Somalia, Yemen, India, Pakistan, Nigeria, Afghanistan, and Syria, to name a few, search into the history of countries facing terrorism. Consider Afghanistan, where most deaths are attributed to terrorist attacks after the country overtook Iraq, and further attacks are very likely (Dudley, 2021). On the other hand, the Fulani extremist and Boko Haram conduct self-radicalized attacks, creating challenges for Nigeria. Thus, terrorism is a heightened social threat that disrupts political freedom, socio-economic activities, and society (Barkan, 2017). Plus, amid the technological era, the intricacies of terrorism continue to evolve. The functionalism theory echoes the candid assumptions of terrorism and further resonates with the evolving terrorism threat.
The emergence, legitimacy, renewed claims, and development of alternative strategies make terrorism akin to sociological perspectives. Functionalism particularly emphasizes the significance of social institutions and specific behaviors. According to Barkan (2017), functionalism implies that terrorism aims at preserving democracy and freedom despite negative consequences. While terrorism takes a profound toll on society, it creates jobs in home security, law enforcement, and related sectors dealing with crime. In The Social Function of War, Robert Park conceded that war helps resolve international disputes on religious ideologies and territorial boundaries (Barkan, 2017). Therefore, functionalism suggests that terrorist attacks allow society to appraise their experiences and systems.
Furthermore, society faced with terrorist attacks often come together because of a shared purpose and becomes more patriotic to find a solution. As Barkan (2017) outlines, the functionalism perspective postulates that terrorism creates social bonding and solidarity within societies at war. For example, after 9/11, Americans felt more united and gained support from the president of France. Functionalism further credits terrorism with developing a country as a political institution (Barkan, 2017). The underlying argument is that terrorism aims at integrating people and races to optimize available resources in generating cultural, scientific, and political advances. Therefore, despite the adverse impacts of terrorism, functionalism inordinately features positive aspects of terrorism.
References
Barkan, S. E. (2017). Social problems: Continuity and change. University of Minnesota Press.
Dudley, D. (2021). Terrorist targets: The ten countries which suffer most from terrorism. Web.