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The aim of this chapter is to investigate the meaning of terrorism, with a view to highlighting the main hurdles in the way of creating a working definition, as well as the necessity of developing definitions and classifications of this phenomenon.

This chapter provides an overview of the literature on terrorism as a social/political phenomenon. It is therefore based on secondary sources.

While most literature on the topic finds it pointless or impossible to define terrorism, here we argue just the opposite. Common critiques of current definitions may be overcome by using multiple definitions and classifications.

The chapter provides the methodological foundations for a comprehensive theoretical analysis of terrorism.

The chapter applies insights from methodology of social sciences to the problem of defining terrorism.

The purpose of this paper is to examine whether the counter-terrorism financing regime provides a solid platform for a better understanding of who should be considered terrorists or what forms terrorism, terrorist acts and terrorist groups, the financing of which is the subject matter. In the absence of an internationally agreed definition of terrorism, the question which needs to be posed is whether there is a clear and common understanding of what constitutes terrorism, terrorist acts and terrorist groups, the financing of which needs to be stopped. That is, from a criminal law perspective, whether the Terrorist Financing Convention, as the backbone of the counter-terrorist financing regime, clarifies what types of conduct, by who, in what circumstances and when, against whom (targets or victims) and with what intention or motivation should be considered terrorism?

It will be explained how and why it has been difficult to reach an agreement on the definition of terrorism. The endeavour of the drafters of the Terrorist Financing Convention and others involved in countering terrorist financing to establish a general definition of terrorism will be examined.

The record of attempts to define the elements of terrorism proves that it is hardly possible to reach an agreement on a generic definition of terrorism because the concept of terrorism is elusive and subject to various understandings. Even the definition provided by the Terrorist Financing Convention, is not convincing.

With regard to the findings, this paper calls for further research on the legal consequences of the implementation of the terrorist financing-counter measures, while the scope of terrorism, terrorist acts and terrorist organizations have been left vague.

The purpose of this paper is to analyse the new Russian law on Money laundering. Globalisation has turned the international financial systems into a paradise for money launderers. As much as globalisation has expanded opportunities. The purpose of this paper is to analyse the new Russian law on money laundering which brought some changes to the existing system was introduced in Russia in 2002. Even though it has improved the regulation on money laundering greatly, it has failed to efficiently combat terrorism. Overall, the Russian anti-money laundering regime has proved ineffective in terms of meeting its stated purposes of combating organised crime and terrorism. The limited success of the Russian anti-money laundering law stems largely from the fact that Russian banking system is structurally weak.

This paper analyses the problems through literature review. Also, the problem will be looked at from an international law perspective, explaining why Russian efforts will not be efficient as long as no consensus is reached at international level.

This paper starts from the premise that Russian made great effort to comply with international recommendations but that its law fails to efficiently deal with terrorism finance partly due to the fact that no consensus exists at international level as to the definition of the terrorism. Furthermore, the doubt persists as to the real aim pursued by Russian Government while enacting the money laundering law.

Few papers have been published about money laundering in Russia, but none of them look at the problem of the lack of definition of terrorism at international level to explain the deficiencies of the system in place.

This article seeks to examine approaches to combating the “scourge of international terrorism” by targeting the financial resources of terrorist organizations and their supporters.

The article begins with the disputed issue of how to define a “terrorist”, “terrorism”, “terrorist organizations” and “acts of terrorism”. In a global financial system, differences between the definitions of those terms could have significant implications because terrorists have the means and will to operate their financing infrastructure from the least effectively regulated jurisdictions. There are many methods by which terrorists finance both their organizations and specific attacks. By concentrating on three examples of recent terrorist activity, namely the 9/11 attacks in New York, the 7/7 bombings in London, and the transfer of funds from the “Union of Good” to Hamas to fund terrorist attacks in Israel by means of a certain charitable association, the article illustrates the problems facing legal regimes seeking to limit terrorist funding.

The article notes a broad convergence in the methods of those jurisdictions when combating the financing of terrorism.

The paper provides a discussion of financial resources of terrorism from a legal professional in an area where terrorism is a real danger.

This chapter explores the expansion of reality regarding the issue of terrorism. “There are those who argue that there is an empirically verifiable truth as to what constitutes the political” (Easton, D. (1968). International encyclopaedia of the social sciences (Vol. 12, pp. 46, 282–298), while others maintain any definition is a contingent social construction, with the disciple of politics dependent upon the nature of the political arena, itself dependent upon socially constructed and historically variable forces. Definitions of “political” are not discoverable in nature, but are rather a legacy or convention (Wolin, S. (1961). Politics and vision (p. 5). London: Allan & Unwin).

Regarding terrorism as an objective reality and subjective interpretation, this chapter reviews the definition, history, and perceptions of terrorism as it relates to the theoretical interpretations of constructivism (the meaning-making activity of the individual mind and unique experiences) and social constructionism (social interpretations of understanding).

The need to comprehend the notion of ontological relativity – that each person has a unique history from which to make sense of and create an individual reality that is valid to the self, while at the same time knowing that culture has an enormous influence on an individual’s worldview.

