violence are so substantial that better ways of resolving disputes must be found.

Peace Sign : The peace sign, one of several symbols used to represent peace. Privacy Policy. Skip to main content. Search for:. War and Terrorism. War War is an organized, armed, and often prolonged conflict that is carried on between states, nations, or other parties.

Learning Objectives Recall three possible outcomes of a civil war. Key Takeaways Key Points War entails confrontation with weapons, military technology, or equipment used by armed forces who employ military tactics and operational art within the broad categories of military strategy and military logistics. Warfare refers to the set of techniques used by a group to carry out war. Where evenly matched adversaries decide that the conflict has resulted in a stalemate, they may cease hostilities to avoid further loss of life and property.

Negotiations between parties involved at the end of a war often result in a treaty. Some hostilities, such as insurgency or civil war, may persist for long periods of time with only a low level of military activity. Key Terms insurgency : rebellion; revolt; the state of being insurgent civil war : A war fought between factions of the inhabitants of a single country, or the citizens of a single republic.

Terrorism Terrorism is an act of violence intended to create fear, which is then leveraged in order to achieve goals. Key Takeaways Key Points Terrorism has been practiced by a broad array of political organizations for furthering their objectives. An abiding characteristic of terrorism is indiscriminate use of violence against noncombatants to gain publicity for an individual, group or cause.

The perpetrators of acts of terrorism can be individuals, groups or states. Religious terrorism is terrorism performed by groups or individuals, the motivation of which is typically rooted in faith-based tenets. Key Terms perpetrator : One who perpetrates; especially, one who commits an offense or crime. Peace Peace is a state of harmony characterized by the lack of violent conflict or war.