In the purest sense, the term terrorism refers to the application of intentional brutality and violence, in general against unarmed civilians, mainly for political reasons. The term was coined during the French Revolution roughly around the late 18th century but was popularized in the 1970s. Over the years, time has undergone massive changes and has been defined differently. This paper compares and contrasts the three main models of terrorism, including rural, urban, and insurgent.
The Rural Model of terrorism is a method that is closely linked with the Guerilla warfare tactic, which is notably similar to the Frantz Fanon idea. Fanon convinced a majority of his rural countrymen to take part in terrorism to fight back colonialism. However, in their quest to fight for change, Fanon was cautious not to harm society as a whole but only the westerns and their allies. Rural terrorism used more crude tools to fight back terrorism and was not organized and advanced (Steward, 2014).
Delegate your assignment to our experts and they will do the rest.
The Urban Model of terrorism is closely related to the Rural Model, but only targets the urban populations. Because urban people are usually overcrowded, targeting such areas can produce maximum impacts of the terrorist assault. Rather than guerilla tactics employed by rural terrorists, urban terrorist employ powerful mass destruction weapons, including bombs and machine guns. The Urban Model is a more advanced technique that is non-selective. It is often used for political reasons and creates fear among the public. It can include kidnappings, plane hijackings, and many other models (Steward, 2014).
Lastly, the Insurgency Model is a technique used to supplement conventional warfare. It is mainly utilized to keep the enemy distracted and off-balance, primarily by carrying out strikes against vulnerable targets, usually at the opponent's rear. The Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIS) and the Taliban troops carry this type of terrorist attacks. The Insurgency Model, also called the guerilla method, is based on the idea of declining warfare when the rival is powerful and ambushing after gaining sufficient forces to carry out strikes (Steward, 2014). The insurgents have the notion of surviving to fight another day as opposed to permitting themselves to be destroyed by their powerful enemy.
Reference
Stewart, S. (2014, June 26). The difference between terrorism and insurgency. Stratfor. Retrieved from https://worldview.stratfor.com/article/difference-between-terrorism-and-insurgency
