NCJ Number
109459
Journal
Sociological Focus Volume: 21 Issue: 1 Dated: (January 1988) Pages: 53-66
Date Published
1988
Length
14 pages
Annotation
Although terrorism has often been portrayed as low intensity warfare, it also can be visualized as a form of persuasion, one frequently ineffective due to logical fallacies.
Abstract
Successful persuasion is dependent on the interaction of four elements: speakers, arguments, situations, and audiences. Terrorism constitutes a type of rhetoric in which terrorist speakers communicate with media audiences, using symbolic violence as a means of argument. Terrorists lacking 'rhetorical' ability fail to persuade their audiences to engage in behavior desired by the terrorist group. Successful terrorists elicit actions which contribute to a movement's mobilization. The model focuses attention on the progression toward mass destruction events and the restrictions on individual liberties that tend to occur during terrorist waves. The terrorism-as-persuasion model encourages simulating terrorist waves within game situations in order that the persuasion processes can be observed experimentally. (Publisher abstract)