Terrorism as technology: A discussion of the theoretical underpinnings

Conclusion This short article is intended as a brief discussion of the concept of terrorism as technology, and the impact of military thinking about new threat models on the theoretical analysis of terrorism. Many of the concepts developed in discussions of the RMA seem tailor-made to terrorism. Indeed, terrorism in its conventional, political form was one of the new threats that the RMA has been applied to. However, the thesis of this article is that the new form of terrorism that debuted so spectacularly on September 11 can also be theoretically analyzed within the prism of the RMA. Toby Blyth, BA (Japanese)/LLB (Western Australia), Solicitor - Supreme Court of England and Wales, Supreme Court of New South Wales, Federal and High Courts of Australia, ANZIIF (Fellow). The opinions and conclusions contained herein are solely those of the author and do not reflect policy, institutional opinion, or proprietary information of his employer. This paper is based in part on research carried out by the author for and on a paper published in 1999 by the Terrorism Research Centre, Inc.