Introduction
What is terrorism? The definition of Terrorism will indeed vary widely with the changes in social and historical circumstances. The meaning of terrorism when a country is at war e.g. were a military jet bombs the enemy territory will mean a different thing from that during a political revolution e.g. Political nationalists’ quest for power could also be regarded as a form of terrorism. Whatever the definition of terrorism, its existence dates from time immemorial. (White 2008)
Discussion
According to historical contexts of terrorism, modern terrorism originated from French, where the government inflicted violence and torture against its nationalists in the name of fighting terrorism. This could as well have meant shutting down the political nationalists who probably were fighting for a just course. In about 1848 it graduated to what was seen as a revolt against governments-revolutionary period. By the end of 1800s and early 1900s, violent activities of groups e.g. labor organizations, anarchists, nationalists groups revolting against foreign powers especially the European rule, and ultra nationalist political organizations. During the period from 1964 to1980 terrorism evolved into violent acts by the left-wing groups and political nationalists whom believed that they were fighting for human rights. In the today world, terrorism refers to large groups who are independent from state, violent religious fanatics and violent groups who terrorize for a particular cause. From all this it can be seen that all these definitions have been influenced by historical context. (White 2008)
A shift in terrorism acts has been much influenced by the democratic system which most countries of the world have adopted in modern day. In the name of human rights and equal rights on humanity, the war against terrorism has been hampered upon greatly, where terrorists have been set free in the lack of enough evidence. Due to lack of tangible evidence terrorists have been set free. This has led to not being able to convict them in a court of law which is a huge blow to the fight against modern terrorism. Authorities have been left with no choice other than to set the suspected terrorists free. (White 2008)
Terrorism financing involves where organizations or people collect funds for terrorist acts. Governments, organizations and people have been listed as supporting terrorism organizations which has played a big role in the increase of terrorism thereby causing a huge upset to the war against terror. To help stop this, states, world body’s e.g. United Nations, Canadian government etc, have adopted resolutions and legal frameworks to help curb this. Where individuals or groups have been designated for associating with terrorism groups. (Terrorist financing 2009)
These groups or individuals will have their assets being freezed by the necessary bodies or governments. Dramatic shifts in financing have also been observed. Governments have been designated to be funding these terror groups in the name of nationalism and political mileage. Religious groups have also been seen to fund terrorism groups in the name of holy wars which today are referred to as religion extremism. As a result of funding these terrorism organizations they have been able to hire learned expert to help them carry out their acts of terrorism. This has increased their expertise and skills in carrying out their acts. (Terrorist financing 2009)
With the improvement of modern technology terrorists have taken the advantage of internet and are using the internet as online training camps and therefore making it easier to learn the skills of terrorism just by the punch of a key. One is enabled to gain skills and knowledge of how to cause terror on other people in ones abode by use of a computer. Through researches that have been carried out by experts in terrorism, it’s been seen that terrorists are exploiting the accessibility, vast audience, and anonymity of the internet to raise money and recruit new members around the globe and therefore increasing its diversity and effectiveness. (Cumler 2009)
Conclusion
As a result of all this, it’s been necessary to have a contingency planning for the authorities to all these acts of terrorism. It’s necessary for the federal, state and local levels of authority to be prepared incase of any disaster at the same time to prevent these acts of terrorism from happening. Resolutions and acts of law have been passed which would even interfere with the privacy of the people in order to fight acts of terrorism. This has involved the federal to go through one’s documents e.g. e-mails without your permission. The federal has been equipped with high quality technologies to detect gadgets or even suspicious behaviors by the suspected terrorists. These facilities have been used in places like airports where terrorists target most. This will prevent them from being smuggled into the country which would otherwise be dangerous. Careful and keen collection of information and data by the federal and other authorities, from various agencies and the population at large, which can be relied upon may help a lot the authorities in detecting the acts of terrorism before they happen. This planning involves also training on its people on how to behave at particular situations of terrorism attacks. The people should also be informed to be watchful and report to the necessary authorities in case of any suspicious activities. (Cumler 2009)
Reference
White J.R., 2008, Terrorism security; An Introduction. Web.
Kumler E. (2009). Terrorists rely on tech tools. Web.
Terrorist financing (2009). Web.