Terrorism's footprint of fear

Generally, when terms have extensive connotative baggage, it is wise to denude them. In the context of this paper, the only attribute we feel might be retained from the terrorism label is its implication that in such attacks, classes of people are deemed more or less equally ‘legitimate’ targets such that each citizen regards herself as a legitimate target. In the terrorist’s ideal scenario, insofar as it is thought through, the evocation of public fear of victimisation advances their cause. It leads to pressure on governments to settle or serves to destabilise the target administration by making daily life more problematic and by devoting resources to combatting terrorism’s threat that cannot be sustained indefinitely. The evolutionary context to this book leads us to consider anti-predator behaviour by prey animals alongside public fear of victimisation generated by acts of terrorism.