Terrorism as a Form of Communication
This is an excerpt from the paper...
The literature relevant to the study of terrorism as a form of communication may be divided into a number of categories, differing in emphasis and approach, and also in target audience. In this Review of Literature, the major classes of relevant literature will be identified and their general characteristics assessed, followed for each category by a survey of specific works within that category. The general argument of this study is that terrorism, as a mode of communications, is also a form of warfare; therefore, the study of warfare, particularly in its communicative aspect ("sending a message" through military action or the threat of military action). Therefore, a portion of the literature on the art and history of war falls within the purview of this study. The literature of war is of course enormous; the works considered under that heading below are those that either focus on general doctrines which are applicable to war through terrorism as well as to forms of war more conventionally identified as such, or that make specific points useful to the development of the thesis of this study. The other categories of literature relevant to this study are communications theory and the literature of terrorism. Communications theory per se is given only an extremely cursory consideration in this study, with the purpose of establishing only the general validity of treating actions, as opposed to the verbal or visual messages that we more conventionally unders
. . .
s require the mass media to act as a megaphone for wide dissemination of their actions and purposes. He suggests that rumor proved adequate to that purpose in ancient Judea.
Rapoport also refers briefly to the Assassins of medieval Islam, including the striking fact that their name for themselves was fedeyeen the same term (though Rapoport does not remark on this) used by modern Palestinian guerillas and terrorists.
He also discusses the role of messianism in the development of ancient Judean terrorism, and alludes briefly to the role of messianism in modern radical movements. This discussion leads to an interesting line speculation (which Rapoport does not follow). The Middle East was the locale of ancient and medieval movements that resembled terrorism, and is prominent in contemporary terrorism. The Middle East is also the home of religions, Judaism, Christianity, and Islam that all have in common that they are "religions of the book," with specific scriptures that are believed to contain the word of God. All of these religions, then, are religions of message. Is it possible, then, that this religious heritage of messages conveyed through actions of faith has tended to precondition Middle Eastern soci
. . .
Some common words found in the essay are:
Middle East, Middle Eastern, Reagan Administration, Review Literature, Terrorism Warfare, Terrorism Reader, Third World, Terrorism Media, Bank America, War AD, middle eastern, middle east, international terrorism, ancient judea, contemporary terrorism, political violence, third world, middle eastern terrorism, political orientation, literature terrorism, military action, 1989 terrorism warfare, 1989 international terrorism, ancient judea rapoport, murdock 1989 international,
Approximate Word count = 6020
Approximate Pages = 24 (250 words per page)
|
Customer Service
to Over
32,000 Professionally Written Papers!!!
