Publication

This paper sets out to illuminate the ways in which the definition of the word "terrorist" has changed over the years. The authors argue that these changes embrace categories of political violence that were formerly referred to using terms such as sabotage, resistance, insurgency, separatism and civil war. According to the authors, the purpose of such a semantic shift can only be to de-legitimize such forms of political violence or enhance mobilization in the interests of the parties against whom the sabotage, resistance, insurgency and separatism are directed. Finally, the authors consider how the changed meanings of the concept of terrorism may be used for globally-coordinated suppression of resistance to a new world order.