How may one account for the significance that contemporary societies attach to the problem of terrorism - Essay Example

Terrorism is commonly used as a term to describe violent acts against civilian targets based on nationalistic, political or religious motivations. It is an unconventional form of war which is often used to weaken or subvert a government and the effects of a terrorist attack may be seen as a threat to international order (Baylis, 2002). However, the nature of the causes can be debated since some terrorist activities have been given support while others have been considered atrocities against humanity.

For example, as described by Martin & Martin (2003), even the Boston Tea Party can be seen as a terrorist act in a technical sense but that event has been connected with a justified cause while recent acts of terrorism against the United Kingdom such as the London underground attacks are considered unjustified. If not by all concerned individuals, at least by the western world and many other civilised nations who joined the British in mourning for the loss of life and the tragedies which unfolded in the aftermath.

The aftermath comes with the public asking the most important question i.e. why? They want to know how and why such an event happened and what the government is willing to do to stop these acts from occurring again. Since there is no single or easy answer to the question and different opinions can be given by different writers coming from various backgrounds, society becomes more involved in answering these questions and thus becomes more focused on the idea of terrorism. In essence, it is a drama which is unfolding live before the people and this certainly fascinates society as it has done for the past hundreds of years (Orr and Klai, 1990).

Undoubtedly, terrorism certainly affects those individuals who are targets or those who have lost something due to terrorist activity (NCT, 2006). Their lives have certainly changed and they have had to deal with the aftermath in ways that others can not imagine. However, even after the most