Walter Laqueur: A Radical Leftist Analysis

Walter Laqueur was editor and co-founder of the Journal of Contemporary History in the Washington Quarterly and London. As a Professor he has taught at the Universities of Tel Aviv, Brandeis, John Hopkins, Harvard, Chicago, and Georgetown. Teaching, acting, and writing for over 60 years as a policy advisor in three continents, he has focused on the field of twentieth century politics and history (Farwick, 2010). Mr. Laqueur stated that, “History shows that terrorism more often than not has little political impact, and that when it has an effect it is often the opposite of the one desired. (Laqueur, 1996).” This statement will be the theoretical framework for this paper. I will apply this theory to ideological, nationalist, and religious

This radical leftist group emerged from West Germany in 1968 as a result of the University of Germanys student protest movement. The group was in opposition to what they considered American Imperialism and the West Germany government’s fascist perspectives from the Nazi era. Their anti-American perspectives were primarily based on their views regarding the Vietnam War, and conflicts in the Middle East. The RAF was a fighting communist organization. From the organizations beginning they supported themselves by committing bank robberies. They engaged in terrorist arson and bombings, especially toward West German businesses and corporations and of U.S. and West German military assets in Germany (Jenkins,

The nationalist terrorist is motivated by nationalism and seeks their share of society, “to gain control of the system of government and the allocation of resources within that nation-state (Combs, 2013, p. 48).” The ethnic policies favoring one minority over another are catalysts towards this form of terrorism. Ethnic terrorism is very different when compared to terrorism committed for financial, religious, or ideological reasons. Ethnic terrorism is directed toward the support of their own populations rather than the society as a whole. This is done attempting to create the identity the group is seeking, rather than the identity they have received by the state. The Liberation Tigers of Elam in Sri Lanka can be categorized as nationalist