Even though terrorism has been on the political agenda for several years there is no general accepted definition of the phenomena of terrorism. Several scientist do also apply that terrorism have changed after the 9/11-attacks. The purpose with this thesis was to analyze and compare the image of terrorism represented by the United States, United Kingdom, Sweden and Norway, in an attempt to draw conclusions about similarities and differentials. The material that was used was these four nations individual Counter terrorism strategy. This was made by using idea analysis and self constructed dimensions based on earlier science about security, terrorism and international law.

The following is an assignment about the use of the word terrorism throughout history. This assignment contains a conceptual historical analysis of the term terrorism. The aim of this assignment is the following: To discern, through a conceptual historical analysis, how the term terrorism has been used and how the meanings of the term terrorism has changed in time.To provide an answer to this thesis is the assignment tries to answer the following questions:1) How can conceptual historical analysis be applied to the term terrorism?2) How can the term terrorism be defined?3) How has the term terrorism been used throughout history, with specific focus on the academic world and even some contemporary texts?4) Is it possible to point out some clear changes in the use of the term from the moment of its first use until current time?5) Which meanings has the term terrorism received and how are these meanings associated with the term terrorism?The assignment initially highlights different theories on conceptual historical research as well as links these theories to the actual term terrorism. After this some difficulties with defining terrorism as a term are pointed out and the impact this has on research within the field of terrorism.

The terrorist attack that shocked the world the 11th of September 2001, when two hijacked aircrafts flew into the World Trade Center's twin towers in New York, came to change the world view for many people especially Americans that felt that the world around them where about to collapse. A new time had begun, a more frighten one. A new kind of terrorism where seen in the dawn, a kind that never had been more evil, and there for was passed to be extremely dangerous. The United States followed by the United Kingdom decided quickly to declare war against the terrorism. Unavoidable this decision led to the development of new interpretations of public international law when the US where unwilling to follow the rule of law.

The United Nations has a responsibility to combat acts of international terrorism, as they constitute a threat to international peace and security. In spite of this, there exists no generally accepted definition of the phenomenom within the UN. By examining resolutions on terrorism, this thesis aims to evaluate the UN?s policy on terrorism since the end of the cold war until 2003. The results show that the UN?s attitude towards terrorism eversince the end of the cold war has been condemning, but that the the events of September 11th 2001 has contributed to an even more firm approach to the problem.

In 1992, the European Union began institutionalizing the cooperation against terrorism within the EU structure. Since then, this cooperation has gone through a number of changes. From a historical institutionalistic point of departure we explain these changes by identifying sources of institutional resilience and institutional change. Based on these results, we were able to pose hypotheses of when and what category of change was most likely to take place.The results show that the cooperation against terrorism within the EU was most likely to remain stable because of strong sources of institutional resilience. If change would occur through an increase in the sources of institutional change, it was most likely to be of a less extensive category.

The first of the dual purposes of this work has been to describe the research that has been done regarding the root causes of terrorism and second, using a general causal theory and examining the political dimensions of it, to discuss whether or not general causal theories (grand-theories) are helpful for researchers and policy-makers when reacting to social developments in the form of terrorism. The essay is a qualitative literature analysis and I have based my studies on mostly new books treating root causes of terrorism. I have concentrated on discussing international terrorism and how political dimensions may impact the occurence of this form of political violence. The conclusions I have made is that there is no widespread consensus among researchers and scholars as to what really causes terrorism. Neither can the general model examined in chapter 5 be used to predict when and where terrorism will occur next.

Syftet med detta arbete är att fördjupa våra kunskaper om terrorism samt att ge läsaren en inblick i ämnet och få lite kunskap om hotbilden i Sverige samt vad Sverige har för resurser att möte terrorism. Första delen av arbetet försöker vi definiera vad terrorism är, beskriva olika organisationer redogöra för Sveriges definition av ordet terrorism. Därefter försöker vi förklara olika typer av terrorism som nationell, internationell, vänster, höger, stats, och religiös terrorism. Nästa del av arbetet handlar om Sverige, där vi berör terroristdåd som utförts i Sverige samt hotbilden i Sverige nu och i framtiden. Därefter berör vi Sveriges beredskap och de olika myndigheter som är ansvariga i Sverige för arbetet mot terrorism.

