“Small groups of terrorists can do tremendous damage....
That is really the essence of terrorism—to intimidate and
influence a far wider audience.” —Philip Wilcox, former coordinator of counterterrorism for the U.S. State Department

“Terrorism is what ‘others’ do. ‘We’ do not practice terrorism.” —Edna Homa Hunt, writer for Washington Report on Middle East Affairs

“One man’s terrorist is another man’s freedom fighter.” As that adage suggests, it is nearly impossible to provide a universal definition of terrorism. Efforts to define terrorism are influenced by one’s perspective. While there may be no one-size-fits-all definition, certain interpretations have garnered particular attention.

The Western perspective on terrorism, particularly that of the United States, offers a useful starting point. The U.S. State Department and the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI...