Terrorism in Context

Since 1983 the US Central Intelligence Agency has defined terrorism as “premeditated, politically motivated violence perpetrated against noncombatant targets by subnational groups or clandestine agents, usually intended to influence an audience.” Compared to the many dangers facing the US today, the threat of terrorism is relatively small. Nonetheless, at nearly all levels of US society the response to terrorism has been grossly disproportionate. Since September 11th, 2001, fear of terrorism has consistently dominated the national agenda, the news cycle, and day-to-day civil life. This paper will examine the source of the perception of the threat of terrorist attack. In particular, by juxtaposing terrorism with other risks, we can see that strategies responding to the concept of terrorism may actually hinder our ability to mitigate the most dangerous threats.