The United States use of Unmanned Combat Aerial Vehicles (UCAV) or drones for targeted killings of terrorists has been on the rise in recent years and the method has become the core element of president Obamas strategy in the war against terror. This study examines the deterrent effect of targeted killings on terrorism using UCAV/drones as a method of counterterrorism. Building on the literature on counterterrorism, UCAV, targeted killings, deterrence theory and statistics on terrorism the study provides a case study of the CIA drone operations in Pakistan between the years 2004-2010. The goal has been to analyze drone operations and the extent of terrorism from the beginning of the drone campaign until 2010. This as a means of identifying possible trends in terrorism activity due to the occurrence of drone strikes.

AbstractIn 1998 the United Nations held a diplomatic conference on the establishment of an International Criminal Court in Rome. In the end of the conference the negotiating states adopted the Rome Statute by which an international criminal court was established. The court, which entered into force on 1 July 2002, has jurisdiction over the crimes of genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes. The court also has jurisdiction over the crimes of aggression but the court will only be able to exercise its jurisdiction of this crime category when the member states of the court have found a definition of the crime.In the draft statute, which was prepared before the conference, acts of terrorism were a proposed crime. With the starting-point in the Rome conference this essay studies how the working-definition of crimes of terrorism was elaborated in the draft statute and how the state delegations viewed the crime.

Terrorism. A word that makes you think about different situations throughout the last decade that has passed. However, in this particular thesis the purpose is to examine both national and international terrorism from a Clausewitzian theory. The main point is to examine whether any of these types of terrorisms can fit in to this theory and as examples in this study are the terrorist organizations ETA and al-Qaida. The questions to be answered in this paper are if their aims can be explained as political and how far are they ready to go to have their way? Furthermore, the reason for this paper is to find an understanding for why the terrorist organizations act as they do.The result of this comparative study is that both terrorist organizations fit in to the theory because their goals can be seen as political and therefore can their aims justify their actions.

AbstractThis study has two aims:[X] to create an analytical framework consisting of factors that might trigger terrorism[X] to apply the analytical framework on the case of IRA, in order to be able to examinewhich factors that exist behind the appearance of terrorism in the current caseTo reach the first aim the author has studied the theoretical discourse on the complexed issueof terrorism. This has constituted the point of departure for the creation of an own analyticalframework. The purpose of the framework is to bring clearness to why terrorism appears. Theanalytical framework is not only suited for application on the case of IRA, but for applicationon terrorismcases in general. To reach the second aim the framework was applied on the caseof IRA.The aims of this study have been fulfilled through the method of qualitative text analysis.

This essay is a comparative analysis of ideas about how Islamic terrorism is understood in terms of narrative. The narrative being studied is Occidentalism, Orientalism and postcolonial theory; based on these perspectives are possible explanations analyzed of what Islamic terrorism is all about..

This essay criticizes common theories within the three traditional perspectives, conflict management, conflict resolution and conflict transformation, for not being able to explain and/or generate solutions to the problems of fundamentalism and religious terrorism in a satisfying manner. This essay is trying to synthesize an alternative analytical framework that better can explaining these phenomena and generate potential solutions. The frameworks ontological ground is laid out using different readings of Foucault, thereby seeing the subject as formed by discourses, material processes and institutions. Fundamentalism and terrorism are seen as a violent resistance to repressed subjectivity, but the form of resistance depends on the discursive and non discursive surroundings. This gives rise to different forms of resistance; the production of discourses and founding of groups and the entry of marginalized people in these groups.

This master thesis? purpose is to examine the role of Swedish universities in the prevention of extremism and terrorism. Depending on how the universities look upon their role in preventing extremism and promoting democracy among their students, extremism can either flourish or be restrained in the higher learning environment. An unclear standpoint against extremism from the universities side could make it possible for extremism to prosper at the universities, and students with extremist opinions may be radicalized and recruited to extremist organizations and terrorism. What are the universities standpoints in the matter whether universities should promote democracy and prevent and restrain extremism and the recruitment of students to extremist organizations? During the study I have mainly been using primary material in the shape of semi structured interviews with predecessors of four Swedish universities.

Denna uppsats behandlar ämnet terrorism under Osloprocessen, som varade under i princip hela 1990-talet. Vi har valt att undersöka denna terrorism ur ett relativt avgränsat perspektiv. Vi vill se på ämnet ur ett orsak och verkan perspektiv, och detta gör vi genom att analysera fram de konsekvenser som Israels hantering av den palestinska terrorismen gav. För att utkristallisera ett mönster i Israels anti-terroristpolitik har vi applicerat en handfull olika teorier, som behandlar olika former av terroristhantering, på händelserna under i Mellanöstern under Osloprocessen. Huvudtesen formas av att vi ställer inkludering och exkludering av terrorister, i fredsamtal, mot varandra och försöker pröva deras för- respektive nackdelar..