The new terrorism debate: Change and continuity in goals of terrorist organizations

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Tezin Türü: Yüksek Lisans

Tezin Yürütüldüğü Kurum: Orta Doğu Teknik Üniversitesi, İktisadi ve İdari Bilimler Fakültesi, Uluslararası İlişkiler Bölümü, Türkiye

Tezin Onay Tarihi: 2015

Öğrenci: VOLKAN DENİZ ÖZBUDAK

Danışman: TUBA ÜNLÜ BİLGİÇ

Özet:

In this thesis, the question whether the concept of terrorism has been subject to revolutionary changes with respect to its aims, lethality and organization structure was tried to be answered by conceptualizing terrorism as a political form of violence and examining the changes and developments that occurred throughout the history of terrorism. This thesis examines the emergence of a new concept of terrorism under three chapters. In this sense, firstly, this thesis examines various definitions of terrorism in order to select a definition that conceptualizes terrorism as a political form of violence. Secondly, in this thesis, changes and developments in the history of terrorism were analyzed through the examination of a number of selected terrorist groups that had different manifestations and motivations. Lastly, the new terrorism debate, which argues that terrorism has been subject to revolutionary and previously unseen changes with respect to its aims, lethality and organizational structure after 1990s was analyzed thoroughly with the inclusion of opposing ideas. In this respect, the question whether radical Islamist terrorist groups that increased their global and local activities after 1990s had apocalyptic, unclear goals was tried to be answered via an analysis of the activities of radical Islamist terrorist groups such as al-Qaeda and its Syrian branch Jabhat al-Nusra with regards to their struggle in order to establish a zone of territorial political control in Syria.