Terrorism and Civil Wars

Abstract

This article reviews the civil war and terrorism literature and then explores the international communities' responses to both. Both the academic literature and the international community tend to approach terrorism and civil war along separate tracks. A key question is whether or not this approach needs to be re-evaluated given the blurring of the distinction between what goes on inside and outside the state when it comes to political violence. If the goal of analysts and the international community is to maintain order, then treating civil wars and terrorism separately may be appropriate. If, however, the goal is to devise more effective means to deal with political violence generally, then the causes of civil war and terrorism must be investigated more closely and the two phenomena must be approached together rather than separately.