Operational range Proponents of the “new” terrorism thesis argue that the operations of the “old”, traditional terrorism focussed on a specific region or geographical area, restricting activities to their home regions. This didn’t only apply to ethnic-nationalist groups, but also to groups with global ideologies. Examples of these include Marxist groups operating in Western Europe during the seventies and eighties, which mostly had only one centre of gravity in which they directed their activities and operations. The “new” terrorism argument goes that unlike this traditional operational range, the “new” terrorism has become more and more transnational in orientation and reach. This is because the “old” terrorist groups were mostly connected with separatist and/or nationalist issues. As a result, their agendas were mostly about the political situation in a certain country or region, …show more content…
The “old” terrorists wished to be considered legitimate, taking a utilitarian view on the use of force, most often as a part of a more broad political campaign. The “old” terrorism could be considered quite restrained and specific in their targeting, or as Jenkins put it, “the traditional terrorist wanted people watching, not dead.” “New” terrorism, on the other hand, shows an increased willingness to use indiscriminate and extreme forms of violence. Hoffman explains this change as follows. The traditional terrorists see violence as a method of inciting the correction of a flaw or error in a system that is generally good, or as a way of stimulating the creation of an entirely new system. Religious terrorists, on the other hand, do not see themselves as forming a part of a system that is worth saving, instead viewing themselves as “outsiders”, wanting to implement a fundamental transformation of the current