From Old to New Terrorism: The Changing Nature of International Security

The challenge of terrorism dominates debate in contemporary security literature. Some scholars believe that the evolution of terrorism represents continuity rather than change and others emphasize the advent of a new form of terrorism. This article discusses some of the issues that distinguish the “new” from the “old” terrorism and argues that global security has been affected by a transformation of the nature of war and the transition from old to new terrorism, which presents markedly different challenges than traditional state-to-state security threats. Thus, the terrorism concept is subjected to a revision in relation to goals, capabilities and the dimension of threats.