Thoughts, ideas, perceptions, and interpretations are important for all nations and especially in the United States because voters in history’s most influential, wide- ranging, hegemonic power are helping to shape American policy. Perceptions and interpretations (subjective reality) influence whether or not – and for whom – a person votes, which has long-lasting and far-reaching political implications. Once a vote is cast, that vote becomes an objective reality.

The paper is meant to analyse the debate over the revival of a comprehensive convention on international terrorism. The purpose of this paper is to demonstrate that a United Nations (UN) Convention on international terrorism is still necessary – provided that it is updated considering the new challenges that have recently emerged – and could be complemented by an annex containing the list of terrorist organisations, the determination of which is of common concern of the entire international community.

The analysis is conducted from an international law perspective. The paper uses a comparative perspective – counter-terrorism, Antarctic and ICAO system - to support the main argument.

The paper proposes an annex to the convention including a list of terrorist organisations. Some terrorist organisations are unanimously labelled as terrorist and therefore this list will be useful in developing cooperation among States. A system of revision is also presented; a system which emphasises the role of the UN Ombudsperson.

The proposal presented does not delve into the content of the convention which should be based on the draft prepared by the UN General Assembly ad hoc Committee and should take into account the most recent forms of terrorism. The paper does not provide an answer to all the questions, and it does not linger over the tragedy of civilians living in Syria and Iraq who have been deprived – starting long before the rise of the Islamic State – of their land and lives.

Revival of the debate on the draft convention – proposal for a renewed role of the Ombudsperson – legal implications of a list annexed to a convention on international terrorism – importance of multilateral cooperation in the field.

The paper is innovative in changing the perspective of the problem. The point of view regarding the definition of international terrorism has usually been the following: to find a common definition of international terrorism trying to overcome all the differences regarding general exceptions. The proposed perspective is to find the lowest common denominator for the definition and to identify organisations on which States cannot but agree on their condemnation.

Terrorism has much in common with genocide and sometimes may even be a form of genocide. In this chapter I systematically compare these two phenomena.

Drawing mainly from Donald Black’s work on terrorism and my own work on genocide, I examine the conceptual and theoretical overlap between terrorism and genocide.

Terrorism and genocide are similar and sometimes overlapping, and they occur under similar social conditions – in response to conflicts between socially distant and unequal groups. Conceptually they differ mainly in that terrorism is covert and carried out by civilians, and genocide may not be. The main theoretical difference is that terrorism tends to be upward – against more powerful targets – while genocide tends to be downward – against less powerful targets. Terrorism tends to be less effective than extreme genocide, then, and the most extreme cases have death tolls much lower than the most extreme cases of genocide.

This analysis draws from previous theories of terrorism, genocide, and social control to better place terrorism in a broader sociological context. In doing so it highlights and explains key features of terrorism, and it even helps us to speculate about the future of terrorism. That is, technological advances might in the long run destroy the social conditions conducive to terrorism, thus leading to terrorism’s ultimate demise, but in the short run they might allow terrorists to more effectively kill, leading terrorism to resemble extreme genocide in its deadliness.

An investigation of parallels between homegrown, international, and domestic terrorism.

A comparative method is used to analyze data from two main sources, ITERATE data on international and the TWEED data on domestic terrorism. The similarities are tested in various dimensions – target types, severity, and the method of the attacks.

Homegrown terrorism is inherently motivated by domestic issues. Moreover, variables of ethnic heterogeneity, political inclusiveness of fringe groups, and problems in the democratization process are good predictors of the occurrence of other forms of domestic and homegrown terrorism alike.

Number of observable cases of homegrown terrorism are low. The two main datasets have potentially overlapping incidents.

Provides and operational definition of homegrown terrorism and test empirically the similarity between homegrown and other types of terrorisms.

This paper aims to investigate the impact of economic, social and political globalizations on the incidents of global terrorism.

The authors apply negative binomial regressions model because the variable is event count. The sample size covers 195 countries from 1990 to 2017.

There is strong evidence that the higher level of economic and social integrations internationally lead to a reduction in terrorist activities. However, the results relating to political globalization are inconsistent. Comparing the top 20 most affected countries with the full sample, the authors find a negative association between economic globalization and terrorism, whereas social and political globalization is found to be statistically insignificant. Finally, the evidence holds firmly pre-9/11 attacks on World Trade Centre.

This paper suffers through the lack of consensus on a unique and consistent definition of terrorism. The definition of terrorism varies across time and countries. Furthermore, there is a variation among the main databases of terrorism, which could potentially affect the reliability of findings.

This paper provides policymakers with a policy recommendation that the economic and social integration across countries should be encouraged, as it might decrease the number of terrorist events taking place worldwide. In addition, the benefits of economic development generated through global integration must be fairly distributed across societies as an effort to decrease motivation of disgruntles population to involve in terrorism.

This paper contributes empirically to the existing literature through investigating the impact of economic, social and political globalizations on the incidents of terrorism worldwide.